You can find two kinds of expanding big game hunting bullets. The first are conventional copper cup bullets and the 2nd are premium or, controlled expansion, bullets. Premium bullets are considerably more pricey than conventional bullets. At what point does the extra cost become justified?

The lower cost conventional hunting bullets have a lead core that is encased in a copper jacket. This copper jacket is what is supposed keeps the bullet intact through the expansion process as it’s being driven at top speed, into the vitals of the overall game animal. The task for bullet companies is to generate a bullet that may remain intact and retain a top percentage if it’s weight over a vastly different velocity range. The impact velocity of the bullet can vary from as high as 3400 fps for a bullet fired from a magnum cartridge into a game animal at close range, to as low as 1700 fps for a bullet from an inferior cartridge striking the overall game animal at 400 yards away. This scenario can be compounded by the truth that the close shot from the magnum could strike the shoulder bone of a large, tough animal such as a moose or buffalo and the long range shot might be put in the softer behind the shoulder section of a small-bodied deer or antelope. A main-stream bullet simply can’t be made to execute perfectly as well as satisfactorily under every situation. h1000 powder The bullet maker is left to generate a bullet that is, in many situations, a compromise. This contributes to less than satisfactory results, at times. The bullet in the close shot may disintegrate and don’t penetrate sufficiently, as the bullet in the long shot may don’t expand properly, resulting in minimal tissue destruction.

It’s generally known that a conventional bullet will perform reasonably well for an effect velocity as high as about 2700 fps. Beyond this time, the performance can become erratic. There are lots of stories of how a bullets from high velocity cartridges like the Weatherby Magnums, disintegrated on impact and failed to penetrate, resulting in long tracking jobs or lost game. These bullet failures are what resulted in the creation of controlled expansion, or premium, hunting bullets.

Premium bullets have revolutionary designs that enable them to be driven to magnum velocities, while still delivering outstanding terminal performance. The first to arrive on the scene is the Nosler Partition bullet, that includes a copper partition at round the midpoint of the bullet. The bullet tip is made to start expansion easily at lower velocities, but after the expansion reaches the partition it’s stopped, producing a large part of the bullet remaining in-tact, therefore driving deeply into the animal’s vitals. The Swift A-Frame bullet improves on this design by adding a bonding process, which fuses the jacket to the core, resulting in much more retained weight. It’s this retained weight that ensures outstanding performance, especially on large game. The Trophy Bonded Bear Claw bullet is another very good design, that includes a lead core only in the forward part of the bullet, while the rear part is solid copper.

Like the Swift, it can also be bonded. Once the expansion reaches the solid rear part, it’s progressively stopped, therefore ensuring the bullet retains most, or in many cases, every one of it’s weight. The Barnes TSX bullet is perhaps the most revolutionary premium bullet of all. The complete bullet is made of pure copper and features a hollow nose cavity which promotes expansion. The TTSX and MRX versions, use a plastic tip to market expansion and to boost their Ballistic Coefficients. These bullets expand to form 4 sharp petals which slice while they spin and travel forward, creating immense tissue destruction. They often retain 100% of these weight and are proven to be extremely deadly. You can find other premium bullets from various bullet companies with bonded cores which are vast improvements over conventional bullets. Many of them are Woodleigh Weldcore, Nosler Accubond, Hornady Interbond and Remington Premier Core Lokt.

When does the extra cost of premium bullets become justified? They do whenever using a high velocity cartridge where the impact velocity of the bullet will exceed 2700 fps, especially when hunting large game where deep penetration is needed. Also, use premium bullets whenever using light-for-caliber bullets or when using any smaller than normal caliber, such as a.223 Rem on deer. Also, anytime dangerous game like grizzly, cape buffalo or lion are hunted, reduced bullet is obviously the most effective option, regardless of the cartridge being used.

Considering the expense of the many expenses that go into any hunt, the excess cost of premium bullets is negligible. Some well-informed hunters use premium bullets for their big game hunting. I am some of those hunters.