In my reading this evening it has come to my attention that none of the organisations promoting copper bullets appear to have any idea whatsoever about the importance of shedding bullet weight and energy transfer in terminal ballistics. And the same can be said for those promoting the use of very high weight retaining bonded copper / lead bullets for use on light skinned medium game.
We should not become overly preoccupied with pretty mushroom shapes. For decades the top bullet manufacturers deliberately designed their bullets to shed weight. Then somewhere along the line the bonded design became fashionable, and an emphasis on maximising retained weight became
de rigueur. If you are shooting mature moose bulls, then for sure a strong and highly penetrative bullet that deforms to well over 2x calibre is a good idea. But on a small woodland deer? Er, no. And following on from a surge in bonded designs we have monolithics.
But within the broad umbrella of monolithics, there are some very important design differences that clearly separate out those bullets that retain all their weight, and those that shed weight and hence energy inside the animal. I have only used LeHigh a few times (.300BLK and .308 subsonic), and can say categorically that where it not for the price tag and poor availability here, I would use them a great deal more. In fact now that I think about it, in situations where I will be taking only one or two shots in the duration of a hunt, the LeHigh is a damned good option.
It is this issue of cost that is central to the monolithic design argument. CNC machined copper bullets are in a totally different class to the pressed and cut variety. If the machined bullets weren’t so expensive to produce then I think we would be having a completely different discussion.
Interestingly, I see Fox still claims “adequate” expansion at impact velocities of 500m/s (1,640fps). Yet they provide no evidence of this.
I think this is
purest BS.