Devareaux
Active Member
Hello my fellow Sako owners,
This is my first post, and I'm posting because of an issue I have been researching with regards to ammunition integrity and ethical hunting. I'm the proud owner of a Sako AV chambered in .30-06, I have yet to take my rifle hunting and would like to do so in the near future, but in the mean time I have been researching various ammunition types, both factory and hand loaded. I came across a very interesting video, of an older gentleman talking about the various cartridges and bullets he has collected from them over the years. He talks about a .300H&H that he was using when he was a child to hunt elk with. To his surprise, he never captured his elk and he scratched his head about it for years to come. Well he soon found out, that he wasn't the only one having this issue and he later found out what the issue was.
The issue was that in thin walled bullets, such as the predominant type used today, wasn't sufficient in protecting the lead that was enclosed. When the bullet would reach the game of a thick skinned animal, such as elk, he found that the bullet would simply be fragmented and not sufficient at even breaking the hide of the animal at certain distances. I say that it wasn't sufficient at protecting the lead which is enclosed in the bullet, because the only way a lead bullet would be found fragmented, is because it was splattered against whatever it impacted, and in order to do that, it must have been soft enough to break up and then cooled off after impact. I understand that bullets ft-lbs are converted into heat upon impact, this is the principle that armor piercing rounds are based off of. But what's interesting is that these bullets were found in very tiny fragments and no large pieces were ever recovered, so that entails that the lead was also very soft before impact, especially considering that he said he found bullets that never penetrated the thick hide of the animal, so this is even more telling, because it couldn't have been a solid lead substance at those velocities and not have broken the hide.
Nosler Partition bullets seem to be the king of hunting bullets, because they are partitioned into two segments. The forward segment being the part that is least protected by the thinner wall of the jacket, and the rear segment being most protected by the thicker walls of the jacket, as well as the copper divider that makes up the partitioned spaces. When these Nosler bullets are recovered we can see a pancake smear of lead and then of course the rear part of the lead bullet encased in the thicker wall of the copper jacket is intact. I believe the rear lead is also being softened and probably taken to a melting point, but because it is encased in a thick copper wall of the jacket, it's weighted momentum pushes the bullet through the game and ensures the kill.
I believe the lead is becoming molten and many might disagree with me, but let me explain my hypothesis. Elementary science tells us that everything boils at significantly lower temperatures in a vacuum. I believe because of the construction of cartridges, the barrel of the firearm, and because of the gases involved, the ignition of the powder by the primer and that ignition sucking up the surrounding oxygen to burn, that a vacuum situation is induced within the firing process. I believe this is the reason why the brass cases and the barrels themselves are heating up so much during such a short period of time that a primer ignites the powder and the firing process ensues. And I believe this is also causing the lead to become liquid during the firing process, and that it doesn't actually cool off until it reaches subsonic speeds or lands after impact.
I believe the liquidity of the lead is also causing a momentum shift during trajectory, and this is the reason why no matter how flat traveling a bullet might be, we cannot ever hope to achieve great groupings in certain ammunition, because the liquidity of the lead is causing a shift in trajectory during flight. Almost like a tanker truck that is carrying sand or gasoline or water, when it tries to stop on a dime, the forward motion of the liquid material causing the truck to continue moving or shifting trajectory.
I believe we need thicker walled jackets in our bullets, or follow the Nosler design, and design better bullet constructions with partitioned areas to ensure a better shot on game and as well in competition. I'm sure many other designs could be constructed to address these issues, but I'm just alluding to the gist of it all. I think the bullet manufacturers won't be leading the way in these designs, because they are already heavily invested in the machinery that makes their thin walled jacketed bullets.
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) Here's a link to that video I was talking about earlier of the older gentleman. Also, you might want to do a little internet researching on heat affecting bullets during trajectory. Don't forget to keep in mind that a vacuum causes materials to heat up a lot quicker and boil at lower temperatures.
This is my first post, and I'm posting because of an issue I have been researching with regards to ammunition integrity and ethical hunting. I'm the proud owner of a Sako AV chambered in .30-06, I have yet to take my rifle hunting and would like to do so in the near future, but in the mean time I have been researching various ammunition types, both factory and hand loaded. I came across a very interesting video, of an older gentleman talking about the various cartridges and bullets he has collected from them over the years. He talks about a .300H&H that he was using when he was a child to hunt elk with. To his surprise, he never captured his elk and he scratched his head about it for years to come. Well he soon found out, that he wasn't the only one having this issue and he later found out what the issue was.
The issue was that in thin walled bullets, such as the predominant type used today, wasn't sufficient in protecting the lead that was enclosed. When the bullet would reach the game of a thick skinned animal, such as elk, he found that the bullet would simply be fragmented and not sufficient at even breaking the hide of the animal at certain distances. I say that it wasn't sufficient at protecting the lead which is enclosed in the bullet, because the only way a lead bullet would be found fragmented, is because it was splattered against whatever it impacted, and in order to do that, it must have been soft enough to break up and then cooled off after impact. I understand that bullets ft-lbs are converted into heat upon impact, this is the principle that armor piercing rounds are based off of. But what's interesting is that these bullets were found in very tiny fragments and no large pieces were ever recovered, so that entails that the lead was also very soft before impact, especially considering that he said he found bullets that never penetrated the thick hide of the animal, so this is even more telling, because it couldn't have been a solid lead substance at those velocities and not have broken the hide.
Nosler Partition bullets seem to be the king of hunting bullets, because they are partitioned into two segments. The forward segment being the part that is least protected by the thinner wall of the jacket, and the rear segment being most protected by the thicker walls of the jacket, as well as the copper divider that makes up the partitioned spaces. When these Nosler bullets are recovered we can see a pancake smear of lead and then of course the rear part of the lead bullet encased in the thicker wall of the copper jacket is intact. I believe the rear lead is also being softened and probably taken to a melting point, but because it is encased in a thick copper wall of the jacket, it's weighted momentum pushes the bullet through the game and ensures the kill.
I believe the lead is becoming molten and many might disagree with me, but let me explain my hypothesis. Elementary science tells us that everything boils at significantly lower temperatures in a vacuum. I believe because of the construction of cartridges, the barrel of the firearm, and because of the gases involved, the ignition of the powder by the primer and that ignition sucking up the surrounding oxygen to burn, that a vacuum situation is induced within the firing process. I believe this is the reason why the brass cases and the barrels themselves are heating up so much during such a short period of time that a primer ignites the powder and the firing process ensues. And I believe this is also causing the lead to become liquid during the firing process, and that it doesn't actually cool off until it reaches subsonic speeds or lands after impact.
I believe the liquidity of the lead is also causing a momentum shift during trajectory, and this is the reason why no matter how flat traveling a bullet might be, we cannot ever hope to achieve great groupings in certain ammunition, because the liquidity of the lead is causing a shift in trajectory during flight. Almost like a tanker truck that is carrying sand or gasoline or water, when it tries to stop on a dime, the forward motion of the liquid material causing the truck to continue moving or shifting trajectory.
I believe we need thicker walled jackets in our bullets, or follow the Nosler design, and design better bullet constructions with partitioned areas to ensure a better shot on game and as well in competition. I'm sure many other designs could be constructed to address these issues, but I'm just alluding to the gist of it all. I think the bullet manufacturers won't be leading the way in these designs, because they are already heavily invested in the machinery that makes their thin walled jacketed bullets.
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