A great new site for me. Copper bullets can be inhumane Terminal Ballistics Research...and much more “We are a small, family run business, based out of Taranaki, New Zealand, who specialize in cartridge research and testing, and rifle accurizing.” Copper bullets can be inhumane by Nathan Foster 082216
100% copper bullets or lead free ammo is only an attempt by anti gun nuts to drive up the price of hunting and shooting. The only time lead free ammo has appeared to help was with duck and geese hunting. It should be obvious by now they don't really care that much about the environment aside from "protecting" it forces there agenda on people who in no way shape or form agree with them.
Actually in certain Long Range applications like "sniping" and certain hunting, A bronze solid projectile is actually the ideal! They are lighter in weight so they must be made longer to make up for the lack and that makes them fly much better! In applications I have used them, I have increased the effective range in one case by 280 meters, another by 600+ meters, and they buck the wind much better as a side bonus!
All copper bullets are expensive for sure. But how many would you shoot? We're talking about hunting and not plinking or targets. You'll maybe light off 3 or 4 to check your zero and maybe 1 or 2 more on your animal. So you're looking at less than half a box if you take two large animals (say, an elk and a deer) in the space of a year. Barnes 180 gr .30-06 factory loads go for about $43 a box locally. So less than $22 a year is a pittance when compared to the other costs incurred by a hunting trip. One point the article fails to mention is the fact that as a lead core bullet sheds weight, some of that lead actually becomes infused into the meat up to two feet from the entrance and exit. If you're hunting for table fare, you're eating it. While there's still controversy as to whether or not there's sufficient quantity to do harm, do you really want to eat lead? Update: Lead in Your Meat? You can make the argument that frontiersmen had no problems. But remember that rifle velocities in days of old were about half of what they are today, and fragmentation wasn't nearly as big an issue. As far as lost game goes, I haven't had any experience in the field (haven't hunted for several years) with all copper bullets and don't know first hand how well they perform. But I've seen more than my share of deer run off after solid hits with lead core bullets, never again to be seen. One was a fork horn Mulie buck that was hit at well under 100 yards with a .257 Weatherby. He dropped, flopped around for about 10 seconds or so, got up and ran off. I lost a good sized buck myself after a chest hit straight on with a 165 grain bullet out of an '06 at about 150 yards. There were other instances over the years with other hunters and calibers, before the advent of all copper projectiles. So lead core projectiles are far from 100%. And we now know that they leave lead behind in the meat. If I ever get the time to hunt again before I have to meet that guy with the horns and the tail, I'll be using copper bullets.
A friend of mine shoots a 416 Barrett and the factory Lathe turned Brass bullets shoot very well, we have recovered a few from dirt back stop and they are barely deformed....tip is usually bent and deformed slightly.....not sure how it would do on game, I will guess just the huge energy would be enough even if bullet did not expand.....at 300 yards he shot a railroad plate that the spikes are driven through to hold rail.....it left a nice crater with the Brass bullet layered in crater.....almost went through....we felt for sure it would have....sometimes you never know what a bullet will do until you shoot something with it....
I have been lathe turning Bronze projectiles for quite some time now, and I can say in all honesty that they preform as good if not better then traditional lead on animals! They can be made to expand any way you like, or they can be made to fragment in a controlled manor as well! They can also be used for the bases of making your own AP stuff, but that's TOP SECRET stuff I wont go into! Brass and copper are OK for bullets, but bronze is where it's at for performance!
