New Tips On Hornady Bullets

[Sheldon N]

I have attached his picture of a recovered 178 AMAX launched at 2550 ft/s and recovered at 650 yards. Looks like melting to me.

He didn't say how the bullet was recovered, so that could be just the effect of punching into a dirt berm. Not exactly conclusive evidence.

 

[Berger.Fan222]

I have attached his picture of a recovered 178 AMAX launched at 2550 ft/s and recovered at 650 yards. Looks like melting to me.

He didn't say how the bullet was recovered, so that could be just the effect of punching into a dirt berm. Not exactly conclusive evidence.

Good point. No piece of evidence in isolation is conclusive, but the total evidence makes a compelling case, including:

1. Hornady's observation with Doppler radar that bullets with plastic tips and experience higher drag than expected at long range, and that this problem is exacerbated on warmer days.

2. Hornady's observation with Doppler radar that the higher drag problem is fixed in several AMAX designs by adding a heat resistant tip.

3. The observation that the BC of Sierra Tipped Matchkings decreases much faster as their velocity decays than traditional (untipped) SMKs.

4. Theoretical work showing the stagnation temperature at ballistic velocities can exceed the softening and melting points of the plastics used in bullet tips.

5. The recovery of bullets showing tip deformation more consistent with melting than with high speed impact of a solid.

 

[Park ranger]

Isn't this only happening at very high velocity. More than a 308 gets. I don't even buy it...

I may just have to eat my own words...

 

[Dusty Stevens]

Bronze points need to make a comeback.

 

[ShootDots]

Bronze points need to make a comeback.

You hit that nail right on the head Dusty! The 130gr .270 Bronze Point from Remington was an excellent bullet!

 

[Dusty Stevens]

I used 30-06 and 6mm rem factory loads as a lad.

 

[amlevin]

Good point. No piece of evidence in isolation is conclusive, but the total evidence makes a compelling case, including:

1. Hornady's observation with Doppler radar that bullets with plastic tips and experience higher drag than expected at long range, and that this problem is exacerbated on warmer days.

2. Hornady's observation with Doppler radar that the higher drag problem is fixed in several AMAX designs by adding a heat resistant tip.

3. The observation that the BC of Sierra Tipped Matchkings decreases much faster as their velocity decays than traditional (untipped) SMKs.

4. Theoretical work showing the stagnation temperature at ballistic velocities can exceed the softening and melting points of the plastics used in bullet tips.

5. The recovery of bullets showing tip deformation more consistent with melting than with high speed impact of a solid.

I'm surprised that someone hasn't built a bullet testing 'Wind Tunnel" (or have they?).

When I was much, much, younger, I worked for Boeing in their wind tunnel complex. One of the tunnels was able to produce speeds up to Mach 6 using compressed air.

The issue with testing a bullet using simple compressed air is that when the air expands from it's storage container it cools considerably but all it takes is a heat exchanger that re-heats the high speed air to a desired "ambient" (which Boeing did in their hyper-sonic tunnel which I worked on the construction of). It should be no problem to create a small scale unit capable of what Boeing has and it would only need to produce speeds of Mach 3.5-4.0 to prove whether or not tips are melting.

The results would be a lot more "absolute" than trying to recover a fired bullet or extrapolate from Doppler data.