clarification:
My thinking was to create a heavy (for highest possible energy), high BC (for flater shooting), short pill that would stabalize in the slower twist barrels for those that don't want to buy a special barrel. If a heavier alloy could be used, you would be able to get 240gr (or more) in a design shorter than the SMK 240. Then fuse the alloy to the copper jacket but don't fill up the copper cavity as high as the SMK (the SMK is a copper "cup" filled with lead from the tip--the reason it's hollow point allowed by the Geneva Conventions). This would leave a larger area of the thin jacket unsupported by the internal alloy and therefore leave more jacket to deform and enact torque on the remainder of the bullet. The swagging would reduce friction, although I'm not sure that's a good thing. Higher friction means more powder in the case to achieve the same velocity. Higher case capacity means greater consistency with most powders (not all). The boat tail is debatable. I get excellent stability with the flat base Hornady 220 RNSP, but the boattails of the SMKs yield much higher BC equating to more downrange energy, accuracy and less drop.
You could also go the Barnes route with a pure alloy bullet and pre-cut internal fracture points to make it expand.
Despite all this, I'm not convinced that an expanding sub round should be desired at all. If it doesn't exit the body and you are hunting in anything except open country, the lack of a blood trail could likely lead to the waste of a game animal. I have a friend who shot ballistic tips out of his 270 one deer season (back before fused bullets came into being) and the rounds detonated when hitting enough bone--therefore never exiting. In the absense of a blood trail, he assumed he missed. The following spring we found 3 deer with shoulder or spine wounds rotting in the beaver pond that we had designated as a sanctuary not to be entered under any circumstances during the season. I assume the entrance wound filled up with guts or fat and shut off the blood flow from that wound.
Last edited by rumlover; 01-08-2008 at 08:43 PM.
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