Soft Point, Hollow Point, Balistics Tip aaccuracy differences

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HankC

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While unexposed base, does soft point have similar more consistent body construction like hollow point and ballistics tip bullets compare to FMJ? Does soft point deliver good accuracy similar to hollow points and ballistics tips, while the other 2 typically considered target or "match" bullets but soft points are hunting or varmint bullets. I only punch paper at range no more than 100 yds, soft point bullets typically priced lower than hollow points and ballistics tips. I have not tried soft point so far!
 
In general the soft points have a slightly more blunt tip. The tips gets damaged some just by running them through the magazine. In general SP are not as accurate as a Match Grade bullet, whether ballistic tip or HP.

If your only shooting at 100 yrds and not after a single hole group they are fine. Just don't expect match grade accuracy from them.
 
At 100 yards if your rifle likes them they will shoot as well as HPs ot BTs. I can mangle bullet tips and put them in one hole with my benchrest gun. It takes long distance to show up imperfect bullet tips, and even then it is more the difference in drag than accuracy potential.

My Sako .222 Mag heavy barrel varmint gun will put the Hornady 50 and 55 Gr SPs into one hole at 100 yards if I don't screw it up.
 
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Soft point bullets will shoot very well. The bullet tip is not as important as the base of the bullet. At one match, on the 300 yard line, we had a break in the sighting period and got an extra sighter. Wind conditions had not changed and I decided to take my leatherman tool out and crunch the bullet tip of my 168 SMK bullets (308 Win). I really crunched it, crunched it bad. At 300 yards the bullet made a pin wheel X in the target.

There are so many characteristics about bullets that have to be kept in control for them to perform. I do believe that an even jacket thickness and an equal distribution of weight are critical. The center of gravity must be in line with the axis of rotation, or the bullet will wobble like a "wounded duck" football pass. I am not a bullet maker, but it seems to me that stamping the lead core down in the jacket, to the base, results in a more even weight distribution, than stamping the lead core, from the base into the tip. FMJ bullets tend to be less accurate and I think this is the reason. I don't have any good long range pictures with FMJ's, these 100 yard targets are infact, deceptive, the groups look good because the distance is only a 100 yards.

These IMI bullets are in all my other rifles, horrible. But on this day, in this rifle, that is a good group

TjBzrzx.jpg



This is the old military 174/175 grain 30 caliber match bullet. It was a good bullet in its day, till about the 1980's when anyone who wanted to shoot cleans at 300 and 600 yards, pulled the things from their M118 LC Match cases and inserted a 168 SMK. It is a better bullet than the IMI bullets above, but you have to move out to see the differences.

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Military ball FMJ is issued to troops who hardly have any marksmanship abilities, at best they get weapon familiarization. And then, people in combat are real excited and the conditions are such, they seldom can take advantage of the inherent accuracy of a match bullet. Match bullets being more expensive and all, troops tend to get the cheap bullets to help economize on the National Debt.

I did take a M70 PBR in 308 Win to CMP Talladega and shoot it at 300 yards. First group is with my old M1a match ammunition

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This is Hornady FMJBT. Compared to the military FMJ's, these commercial FMJBT bullets are actually decent. This is a 17 shot group, maybe if I held tighter all the impacts would have been in the ten ring, but I have shot about a 1000 of these things, and they do not group as tightly as a match bullet. Still, a pretty good bullet for the price.

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Modern soft point bullets will shoot very well, it all depends if the weight is consistent, the jacket even, and the center of gravity is within the axis of rotation. This is a good group, at 300 yards, with 6.5 mm 140 grain Hornady bullets. This is very good for a lightweight twitchy rifle.

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These are pulled bullets. Sometimes you get a mostly decent group

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Sometimes you get these flyers:

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I am going to claim that it is not me (of course), that the flyers are due to the bullet. I do believe that pulling bullets shift something around inside and that is why every so often, one of them, two of them, sort of go their own way.

This is one of them ground down the middle

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Just buy good, first quality SP bullets, and shoot them. If you can really see a difference in group size at 100 yards with good SP's and match bullets, then, you are a pretty good shot.
 
HankC wrote:
I only punch paper at range no more than 100 yds,

What cartridge are you shooting?

My own experience with different bullet types (in particular the .224 60 grain Hornady Spire Point 60 grain Soft Point [SP] and Hollow Point [HP]) along with other manufacturer's 60 grain projectiles, is that at 100 yards there is no recognizable difference between the projectiles used domestically and those that are imported.
 
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