Types of bullets for smoothbore and rifled weapons

2024 Author: Henry Conors | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-02-12 02:45

Designs and types of bullets have a huge variety of options. This ensures a reliable defeat of any animal belonging to hunting at a distance normal for this method. Types of bullets for lethal qualities are classified according to their design features. First of all, this refers to the division into two very unequal parts: non-expansive bullets belong to the smaller one, and expansive ones belong to the larger one. The first without deformation or destruction upon impact, and the second - changing shape, changing the diameter, which thus cause lethal destruction to the body of the animal.

Design

All modern types of bullets are built approximately the same: the main components of each are the core and the shell. The shell is most often made of thin steel, however, metals of various hardnesses, even copper or cupronickel, can be used. The steel shell is almost always clad with copper to reduce friction. The core is always lead, the hardness of which can vary. Non-expansive types of bullets are made with a jacket of greater strength and thickness, otherwise the lead core is deformed when it hits the target. The shape of such bullets can be different - from pointed and rounded to a flat head. The expansive types of bullets for a gun are even more diverse in form, but all with the obligatory feature: the main shell of the bullet head must be opened.

When a bullet hits an animal, the contact of its soft core is easier to contact with soft tissues that deform the core, which, destroying the shell, deforms the bullet, due to which it significantly increases in its front part. Sometimes this function is taken over by a special wedge, similar to a cap, which covers the opened cone of the shell. There are other ways to accomplish this task of increasing the wound channel relative to the true caliber of the bullet. In the photo you can see the design according to which all types of bullets for rifled weapons are made. These are the bottom, leading, ogive parts, the groove of the body to strengthen it, the groove that secures the bullet in the sleeve, the shell is the leading edge, the lead core with an exit.

Types, types, categories

Design features that determine the nature and conditions of bullet deformation upon impact also divide them into types with a specific name for each. It is enough to look through catalogs and other printed publications to understand which types of hunting bullets belong to which types. Most often they join one or another enlarged category. For example, semi-sheathed can be called all bullets that have a shell covered with some material or open access to the core with incompleteshell.

In practice, this is the name of the types of rifled bullets, where the core is flush with the edges of the shell or goes beyond its edges in the head part. Opened shells with various cavities in the core or between it and the shell are called either expansive or have a specific name. Further, the types of smoothbore bullets, as well as for rifled weapons, pneumatics and pistols, will be considered and described by name with current abbreviations given in most catalogs. The English and German systems of such designations are accepted all over the world.

Types of 12 gauge bullets

Today, hunters provide supplies with cartridges with plastic, paper and metal sleeves. They are equipped with smokeless and smoky powder. There are types of 12-gauge bullets, determined by the type of charge: it is a bullet, buckshot or shot. Both standard cartridges and with an increased charge of gunpowder are used. Steel or lead shot can be placed inside. Hunting shotgun cartridges have a sleeve 89, 76, 70 and 65 millimeters long. Buckshot and bullet shots are only 76, 70 and 65. For hunting waterfowl, small forest animals and game, shot from No. 12 (one and a half millimeters) to No. 0000 (five millimeters) is used. Rounds with shot are divided by numbers according to the size of the equipment. Long distances are overcome by cartridges of increased pressure - such as "Magnum". As well as lead, steel shot is often used.

A buckshot cartridge is needed to hunt a small animal, buckshot can be agreed or not, and the size of the fraction is also determinedby its diameter. Here the size of the fraction is more than five millimeters. A bullet cartridge is essential in hunting large game. Types of bullets for 12-gauge smoothbore weapons: round in shape, pointer, with a tail-stabilizer, turbine (using oncoming air flow), arrow-turbine. The marking of 12 gauge cartridges is distinguished by an inscription that contains a brief description and basic information about the cartridge: hunting (purpose), what type of gunpowder, what caliber size, what sleeve length, what shot number. Drawings on the sleeve may or may not be available if the cartridge is intended for sale in the Russian Federation. For export registration is made at the request of the customer. But the number of the fraction must be indicated - always.

Rating: types of bullets (photo)

The rating is based on feedback from seasonal practitioners and professional hunters, and it only applies to 12-gauge bullets.

