Posted on 03/19/2021 8:41:19 AM PDT by w1n1
With Lead-Free Projectiles here to stay, these are Eight Great All-Copper Bullets for Hunting, Shooting.
I might be dating myself, but I am old enough to remember when unleaded gas was an option over regular (leaded) gasoline. Lead often gets a bad rap, due to its toxicity to people when exposed to high levels. However, the malleability of lead makes it an excellent choice for projectiles, especially during the centuries when firearms underwent radical developments.
The simple muzzleloader, firing a patched round ball, could be well fed with a bullet mold and a healthy supply of lead. Our earliest projectiles for what we consider modern cartridges were either pure lead or some sort of lead alloy, hardened a bit to resist premature deformation. To this day, the majority of our rifle and handgun projectiles are comprised of a lead core surrounded by a jacket of copper, and lead shot remains a popular choice for most anything other than waterfowl. As I stated, lead can be toxic, and it was in the mid-1980s that lead shot was first banned for use on waterfowl.
Leaded gas, lead paint; right on down the line, lead gets more and more removed from our everyday lives. But it wasn’t always a bad thing. Lead’s beneficial use in handgun and rifle projectiles is undeniable, however it does have certain limitations. It can be too malleable – as John Nosler found out in the 1940s when his bullets came apart on the shoulder of a bull moose – and for decades, bullet manufacturers have been engineering different designs to come up with the best balance of expansion and penetration.
It was Randy Brooks, then-owner of Barnes Bullets, who had the idea of removing the lead core altogether and using just copper for his projectile to avoid jacket/core separation, all the way back in 1979. By 1986 his idea had come to fruition when he took the first head of big game with his lead-free X bullet.
That Alaskan brown bear fell to a 270-grain Barnes X from his .375 H&H Magnum, and began a whole new facet of the ammunition industry. Fast forward to 2013, and you’ll see California pass a bill prohibiting the use of all lead ammunition for hunting on public and private land, supposedly in an effort to remove the risk of condors and other scavengers being poisoned by lead bullet fragments or shot in gut piles. I’m not here to debate the validity of those studies or the merits of the subsequent laws, but to show the effects on the bullet industry, and that is to say that the lead-free projectiles are here to stay.
And, while Barnes remains a leader in the copper bullet industry, they are not the only player in the game. In fact, just about every major player in the bullet manufacturing industry has one sort of lead-free monometal bullet or another. Let’s take a look at some of the characteristics of the copper bullets, what makes them tick, and I’ll highlight a few of my favorite designs.
THE COPPER CONUNDRUM
Copper, by nature, is less dense than lead, so when comparing a lead-core bullet to a copper bullet – of the same shape, weight and diameter – the copper bullet will always be longer. This does a couple of different things: It changes the center of gravity and it usually requires the bullet to take up more space within the case. In those cases where the volume is already a bit compromised – like the .308 Winchester, 7mm-08 Remington and .350 Remington Magnum – the heavier copper bullet can pose an issue, as it will eat up a considerable amount of space. Read the rest of Barnes TTSX bullets here.
I’m moving away from using lead projectiles and instead using depleted uranium because it’s safer for the environment.
(-;
What world are you living in? Cabela’s - Rural King - Farm & Fleet all have ZERO Ammo in stock - the shelves have been empty since January. The Manager at Rural King told me they have no deliveries scheduled for Ammo until June.
In other words, about average for 'Am Shooting Journal'.
When you’re not posting old news, how about a donation?
An early ping for next month.
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DU gets a bad rap and it does not mushroom well at all but plays hell with armor.
I've been a TTSX guy since I started reloading 10 years back; probably cause blue is my favorite shade. In the end it's where you hit them.
My mark V 30-378 reloads leave the barrel at 3280 with 180 TTSX's (98 grains RL 22)and with my favorite mark V I can put 3 through the same hole off sandbags every other time. Sure glad I started reloading for accuracy on my hunting guns; but luv mag tech and S&B for fmjs.
Lead pellets are inert. They don’t break down.
so how, precisely, are they toxic, and to whom?
= = =
I can imagine that a duck could suck some up off the bottom of a lake, and grind them up in its gizzard.
Usually to the target.
Over the years, there has been much said about that, where waterfowl ingest lead pellets off the bottom while eating muck, etc., from ponds, shorelines, etc.
Lost cripples can result in lead being invested by predatory birds and mammals, as well.
Good point! There have been mass goose and duck kills in certain areas of Minnesota over the years blamed on the ingestion of lead shot. Seems to be a problem with deer meat from deer killed with lead-based ammo as well.
https://www.outdoorlife.com/is-game-meat-shot-with-lead-safe-to-eat/
Lead poisons the environment. Switch to depleted uranium.
Actually last is very much durable and not a problem in the environment. Toxicity is a problem only when lead metal is ingested. Shot or fragment quickly react with groundwater which in the US is usually high in carbonate and calcium content along with phosphorus and other components.
Oxides or phosphate coatings are actually quite resistant to acids, even in stomachs.
Usually, lead shot passes through the digestive tract of birds and mammals in less than 48 hours, short enough to not impact the external lead compound coatings.
For ranges, controlling water flow and applying amendments like TSP, or high phosphate fertilizers, quickly immobilizes metallic ionic lead and routine harvesting of fragments further reduces risk.
I wrote a madters thesis on this topic for Env Mgmt.
The panel wanted to argue with every matter of science that wasn’t included in the PC version of the narrative..
ok...but what did you think of the joke?
I think it was okay. But I’m not a real humorous type of guy.
Why not regular U? ;)
I was at Cabelas yesterday. I overheard the girl behind the gun counter that they had to change up their ammo days (guess it was the same day every week or 2 weeks) because a truck at a different store was “hijacked”. Not sure is it was true...but it wouldn’t surprise me.
The animal worshiping, misanthropic left has been pecking against lead in bullets for a couple of generations. Look at many of the people around us. Do most of them look healthy and fit? No, and it’s not lead that makes them that way. It’s leftism.
That’s Funny,
Right there!!!
.
Idiocracy,
Seinfeld or Something,,,
We have pass into a Nonstop
Freak Show as a Nation and
Comedy is our Only hope!
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