hollow points verses soft points

[redranger1]

hey guys, i noticed somethin today after i shot my deer for the season. i shot him with a 300 h&h mag loaded with 165gr hpbt bullets. i shot the deer in the same place i always have, right in the neck. the buck dropped on the spot and when i looked the bullet entrance and exit wounds over i noticed that the exit was not as large as i would have thought. in fact my 270 w/ 130 power points seemed to do more damage and leave a larger exit wound in past deer that i have shot. i remember from several years ago a doe my dad shot in the neck also with a 308 norma mag and it just made a huge mess! i know that he shot it with soft points also cause he had a hundred round loaded up at the same time and he now nearly out of that batch. anyhow, i came to the conclussion that soft points have a higher expansion rate and to more damage. what do you fellas think? am i on the right track?

 

[dakotasin]

no.

different bullets designed for different purposes may have radically different outcomes.

you can't make a blanket statement, here.

what would happen if you would've used a sierra or hornady sp? what about a sierra matchking? gameking?

too many variables. you can say that the 165 hp's 308's you used expanded slower at that velocity than the 130 pp's 277's did at the velocity you shot...

 

[DMK]

It's always been my understanding that rifle hollow points work diffterently that pistol hollow points. With rifle projectiles, soft points expand, increasing tissue damage (vs. FMJ) by increasing cross section. Hollow points increase tissue damage by tumbling sooner than FMJs and sometimes explosively fragment due to their more fragile construction.

 

[redranger1]

so it is not safe to say that as a general rule sof point bullets will expand faster then hp bullets because there are way to many variable that effect the outcome? thats reasonable. but it still seems to me that a hp at over 3000fps would have a pretty fast expansion rate.

 

[Dr.Rob]

Not all Hollow Points (esp 'match bullets') are designed to expand... all soft points are designed to expand in a controlled manner, plastic tipped bullets are often nothing more than a giant hollow point with a plastic filler 'cap' that literally explode on impact.

Sierra 'game kings' in the .30 cal 165-180 expand reliably below 3000 fps... over 3000 fps they may shed their jackets.

Sounds like you maye have a match grade bullet, rather than a hunting bullet.

 

[Kurush]

It's always been my understanding that rifle hollow points work diffterently that pistol hollow points. With rifle projectiles, soft points expand, increasing tissue damage (vs. FMJ) by increasing cross section. Hollow points increase tissue damage by tumbling sooner than FMJs and sometimes explosively fragment due to their more fragile construction.

That's true of some rifle bullets but other rifle hollowpoints actually do expand into petals. To prevent petal shear you have to either have a very thick jacket or use a solid bullet e.g. Barnes-X.

but it still seems to me that a hp at over 3000fps would have a pretty fast expansion rate.

Yes, actually as I alluded to above a hollowpoint bullet is designed for a certain window of velocities; below that window, it won't expand, above the window the petals will shear off. It sounds like that may be what happened here.

 

[redranger1]

thanks for the reply fellas, i think that for hunting rounds im gonna try to stick with softpoints from now on, or at least until ive learned enough bout reloading and bullets to know when to use what.

 

[beerslurpy]

I've heard and seen nothing but bad things about lead/copper HP projectiles designed for above or below a certain velocity window. Bullet materials arent strong enough to make a hollowpoint for 2000fps duty that will experience expansion in a controlled manner- either the bullet doesnt expand or it flies apart immediately after impact.

The amount of area (inside the hollowpoint) that would requried for an effective expanding projectile at high velocities is small enough that you could just unjacket the front of the projectile and acheive the same with a soft point that you could with a jacketed hollow tip. Except the soft point cant get blocked by debris or clothing or other deviances from lab conditions. It just has to deform slightly slower than the tissue it is passing through and it will push out the jacket to the sides automatically.

Producing a projectile core of a certain hardness is easier than assuming the projectile will pass through an idealized fluid medium that will exert a certain uniform pressure on a cavity within the front of the projectile.

I always assumed that handguns didnt use soft points because it wasnt possible to make lead soft enough to not fly apart due to spin and still be able to expand based on resistance as it passes through a body. A hollowpoint greatly increases the surface area exposed to that resistance without losing the benefits of the jacket.