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Why Do They Only Make These Bullets This Way?
- Thread starter Treo
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1911Tuner
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Actually, auto-loading handgun cartridges tend to headspace on the extractor, so
Actually...no they don't. Not unless there's somethin' bad wrong with your pistol.
JesseL
Member
spwenger said:Early autoloading pistols functioned more reliably with bullets with rounder profiles. The .40 S&W is a relatively late design, born at a time when pistols were designed to handle hollowpoint bullets, with fairly wide cavities, often in a truncated-cone profile. For the reasons mentioned above, regarding various advantages to the truncated-cone profile, there really was no need for a round-nose FMJ when the .40 S&W was introduced.
I remember one or the other of us (not sure which now) saying that same thing when this question came up on the old packing.org forum.
As mentioned a truncated cone creates a better wound and keeps the round straighter after impact.
When a bullet impacts an angled surface the first part of the bullet to hit causes the round to begin to tumblein that direction. if that is a flat edge like on a truncated cone, it will only tumble for a split second until the other side slams into the target and then resume a more relatively straight direction.
A rounded bullet however gets turned sideways and goes more off course after impact.
At the same time a truncated cone has a lower ballistic coeffecient because it is less aerodynamic. So it will bleed energy faster at distance than a rounded nose bullet the same weight and velocity.
Wounding is increased with sharp edges. Tissue flows around a projectile, and if it can do so over a smooth surface the wound channel will close back up smaller than the actual round.
A projectile with sharp edges disrupts that tissue flow, and even tissue flowing around it gets cut or pushed forward along those edges.
For that reason a shape with multiple sharp edges like a cube or star would be even more devastating at close range for a given weight and velocity against soft tissue. It would however have horrible accuracy due to awful airflow and an awful BC meaning it would bleed energy rapidly over distance, plus barrels are cylindrical and have spiraling rifling.
So a truncated cone has some of the benefits of an irregular shape while still being practical in use.
When a bullet impacts an angled surface the first part of the bullet to hit causes the round to begin to tumblein that direction. if that is a flat edge like on a truncated cone, it will only tumble for a split second until the other side slams into the target and then resume a more relatively straight direction.
A rounded bullet however gets turned sideways and goes more off course after impact.
At the same time a truncated cone has a lower ballistic coeffecient because it is less aerodynamic. So it will bleed energy faster at distance than a rounded nose bullet the same weight and velocity.
Wounding is increased with sharp edges. Tissue flows around a projectile, and if it can do so over a smooth surface the wound channel will close back up smaller than the actual round.
A projectile with sharp edges disrupts that tissue flow, and even tissue flowing around it gets cut or pushed forward along those edges.
For that reason a shape with multiple sharp edges like a cube or star would be even more devastating at close range for a given weight and velocity against soft tissue. It would however have horrible accuracy due to awful airflow and an awful BC meaning it would bleed energy rapidly over distance, plus barrels are cylindrical and have spiraling rifling.
So a truncated cone has some of the benefits of an irregular shape while still being practical in use.
Treo
member
Thanks guys I appreciate the answers
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