Leading "Glavpatron" (Tula) - reliable, stable, high quality, affordable.
CJSC Tekhkrim (Izhevsk) is in second place - a huge choice, excellent quality.
The third stage of cartridges brand "Rus" (Tolyatti) - domestic components, affordable.
In fourth place are "Taiga" cartridges (again Tula) - good both equipped with a bullet and with a shot (for a short range).
In addition, hunters note the good quality of Magnum cartridges, which are designed for shots of large and medium numbers with a weight of forty to forty-four grams.

Hit the target is provided with minimal recoil during the shot. Recommended for heavy guns. Cartridges are used for game of small sizes - hare, fox, capercaillie, goose. Cartridges of 12 caliber "SKM" made from materials of the most famous foreign manufacturers are quite popular. The highest quality gunpowder is used. Hunting necessarily provides for the correlation of game and the number of fractions. For example, black grouse, woodcock, duck for 30-40 meters will require a fraction of the fifth, sixth or seventh numbers. Shotguns chambered in 70mm can use Tacho rounds with number 9, 7 and 5 shot.

Pneumatics

Types of bullets for pneumatics are not so numerous. However, they are currently sold in a huge number and in a full range. The most common form of subsonic bullet is the "diablo", which is similar to a shuttlecock. She has a heavy head and a light "skirt", due to which the bullet rotates and stabilizes the flight. The friction inside the barrel is small, which increases the efficiency of gun pneumatics. For powerful rifles, bullets are used that are close to firearms in shape, transonic speeds and a high ballistic coefficient are obtained. Also, pneumatics work great for holidays and entertainment: flash-noise bullets, "armor-piercing" and the like.

A large diameter bullet cuts much better inside the barrel, they stabilize with almost no loss of air through the rifling channels. They aredesigned for powerful rifles. It all depends on the barrel, specifically for each bullets are selected. Weak pneumatics will not disperse a heavy bullet, and a light bullet on powerful pneumatics will instantly lose speed or lose accuracy at supersonic speed. Types of pistol bullets differ from rifle bullets only in quantity. First, these bullets are the lightest. These are either 0.35 g balls for smoothbore weapons, or bullets for rifled ones. Large-caliber pneumatics require special cartridges, then it will be possible to hunt ungulates as well. Types of bullets for smoothbore weapons will be discussed below in more detail.

Examples of weapons supplies

Kupfer Teilmantel Flachkopf (KTF) is a semi-jacketed bullet with a flat top, copper jacket and lead core. When hit, the lead is exposed, flattened, slightly pressed into the shell, unfolds it, due to which the bullet becomes larger in diameter. The thicker jacket in the lower half prevents the bullet from completely breaking apart. You don't need a powerful cartridge for this bullet. Used for combination weapons.
Teilmantel spitz (TMS) - the bullet is also semi-sheathed, with lead exposed in the head. The nose of the bullet is relatively sharp, slightly rounded. The knurled belt divides the bullet into two parts, where the front is shorter than the back. The thin shell of the front is deformed, while the thicker shell of the rear of the bullet remains unchanged. This ammo is good for long range shooting. Deformation depends on impact speed.
Vollmantel (VM) wrappedcompletely, under normal conditions is not destroyed. This bullet has maximum penetrating power, and the wound is without much tissue damage. Recommended for medium and small caliber weapons and small game hunting.
D-Mantel (DM) - with a double shell of the back, that is, a bullet with expansive action. Steel inside, open in front, thin in the head, core with a cone-shaped recess, gradually turning into a cylindrical one. This bullet is with a reverse cone, which means that when it hits, the tissues seem to be pressed into the void, destroying the front part, which takes the form of a mushroom and increases in diameter. The double shell of the back remains intact. The excellent lethality of such a bullet allows you to hunt large animals, it is used at close range for cartridges of large and medium calibers.

In addition to the above, Teilmantel Rundkopf, Kegelspitz, HMoH (HP), Starkmantel, Torpedo Ideal Geschoss, Torpedo Universal Geschoss, H-Mantel Bleispitz, HMkH, VMS, VMR, DKK, Vulkan, Forex, Mega, Alaska bullets are very common, Plastspitz, Orix, Silvertip, Torpedospitz, Nosler, PL, PLPCL, PSP Core Lokt-CL, Power Lokt, Core Lokt, SF, Hammerhead.

