When you walk down the ammo aisle at your local sporting goods store, there can be dozens of options for bullet designs even after you narrow your search down to a particular cartridge. You can’t really pick the wrong bullet, so many of us use the same exact bullet year over year that we picked by chance or had a buddy tell us about. Although if you have an important hunt coming up, or want every advantage you can get, the details in those rifle rounds matter.
There are hundreds of bullet designs, and no one is surprised to hear you wouldn’t want to use the same bullet for 1,000 yard target practice as you would for 100 yard deer hunting; but why is that? The first thing people think about for bullet ballistics is aerodynamics but I am going to argue that, for hunting, it is actually the bullet hardness that you should pay attention to.
How “hard” your bullet is depends on how it is made, and what it is made of. Soft bullets have their place, and so do hard bullets, but there is a whole scale in between. Let’s find out where your ideal bullet is on that scale, but first, let’s describe the scale itself.
The Bullet Hardness Scale
In general, we can imagine a scale with one end being soft, frangible, bullets that nearly disintegrate on impact. On the other end, you can imagine a solid penetrator round that is not going to expand much at all, and just punches a hole straight through our game. In between the two is a whole spectrum of bullet designs that have their pros and cons.
No one design is better than another in every situation. The game you are hunting, how far away you are shooting at it, and your hunting style can all change which bullet is best for you. I am not sure if there is a bullet that sits perfectly in the middle of this scale, but there are plenty that hover around the middle. This is where the majority of hunters will find success in most scenarios, but let’s start on the soft side of the scale and work our way up.
Soft Frangible Bullets
When you think of a soft bullet, something like a cup and core bullet is what you should have in mind. These bullets are known for expanding rapidly when they hit a target, and dumping most of their energy on impact. This works well against small game where there is not much to penetrate through, but you can have trouble with large game when you need to get through the whole rib cage.
These soft bullets, to their credit, usually have a large wound channel on impact. If you hit a deer right, it can tear through the inside of it, leaving a wake of destruction. Although if you hit a shoulder or a bone the wrong way, or a small twig before the bullet meets its target, it will rip apart into many pieces.
You will hear that same story time and time again from some deer hunters, but mainly elk, bear, or moose hunters. The bigger the animal, the more often this can happen. Soft bullets are good at expansion, but not penetration. Even once you hit a deer with it, a cup and core will break apart inside of it, which can cause meat loss, even with a good shot.
The more energy your bullet has, the more likely it is to break apart. If you are shooting a magnum cartridge at speeds exceeding 3,000 fps, you can bet that a cup and core will nearly explode on impact. Although if you use a slower cartridge, or extend your range out farther to give the bullet time to slow down, you could get a nice mushroom expansion if you hit the vitals.
Monolithic Bullets
Monolithic bullets are on the opposite end of the hardness scale from cup and core bullets. Monolithic bullets get their name from the fact that they are made from a single material, usually copper. This means that the bullet does not have a jacket to lose, or a soft lead core to squish on impact. As a result, you are going to get a bullet that penetrates extremely well, however, it will not expand much and may zip right through your target.
Monolithic bullets are also said to be marginally more accurate because they are made of a single homogeneous material, decreasing the risk of manufacturing inaccuracies. Since copper is lighter than lead, these bullets have to be longer, changing the ballistics of the round overall. Although, copper is also more expensive than lead, so monolithics can make a cartridge even more expensive.
Usually, a purely monolithic bullet is not used for hunting. If you poke an elk with a monolithic bullet, even in the vitals, it may not even know it was shot. It could keep moving for over 10 minutes depending on the shot, leaving little to no blood trail. Monolithics are certainly deadly, but they do not aid recovery.
When would you want to use a really hard bullet then? Well, if you are close to a tough target, and your bullet is not going to shed enough speed before it gets there, a hard bullet will stay together on impact. If you hit a tough shoulder, bone, or decide to go for the Texas heart shot, a hard bullet is going to penetrate all the way through the target. Extremely hard bullets are something that could save your hunt from a relatively “bad” shot. If we can generalize a bit, the faster your rifle, and the closer you expect your shot to be, the harder your bullet should be.
Controlled Expansion Bullets
In the middle of our scale are controlled expansion bullets. There are a wide variety of designs that fit this category, although the big idea is that these bullets allow for some expansion, but work hard to keep the bullet put together and penetrate both sides of an animal. Some examples of this are Remington Core-Lokts, and Nosler Partition bullets.
Bullets like this will often have a tapered jacket that is thicker at the bottom, and thinner at the top. This way the jacket at the top gives more, you get a mushroom, but the jacket at the bottom holds the lead together and you still get good penetration. There are a few other ways to achieve this such as mechanical and chemical bonding of the jacket to the lead, which makes it harder for the jacket to rip off on impact.
These types of bonded bullets are a great middle of the ground bullet that give you the best of both worlds without alienating you to a single situation where your bullet performs best. Of course, these bullets will not perform as well as cup and core, or monolithics in situations where those designs shine best. Instead, you will get an even amount of performance across the spectrum, making you a versatile hunter.
I have written a dozen articles about Core-Lokts at this point, and they have been my go-to whitetail bullet for over a decade now. I have tried soft ballistic tip bullets to find they turn into grapeshot in my deer, and while I found pieces of lung on a deer I shot with a monolithic at 40 yards, I never found the deer. Long story short, every bullet has a situation where it shines, but controlled expansion bullets perform well in the majority of cases.
The Right Bullet For Your Rifle
No matter what kind of bullet you pick, or what your strategy may be, you need a solid cartridge that performs well in your rifle. If you really like a particular box of ammo because of its design, but you can’t hit a pie plate with it at 100 yards, then it doesn’t matter how good of a bullet it is. Accuracy is more important than bullet design. So buy a few different brands take on your preferred design, and see what performs best out of your hunting rifle at the range.
To get the best out of your rifle and to make it fair to all the cartridges you are trying out, use a sturdy rest or shooting bench. Take a few shots to get yourself, and your barrel warmed up. There is an argument to be made that the cold bore shot matters more than anything else, but you can’t get a cold bore shot with multiple brands of ammo in the same day. You can use the brand of ammo you are most excited about for your cold bore shot.
After you’re warmed up, shoot a group of three to five rounds for each brand of ammo. You will want to give your barrel a chance to cool down between brands, somewhere between five and fifteen minutes would be ideal. At the end, you’ll have the best cartridge for your gun with your desired bullet design. Take it in the field with confidence, you couldn’t be more prepared!
