Food for thought.
Based on my personal experience with a low mass 0.310" hunting bullet, and this old forum topic from 2006; I think it would be worthwhile to test it at a rifle range using a cylinder shaped block of ballistics gel with embedded bones and a few narrow slugs of water as a way of testing my hypothesis that soft point or hollow point (hunting bullets) can behave in unexpected ways.
I have also been thinking about bullet stability while in flight. Long rifle bullets need faster twist barrels as the mass increases. This is why a 55 grain .224" is stabilized by a 1 in 12" twist rate barrel but a 62 grain bullet needs a 1 in 8" twist rate to be stable. Bullets that are stable in air may not be stable in a material denser than air.
1 in 10" twist rate is stable with the 190 grain Berger bullet
1 in 13" twist rate has marginal stability
The following images are simply to show the massive variety in 30 caliber bullets.
From left to right: 168 grain .308" Zombie Max/ Amax , Hornady 150 grain .308" FMJ, 220 grain Berry’s .308" , X-treme 150 grain .308"
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From left to right: Berger 190 grain 0.308", Hornady 225 grain .308" Match, Hornady 160 grain .308" FTX, Hornady 150 grain 0.380 Interlock, Hornady 123 grain 0.310" SST
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Hornady 175 grain .308" Sub-X
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Hornady 165 grain .308" Interlock, Hornady 165 grain .308" SST, Hornady 150 grain .308" interlock, Hornady 123 grain 0.310" Interlock, X-treme 110 grain .308"
The point of this post and the idea/message that I am trying to convey is that I don’t think we should exclude the possibility of a bullet rapidly changing directions once it hits the target and not leaving an exit wound. Many of these bullets are designed to mushroom out and deform once it hits something denser than air. Some bullets have “controlled expansion” to increase total penetration while other bullets such as the Amax rapidly deform and tear themselves apart as soon as it hits something denser than air and this is why Hornady does not recommend using the Amax as a hunting bullet.
I hope that this gives the forum readers something to think about. Is there anyone on this forum that has their own private range to test various bullet design behaviors?