Features

Most of the (and most common) types of bullets presented here belong to the expansive half of them. They have external and constructive differences, but there is still more in common. All have their front part deformed to increase the diameter of the wound channel, all have the back bullet part, which keeps the bullet from breaking andhelps to penetrate deeply into tissues. The only exception is the specialized, thick-skinned, TUG bullet, which is designed so as not to form splinters when hit and thus reduce penetrating power.

For long-range shooting, bullets are pointed to overcome air resistance, thus maintaining speed (here, the reverse cone also plays a big role). For medium and close ranges, bullets are made differently: they have an open void in the head and flat, rounded tops near the lead exposure. Types of smoothbore bullets are also quite diverse. First of all, this is Polev's bullet, one of the most popular in all countries of the CIS and the former USSR. An arrow-type bullet with a striking element associated with a plastic tail. The head part has a container, also plastic, which improves obturation properties. There are several options for making such a bullet.

Calibers for rifled shotguns

Caliber is the distance between the grooves, often the same as the diameter of the bullet. It is in this dependence that weapons are classified - small-caliber, ordinary caliber and large-caliber. The first is up to six and a half millimeters, the second is from six and a half to nine, and the third is from nine to twenty millimeters. Above this, the weapons are already artillery. Today there are hunting rifles with a rifled barrel, depending on the size of the bullet.

So, in the USA the caliber is still defined in inches (hundredths of it), and in England - in thousandths of an inch. Therefore, the "cinema" forty-fifth caliber is interpretedas 0.45 or 0.450. In Russia, the designation of the caliber is preceded by a dot right before this designation:.45 or.450, but more often just an integer is used - the 45th caliber. Sometimes cartridges are given a special designation for complete clarity of the picture: Super,.357 or Colt,.45. In the 30s of the last century, the designations of the caliber slightly changed, inches were replaced by millimeters.

Caliber cartridges for shotguns

The calibers of hunting weapons without cutting the barrel, which are called smooth-bore, are determined in a completely different way. The size here can only correspond to the number of round bullets from a pound of lead that can be loaded into a gun. Moreover, the condition that the bullets will be the same, even, spherical in shape is necessarily taken into account. This means that the calibers of cartridges are inversely proportional to their number in hunting rifles. A 20 is smaller than a 10, for example, and a 16 is smaller than a 12.

When designating the caliber for any weapon (both smoothbore and rifled), it is necessary to indicate the length of the sleeve, otherwise it will be difficult to accurately select a cartridge of a certain type for a particular weapon. In the modern world, a hunter has a real expanse - there are a huge number of cartridges of the most diverse caliber. However, the most popular of them is the twelfth caliber, since it is ideal for hunting not the largest, but not the smallest animal and bird. Calibers four, ten, thirty-two are less often required, because for their use only strictly defined game is needed, narrow huntingspecialization.

On a large animal

There are not many chances for an amateur to shoot big game. Cartridges loaded with heavy hunting bullets are required individually for each barrel, as there are certain tolerances. Barrels of even the same caliber are very different: the chokes are different, and the bore diameters in the barrels, and the entrances for the projectiles. For a large animal, you need a large gun and a good bullet. Moreover, the hunter is obliged to equip all the cartridges for his own weapons with his own hands. Especially if he was going to go after a big beast.

The guarantee of safety in the use of cartridges is given by factories only if the weapon has a barrel of cylindrical drilling. And hand-made equipment at home is not only the ability to fill cartridges, but also the knowledge of how to choose the right bullet for your own weapon for a particular animal. Inaccurately loaded bullets miss at the crucial moment. A wild boar, for example, will not wait until the hunter reloads the Berdan after a shot "in the milk." The following types of hunting bullets for large game (for smoothbore weapons) are used: round, turbine and shot type bullets.

Special magazines with their publications have repeatedly told that many modern hunters prefer smooth bullets over rifled ones. Naturally, all this is by no means presented unfounded, on the contrary, it has an excellent evidence base and reasoned conclusions. But we must not forget about what to getwounded ungulates, even with good working dogs, is a huge problem, with a lot of trouble and wasted time. But predators - a brown bear, for example, if wounded, it is also a mortal danger for any person, not necessarily even the one who wounded the beast. Therefore, the choice of bullets is the most important of the preparations for such a hunt.