Why soft point bullets? Or spire point or hollow point?

[Olympus Racing]

Just trying to understand what different types of points do and what is the usage for each?
seems like there are endless possibilities with some of course more popular than others.

 

[Stape]

For rifle bullets: Soft point bullets are typically for hunting applications. The lead core is exposed ahead of the jacket to initiate expansion as opposed to a FMJ which will punch through a target without as much expansion thus not transfering as much energy into the tatget. Hollow points are usually reserved for targets only and I believe the design is mostly for mass centralization for more predictable flight across greater distances, think of it like the bullet is balanced, like a football. spire point is just "pointy" and usually associated with bullets that have a flat base.

ETA: you'll see plenty of small caliber .17, .20, .22 hollow point designs for hunting. These offerings are used for hunting thin skinned game, mostly "varmints" coyote, fox, ground hogs, and the thinly jacketed hollow points are for rapid explosive expansion on these animals.

 

[allen-1]

For rifle bullets: Soft point bullets are typically for hunting applications. The lead core is exposed ahead of the jacket to initiate expansion as opposed to a FMJ which will punch through a target without as much expansion thus not transfering as much energy into the tatget. Hollow points are usually reserved for targets only and I believe the design is mostly for mass centralization for more predictable flight across greater distances, think of it like the bullet is balanced, like a football. spire point is just "pointy" and usually associated with bullets that have a flat base.

Which ones go through the bad guys and kill children? Those are the ones I want to avoid?

 

[Stape]

Depends on if OP is asking about pistol or rifle. It's a huge can of worms that really needs to be more specified to narrow it down. I mean, there's general concepts, just depends on how geeked out about it you want to get.

To answer your question though Allen, stay away from fotay

 

[allen-1]

Rifle or Pistol?

Stape gave you a pretty good answer for rifle, as far as I understand it. For pistol, full metal jacket is good for punching paper, (or pins, or plates, etc), but have also managed to kill many, many people over the years.

There's a market for "defense" rounds, which are basically designed to "dump" their energy and create massive wounds in people. These use all sorts of different angles to try to set them apart from their competitors.

Some, like Glaser Safety Slugs emphasize their inability to pierce walls and kill your neighbors. Others tout their enhanced hollowpoint design, and razor shredding projectiles designed to tear apart a person. None of them advertise their accuracy at long distance, they're designed for fairly close range shooting of people.

When you get into handgun competitions, you can find flat-nose bullets, which make an incredibly neat hole in the paper. Some Bullseye shooters use them for just that reason.

Sorry if rambling a bit here, late night.

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Depends on if OP is asking about pistol or rifle. It's a huge can of worms that really needs to be more specified to narrow it down. I mean, there's general concepts, just depends on how geeked out about it you want to get.

To answer your question though Allen, stay away from fotay

And DEA agents who are the only people in the room qualified to carry them...

 

[Dennis in MA]

Back a pile of moons ago, some guy was hunting tame wild Russian boar in VT. Had some of them Ballistic Tip bullets in the 30-caliber range.

ND'd (on an ATV? Been a long time) and killed a guy. Shredded the dude's heart. Probably not real useful in most big-game applications. I'd want something that bonded better. (Nosler makes a better-bonded "ballistic tip" type bullet as well.) They obliterate prairie dogs pretty well, tho.

Don't forget monolithic solid lead-free bullets. For big angry game.

 

[Stape]

I do most of my hunting with a TC contender so bullet selection is critical when trying to get rifle performance out of a pistol. You lose a ton of velocity out of 14' pistol barrels. A .30 cal bullet that is well suited for a 308 or 30-06 will be a poor performer on game out of a pistol in 30-30. Bullets have operating velocities. A bullet is designed to perform a particular way at a particular speed. So in my example, I use .30 cal Nosler BT's often in my 30-30 loads for my Contender as they expand better at the lower velocities that combination achieves.

 

[mac1911]

there are also balistic tipped bullets that are not designed to expand as much as others...
hornady Vmax and Amax for example.

there are a slew of shotgun slug styles also... along with sabot for black powder which can take another several days to go through those opptions...
Sometimes its easier to just figure out what might be "best" for your application. Also just because you use "target" or "match" bullets doesnt mean your gun will shoot better.
have fun.....Not to long ago I had to go to the library to read up on this stuff... I was stubborn and held out on the computer/omline stuff into the mid 2000s

 

[Olympus Racing]

lets start with rifle i guess?

 

[mac1911]

there are also balistic tipped bullets that are not designed to expand as much as others...
hornady Vmax and Amax for example.

there are a slew of shotgun slug styles also... along with sabot for black powder which can take another several days to go through those opptions...
Sometimes its easier to just figure out what might be "best" for your application. Also just because you use "target" or "match" bullets doesnt mean your gun will shoot better.
have fun.....Not to long ago I had to go to the library to read up on this stuff... I was stubborn and held out on the computer/omline stuff into the mid 2000s

22lr has a few different offerings also.

 

[Stape]

ohhhhh I got time so I'll give it a whirl

FMJ, full metal jacket (i kinda said it like Gomer in my mind as I typed that lol) its a fully jacketed bullet, sometimes called "ball ammo" most often very economical as compared to other bullets and mainly used for plinking and target work. Used by the military due to Geneva Conventions and such buit someone could correct me on that.

SP, soft point, used for hunting as previously explained, the exposed nose/point deforms faster/easier initiating expansion which is desired in hunting applications

RN, round nose, you'll find these mostly in tube fed rifles such as lever actions. You don't want a pointy tip inline one after the other behind the primer of the round in front of it in the tube, recoil, movement ect could potentially set the round in front of the other off.

