Why use jacketed bullets

You can find soft-point ammunition for handguns and rifles in virtually all calibers and cartridges. But, before you go out and make a purchase, be sure to understand the advantages and disadvantages that soft points bring to the table. A soft-point bullet is essentially a full metal jacket bullet, which has a lead core wrapped in a hard copper casing, with the lead tip exposed at the nose of the bullet.

Because of the manufacturing process, full metal jackets usually have exposed lead at the rear. Essentially, you make soft-point bullets in the opposite way. The bullet copper shell is made with a hole at the tip. This allows lead to be poured in from the front and leaves an exposure of soft lead at the tip. Soft point bullets are quite common among rifle shooters. Up until the late 19th century, roughly the period after the Civil War, the main projectiles being fired from rifles were round lead balls.

These were soft compared to the modern copper-encased ammunition we see today. However, with the development of new propellants and firearm technology, especially smokeless powders, lead balls were insufficient for the higher velocities and pressures, and often became deformed as they were ejected.

This severely hurt accuracy and downrange performance. Their solution was to wrap the lead bullets in copper. Or more accurately, fill a copper jacket with lead. This created what we know as the full metal jacket round, but a problem was discovered, especially with hunting. Full metal jacket rounds keep more of their shape and speed in a target, and often pass right through.

The result is that the bullet is less effective at dropping game quickly. This increases the chances you potentially wound an animal and leave them with an injury that will cause prolonged suffering. Accuracy, as any hunter knows, is most important, but full metal jacket rounds increase your chances of losing the animal. Since pure copper is difficult to cold-work, copper alloys became the standard jacket material.

Two copper alloys are prevalent in modern jackets, gilding metal copper:zinc ratio of and commercial bronze copper:zinc ratio of The choice of alloy depends on jacket thickness and the amount of work required to reach that thickness.

The stronger bronze alloy is common in thin jackets, which are used to make handgun bullets. Eduard Rubin of the Swiss Army in There are some disadvantages to jacketing a bullet. Whereas hollow point and soft-tipped bullets are designed to expand upon impact, full metal jacket bullets are limited in their capacity to expand.

This makes the bullet pierce through, in most cases leading to smaller wound size. Hollow point and soft tipped bullets are for use against soft targets only, such as animals or people, whereas full metal jacketed bullets can be indiscriminately used against soft and hard targets. This article does not contain any citations or references. Please improve this article by adding a reference.

For information about how to add references, see Template:Citation. Some designs of FMJ rifle ammunition inflict more destructive gunshot wounds than others. Not all FMJ bullets contain a simple lead filling. Here are some examples:. Although British Mark 7.