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Bullet construction

@Petey308

Based on your experience, which lead core bullets would you recommend for hunters who are concerned with minimizing lead dispersion and ultimately, possible ingestion when harvesting game animals.

A personal struggle that I am having right now is picking the best bullet for hunting that minimizes the changes that my kids are getting unnecessary lead exposure. I understand there isn't a definitive answer on this, I'm just curious to get your take.
 
Petey308 said:
You are absolutely correct. Some cores are made of a harder alloy and do not expand or mushroom like others. They're not as malleable. They tend to fracture more than squish, for a lack of a better term lol. The Sierra Tipped GameKings are an example of a bullet with a harder lead alloy core. It took more heat to melt too lol.
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Would you be able to categorize these bullets into hard/brittle vs soft malleable? (Maybe you already did and I missed over it) I hate biting into bullet fragments in my deer burger! I use AMAX on things I don't eat, or just pull the backstrap out of (TX hogs) I would have to say I prefer a pass through with quarter to 1/2 dollar size exits.
 
BFD Guns said:
Would you be able to categorize these bullets into hard/brittle vs soft malleable? (Maybe you already did and I missed over it) I hate biting into bullet fragments in my deer burger! I use AMAX on things I don't eat, or just pull the backstrap out of (TX hogs) I would have to say I'm a pass through with quarter to 1/2 dollar size exits.
Click to expand...
Me too. I stopped using the SST because of this.

My experience: 6.5 Grendel , 123 SST, shots under 100 yards on whitetail

Very lethal results but I never got got passthrough on broadside shots. The bullet fragments typically ended up in the opposite shoulder and hide. Often times, I get chunks of lead in my burger.
 
mercerbear said:
Me too. I stopped using the SST because of this.

My experience: 6.5 Grendel , 123 SST, shots under 100 yards on whitetail

Very lethal results but I never got got passthrough on broadside shots. The bullet fragments typically ended up in the opposite shoulder and hide. Often times, I get chunks of lead in my burger.
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Worse yet is when you get your deer burger back from the locker and you bite into a lead piece when you hunt with solid copper bullets...
 
baldhunter said:
You can certainly learn a lot about bullets when you dissect them like you did.I've done a few myself.Other things I've noticed is jacket and lead hardness.One jacket I remember that was thin,but really hard was on a Winchester Power Point.The jacket on that bullet was like hard brass.Some bullets have soft lead cores,others have very hard lead cores.One of the thicker jacket bullets with a hard lead core was a Hornady Interbond.That is a very tough bullet.
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Thank you for asking the question, baldhunter! I was wondering the same thing. And, thank you Petey308 for the response. My understanding is that alloy hardness is a factor in the monolithic's performance, so I'm curious how much it factors into cup and core bullet performance.

I've been very interested in terminal performance of predator loads when saving fur. (Fur Loads) My analysis was totally based on field observations. Comparing actual bullet construction with the field observations would have been very interesting!

Nice work on this. We appreciate it!

Tim Tiitus
 
mercerbear said:
@Petey308

Based on your experience, which lead core bullets would you recommend for hunters who are concerned with minimizing lead dispersion and ultimately, possible ingestion when harvesting game animals.

A personal struggle that I am having right now is picking the best bullet for hunting that minimizes the changes that my kids are getting unnecessary lead exposure. I understand there isn't a definitive answer on this, I'm just curious to get your take.
Click to expand...
Unsure of what happened with a bullet i used for one of the guys hunting this year but , i loaded some 7mm Win Mag rounds for one of our group .
I used 162g SST,s with 62.5g of IMR 4831 ( gave us really decent groups when practicing ) .
The deer was approx 65 yards from the shooter and facing him while grazing .
The shooter hit the deer high around mid length down the back .
The deer took off as the shooter thought he missed .
After some searching we did find the deer .
We found where the bullets entered as there was about 5 to 6 inches of Hide missing just under the spine , no exit wound .
After we skinned the deer we find out the spine wasnt even broken , bullet passed through a rib and was stuck under the hide in the rear quarter on the same side .
I took the bullet home and cleaned whatever bone and flesh off it so i could weigh it .
Bullets came in at 150 grains . I honestly thought at that range that the bullet would have fragmented somewhat .
It still looks solid other than missing the Red tip.
We have had good luck before with SST,s and TMK,s so this one has left me a little stumped .
 
Sasman said:
Unsure of what happened with a bullet i used for one of the guys hunting this year but , i loaded some 7mm Win Mag rounds for one of our group .
I used 162g SST,s with 62.5g of IMR 4831 ( gave us really decent groups when practicing ) .
The deer was approx 65 yards from the shooter and facing him while grazing .
The shooter hit the deer high around mid length down the back .
The deer took off as the shooter thought he missed .
After some searching we did find the deer .
We found where the bullets entered as there was about 5 to 6 inches of Hide missing just under the spine , no exit wound .
After we skinned the deer we find out the spine wasnt even broken , bullet passed through a rib and was stuck under the hide in the rear quarter on the same side .
I took the bullet home and cleaned whatever bone and flesh off it so i could weigh it .
Bullets came in at 150 grains . I honestly thought at that range that the bullet would have fragmented somewhat .
It still looks solid other than missing the Red tip.
We have had good luck before with SST,s and TMK,s so this one has left me a little stumped .
Click to expand...
That's really interesting. I would have expected an SST at high velocity and close range to violently fragment. Even at medium velocities from my 6.5 Grendel, the wound channel is pretty dramatic and the bullet fragments a lot.
 

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