Modern bullets are a wonder of design and manufacturing. Engineers have been working since firearms were invented to produce effective bullets for a wide variety of uses, and there has never been a time with more options. Making sense of the myriad choices available is a daunting task.

Tip 1:
Infinite Variables.
Bullets are designed to perform in three completely different ballistic environments – Internal (what happens inside the barrel), External (what happens while flying through the air), and Terminal (what happens inside the target). Each of these areas are highly complex, involving many different variables, and a bullet must perform predictably for the hunter.

Tip 2:
Fit the Bullet to the Task.
A particular bullet cannot perform every function in every condition, requiring different designs to accomplish different outcomes. Full metal jackets are not designed to expand, but a fast moving hollow point may break apart and not penetrate when it hits an elk’s shoulder blade. Large, slow bullets and small, fast bullets can each get the job done, depending on what that job is.

Tip 3:
No Number is Magic Answer.
Ballistic coefficient seems to be the magic number a lot of people are focusing on right now. The BC is the result of a calculation that describes a projectile’s ability to overcome air resistance in flight. In general, if everything else is equal, a higher BC is considered to be better. However, everything else is never equal, and if (like me) you are a deer hunter who needs the bullet to work in a kill zone at 60-90 yards, the bullet’s BC is meaningless. My brother-in-law, who shoots steel at 1,000 yards, needs to pay attention to the ballistic coefficient of his bullets.

Tip 4:
Basic Type of Bullets.
In general, there are four basic types of bullets, but within those types there are many, many variations. Full Metal Jackets are just that – a copper cover completely covers a lead core. FMJ are cheaper to produce and good for training, but have limited use for a lot of hunting. Soft Points have a lead center that is exposed at the tip; this allows for expansion of the bullet on impact. Hollow Point bullets have a, well, hollow point that allows for more controlled and predictable expansion. Partition bullets have lead at the front and back of the bullet, with a copper partition in the center (in a cross-section the copper looks sort of like an ‘H’). This provides improved terminal performance over HP and SP bullets.

Tip 5:
Making it Better.
There are many different parts of a bullet, and engineers modify these parts to provide specific performance. Many rifle bullets have a boattail at the base, which helps reduce atmospheric drag. However, this only happens at a particular velocity, and the length and angle of the boattail is critical. The ogive is the curved portion at the front of the bullet, ahead of the bearing surface, which is the flat area that contacts the lands inside the barrel. The transition between the ogive and bearing surface is the shoulder.

Tip 6:
The French Influence.
In the 19th century the French were very involved with ballistic design, and the word ogive is of French origin, along with cannelure and meplat. The cannelure is a grove that is inscribed in some bullets as a location to crimp the case, hold lubrication, or for identification. Meplat comes from the French word that means “flat,” or “the flat of.” If the bullet has a pointed tip there is no meplat; if there is a hollow point or flat tip the meplat is the area that is flat at the top of the bullet. The shape of the meplat has a huge effect on how the bullet travels through the air, and what happens when it hits the target.

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