17 caliber solid copper hyper velocity

[bado1]

Hi Tim,
The way I understand the whole bullet sealing the barrel thing is this...
The bullet undergoes what is called obturation or a lengthwise shortening thus becoming fatter and "sealing" the barrel upon firing. Some monometal bullets or "solids" as we are refering to them here in this discussion are actually alloys and not as soft as pure copper or lead and tend not to obturate and seal the barrel effectively. Monometal bullets that are pure copper tend to obturate and seal the bore. Now to take it a step further... some monometal bullets have drive bands, not to be confused with grooves cut into the bullet, and these bands seal the bore very effectively and require less pressure during the engraving process therefore lowering pressure thus temperature and barrel wear. Obviously, not all solid copper bullets are "solids", in that, they are designed to expand via a hollow point design. They are not frangible in the same sense that a conventional hollow point bullet is. Some may shed their "petals" quickly leaving the shaft to keep on penetrating to make a through and through but the exit wound is usually only slightly larger than the entry wound so no sewing is required. Of course, if there was poor shot placement and corners and spines get involved there will be sewing no matter what bullet was used. The CNC lathed monometal bullets are a vast improvement over the older swagged monometal bullets, in that, swagging work hardens the copper making it more brittle and not as malleable.

As you mentioned all bullets have the potential to bounce!

I don't know if I helped at all and perhaps someone with more expertise than I can add their 2 cents worth. I like some monometal bullets and don't care for others...just like anything else I guess.

On coyotes, I absolutely love the conventional Nagel T-000 25 grainers out of my 17FB! I won't be changing anytime soon.

Dean

[17tbs]

Okay guys, tried the .172"GSC SP 17grain bullet on a deer head after field dressing. It didn't do much damage compared to the 30gr Berger I put through it on the next shot which evacuated the entire cranial cavity. The solid put a hole of about an inch and passed through the 2x8 slab of pine in a sideways attitude. The 30gr did not appear to exit at all in with any substantially sized fragments, none stuck in the 2x8.