BT, Ballistic tips/tipped, this is essentially a hollow point bullet that has a polymer/plastic tip inseted into it, the idea being it makes it more areodynamic, increasing ballistic coeffecient (how effective/well a bullet flies) as well as in some applications increasing expansion such as is marketed for Hornadys V-Max line. You'll usually see these in the smaller calibers for explosive varmint hunting. Check out Dog B gone videos for airborne critter entertainment

HP's, hollow points, in a rifle almost always used for target shooting

Now, theres the bases too, but they arent as numerous.

FB, flat based, no good explanation for that or application that I know of or can explain. I don't like them when reloading small calibers cause they are hard to get started in the seating die when perched atop a case neck

BT, boat tail, increased ballistic coeffeciency, flies better, think of the base of the bullet like you would the slip-streap on the back of a race car, bike, or whatever, reduces drag.

I'm sure I left a few out and I know I spelled coefficient wrong.

I have little to no slug experience so I won't comment on those.

ETA, when you combine the description letts, it tells you what kind of bullet it is, such as HPBT, hollow-point boat tail, or SPBT soft point boat tail, or RNFB, round nose flat based ect..

 

[Olympus Racing]

Very good.
I thought hollow point in pistols was defense ammo for some reason.

 

[Stape]

Very good.
I thought hollow point in pistols was defense ammo for some reason.

They are. My above descriptions were for rifle bullets. Pistol bullets are easy enough though, HP's, defense and hunting, FMJ, same same as rifle. LRN, lead round nose, economical plinking, SWC, semi wad cutter, cuts clean holes in targets for easier scoring, TC, truncated cone, German design, can't recall specifics but its like a SWC kinda. Handloader did an awesome article on the truncated cone design and german ammo a few issues back. Theres more but those are the basics and most common.

 

[Dadstoys]

There are more flavors than Baskin Robins.
Unless your into hunting big game , any hardball will do in a rifle and most of the hollow points in a pistol will do for self defense as long as your gun will eat them reliably.

 

[jkelly1229]

ohhhhh I got time so I'll give it a whirl

FMJ, full metal jacket (i kinda said it like Gomer in my mind as I typed that lol) its a fully jacketed bullet, sometimes called "ball ammo" most often very economical as compared to other bullets and mainly used for plinking and target work. Used by the military due to Geneva Conventions and such buit someone could correct me on that.

SP, soft point, used for hunting as previously explained, the exposed nose/point deforms faster/easier initiating expansion which is desired in hunting applications

RN, round nose, you'll find these mostly in tube fed rifles such as lever actions. You don't want a pointy tip inline one after the other behind the primer of the round in front of it in the tube, recoil, movement ect could potentially set the round in front of the other off.

BT, Ballistic tips/tipped, this is essentially a hollow point bullet that has a polymer/plastic tip inseted into it, the idea being it makes it more areodynamic, increasing ballistic coeffecient (how effective/well a bullet flies) as well as in some applications increasing expansion such as is marketed for Hornadys V-Max line. You'll usually see these in the smaller calibers for explosive varmint hunting. Check out Dog B gone videos for airborne critter entertainment

HP's, hollow points, in a rifle almost always used for target shooting

Now, theres the bases too, but they arent as numerous.

FB, flat based, no good explanation for that or application that I know of or can explain. I don't like them when reloading small calibers cause they are hard to get started in the seating die when perched atop a case neck

BT, boat tail, increased ballistic coeffeciency, flies better, think of the base of the bullet like you would the slip-streap on the back of a race car, bike, or whatever, reduces drag.

I'm sure I left a few out and I know I spelled coefficient wrong.

I have little to no slug experience so I won't comment on those.

ETA, when you combine the description letts, it tells you what kind of bullet it is, such as HPBT, hollow-point boat tail, or SPBT soft point boat tail, or RNFB, round nose flat based ect..

Close enough but ball ball is used due to some treaty of Versailles I believe as a result of ww1 someone will correct me on this in sure but either way not treaty of paris

 

[Glockster30]

Close enough but ball ball is used due to some treaty of Versailles I believe as a result of ww1 someone will correct me on this in sure but either way not treaty of paris

1899 Hague Convention. The US never signed the section that bans the use of HP in warfare.

 

[weekendracer]

Very good.
I thought hollow point in pistols was defense ammo for some reason.

You are going to have to do some reading to get away from nomenclature. "Self defense", "Assault weapon", "Armor Piercing" are all just made up crap.

Almost every center fired rifle round will defeat all but the most extreme armor, my armor at work will stop up to a .44 pistol cartridge. To wear plate armor every day, day in and day out just isn't feasible. I'm not going to catch a 22 yr old at my age wearing another 20 lbs of armor. I'm by far and away more likely to get shot with a 9mm or .40 (if the gun doesn't explode from self loathing).

Self defense is just a term for bullets that are particularly effective on soft targets (like a person or animal). As others have said, there are speeds that effect how a bullet performs. Slow and heavy vs. fast and light. Both have advantages between how much energy is imparted into the target at what range.

I've spent hundreds of hours reading at this point and there is still a LOT I have to learn.

 

[mac1911]

So much to take into consideration
[video]https://www.youtube.com/#/watch?v=3R9UcRJ3Lsk[/video]
Pretty good shot at the different hollow points.

Velocity is a factor also... small fast projectiles can be devistating also.
Have fun looking into it. There's a ton of stuff out there for info.