Saturday - February 16, 2013

Please Lurn Some Stuf

An article over at Weasel Zippers knocking a gun control bill introduced in Wisconsin that would seek to ban civilian possession of hollow point and frangible bullets. Problem is, they’re saying that such things are required for hunting deer and bear.

A Democratic state senator and three Democratic state representatives have circulated draft legislation that would ban civilian possession of hollow point or frangible ammunition. According to existing Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources regulations, sportsmen and women in Wisconsin must use such ammunition when hunting deer or bear. The Democratic lawmakers, two of whom are freshman, all hail from urban districts in the City of Milwaukee.

The reasoning behind the legislation is a bit muddled. The impact, however, is quite clear. According to a legislative counsel review of the legislation, it would essentially make it impossible for civilians to hunt deer or bear in Wisconsin.

Ok, it pisses me off when I read these bills, introduced by lefty city boys who don’t know beans about guns. And while I do know some things about firearms, in no way would I consider myself an expert.  But what really chaps my martingale is when a right-ish blog points out the gun error and still gets it wrong.

So, to put my dander back down, let’s review some bullets. No, I ain’t gonna go hunt up some pictures. Y’all can do that yourself.

• Frangible Bullets These bullets are made from sintered metal dust, squeezed or lightly glued together. They were designed for Air Marshalls to use on airliners, where a bullet hole in the skin of the plane could cause a dangerous pressure loss. They are also somewhat favored by indoor shooting ranges, because the bullet does almost no damage to the armor plates used as backstops behind the targets. Shoot somebody with these bullets and the likelihood of the bullet passing through the target is very slim. They create a wide, very shallow wound channel. This is about the worst kind of bullet you could use to hunt medium to large bodied animals like deer and bear, but it may be a very good bullet to hunt varmints and small fur bearing creatures. MAY BE. Never tried them myself, never heard of anyone using them that way.
• Hollowpoint Bullets Whether made from soft cast lead, or a gilding metal jacket over a lead core, or one of the modern lead-free machined copper or bronze bullets, a hollowpoint bullet has a small opening in the front end. A dent, hole, or concavity in the meplat. This allows the bullet to mushroom faster than a regular bullet, and will produce a comparatively wider, shallower wound. Again, this is not the kind of bullet you really want to use on medium to large game. However, used against small creatures or people, it is highly effective. They do not penetrate as much as the harder or more solid bullets. This is a good thing in self-defense situations in the home, because it cuts down - but does not eliminate the occurrence of - over penetration. That’s what you get when you shoot the bad guy, and the bullet goes through him, through the wall behind him, through your neighbors house behind that, and then through the car in his backyard. And anyone who happens to be in the way. Over penetration is a bad thing in this regard, but it is not ordinarily an issue when hunting, unless you shoot at an animal that’s right in front of another animal you don’t also wish to shoot. As always, know your target and your environment.
• Softpoint Bullets This is your typical hunting bullet. The nose end is usually exposed lead, a plastic point, or a bronze point. These bullets come in an amazing variety (round nose, flat point, Accu-tip, etc), but they all function in the same way: they trade off more moderate expansion (mushrooming) for increased penetration. When you’re hunting a large animal, you sometimes need a bullet that can penetrate 20 or even 30 inches into flesh to break bones or puncture the vital organs.
• Solids These are non-expanding bullets that do not flip over when they strike a game animal. These are used to hunt the largest animals, like elephants, because the non-expanding bullet penetrates very deeply. Smaller ones are also useful for hunting fur bearing animals, because you get a smaller bullet hole in the hide. Varieties include Round Nose Full Metal Jacket, flat tipped Blunts machined from solid copper or bronze, and very hard cast lead bullets with flat or round noses. The hard cast lead one work their best at reduced velocity, and can fragment on contact at too high a velocity. Almost all solids have very poor aerodynamics and are used at fairly short ranges, 150 yards or so at the most for rifle bullets.


• Just as an aside, the latest solid metal bullets, like the Triple-Shock from Barnes, are a crossbreed between Solids and Softpoints and Hollowpoints. These bullets are made on a lathe, are almost always for high velocity rifles, and are the current epitome of controlled expansion. The nose of the bullet is actually several petals of metal folded into a point. On impact these petals open up and create a wide entrance wound. At a certain penetration distance the petals break off, leaving a flat tipped shank which then penetrates deeply just like a Blunt, with the same small diameter wound channel. Hey, the enviro-wienies demanded lead-free bullets. They didn’t realize that the bullet companies would give them what they wanted and at the same time create an even more effective bullet.
• Full Metal Jacket, aka FMJ or “ball” bullets These are military bullets. While they are also non-expanding, the bullets are very pointy and often have tapered heels (boat tails). This gives them excellent aerodynamics and allows the bullet to shoot a much longer distance for a given amount of trajectory. Because of their long stretched out shape, the center of gravity of FMJ jackets is located in a position that causes the bullet to tumble on impact. This can make the bullet go all over the place inside an animal, even right back out the side that the bullet went in. They are not suitable for most hunting applications.

There. So now you know. While I don’t like the Wisconsin bill at all, it really has nothing to do with hunting. I have not read the Wisconsin deer and bear hunting regulations, but I can pretty much guarantee you that expanding bullets of some kind are mandated. And quite possibly frangible and hollowpoint bullets are already proscribed. But the universe of expanding bullets is not at all limited to frangible or hollowpoints. To the contrary, the past 60 years worth of hunting bullet development has been towards controlled expansion, the art and science of building a bullet that is just right for the game you are hunting and the velocity of your bullet when it hits that game. For almost all ground animal hunting an ethical hunter wants a bullet that will expand enough to create a large temporary wound channel (the terribly wrong label of “hydrostatic shock"), create a decent sized permanent wound channel, and sufficient straight line penetration to fully puncture the creature being hunted. That means the bullet goes in one side, mushrooms up somewhat, digs straight through while breaking bones, mashing up the heart, lungs, and central nervous system, and then goes out the other side, creating a second hole to maximize the rate at which the animal bleeds out. Yes, it’s a bit grisly. But it’s humane; the proper bullet (properly placed of course!!!!) can kill an animal stone dead in a couple of seconds. The wrong bullet (or the right one in the wrong spot) can cause an animal to suffer for days. Of course, minimizing that suffering is also what having another couple of shots immediately available is all about, and that drags me back to the semi-automatic rifle thing again, and I don’t want to go there today.

Bottom line: know what you’re talking about before sounding off. Personally, I think civilians ought to be FORCED to use frangible or hollowpoint bullets for all self defense weapons. Not only do they do a much better job while being safer for other folks in the area, they are also far less likely to penetrate a policeman’s bullet-proof vest, even when fired at high velocity from a real high-powered rifle (like a .378 Weatherby).

And of course New Jersey has always had it bass-ackwards, outlawing hollowpoint bullets for self-defense use ... because they think these are armor piercing bullets that will penetrate bullet-proof vests. Which is exactly what they aren’t.

Oh, and while the military may have a plethora of bullets that are actually designed to penetrate armor, once again, depending on what the type and thickness of the armor is, nearly any bullet can be considered armor piercing. So anti-gun bills that throw that one in, without detailed specification, are also full of crap.

Enough said. Drew steps down off the soapbox and walks away muttering.

Posted by Drew458     on 02/16/2013 at 02:58 PM   
Filed Under: • Guns and Gun Control •  
• Comments (8) • Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

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