Why does some match ammo have ballistic tips?

[Hook'N'Bullet]

Out of curiosity, why does ELDM or any other similar match bullets have ballistic tips? You're not looking for expansion on target ammo. Surely it'd make more sense to just make them FMJ?

I always was under the impression that btips served two purposes, to improve BC compared to soft points for hunting and to penetrate the first barrier (skin) or prevent clogging up on hair and failing to expand.

 

[Cyres]

What you mean is why do they have polymer or plastic tips. Best to have a look at each bullet manufacturers sales blurb.
I expect Laurie will have a comprehensive answer. Probably to save having an incorrectly finished meplat. A long time ago there was much debate about A max bullets. Initial sold as v accurate hunting bullets then became target bullets. Currently .224 69 TMK is a target bullet but performs like a v max on fur or feather. Using a polymer tip may assist more accurate COL. Strangely Berger don't offer plastic tipped varmit bullets.
D

 

[25 Sharps]

The ballistic tip isn’t there for expansion it is there to make the meplat ‘pointy’ so it is more aerodynamic and therefore improve ballistic coefficient. Basically it means the bullet slows less quickly and is therefore drops less quickly and is less affected by wind. As much as this is important for hunting it is more important for competition target shooting, particularly as the ranges extend.


An FMJ wouldn’t be finished to such a fine point as plastic, if it was it would be more expensive to produce, or the aluminium tips used in hornady’s Ali tipped bullets.

People get very hung up on ballistic tips being explosive, that is not what they are there for, there are plenty of ‘hunting’ polymer tipped bullets that offer controlled expansion like the nosler accubond for example. Jacket thickness has far more of a bearing on how quickly a bullet expands.

As a side note ‘ballistic tip’ is a term specific to Nosler bullets as they trade marked it.

 

[Acm]

Because they look cool as custard and make us want to buy bullets.

 

[Steff]

THIS. And because shooting out to a mile has become so common today.

 

[Smellydog]

Because depositing single use plastic into the environment became popular.
Hate the stupid things myself.
Not neseccary.

 

[ejg]

Folding the cup of a bullet, it will be open either on the tip or the rear. Seems that the front open tip version is more accurate but you have the issue with a not so perfect tip. The plastic or alu tip sorts that. Nothing to do with cool look.
edi

 

[Smellydog]

The ones without the plastic look finished pretty good to me...!
And they still sell them without the plastic gimmick, I'd say they must work pretty fine then.

 

[Hook'N'Bullet]

Interesting stuff, thanks for the info!

 

[Acm]

Folding the cup of a bullet, it will be open either on the tip or the rear. Seems that the front open tip version is more accurate but you have the issue with a not so perfect tip. The plastic or alu tip sorts that. Nothing to do with cool look.
edi

In my defence, on the hornady podcast they actually said that the v max was bought out in the 90’s as they needed a plastic tipped bullet to compete with nosler as hunters suddenly wanted a plastic tip bullet and that market reasearch shows different colours sell more than others. Hunters were moving away from the 22 cal soft points over to “ballistic tips” and the same in the deer cals. Any ballistic advantage could be achieved just as easily with an aluminium copper or brass tip. Plastic tips just look cool.

That being said I think there’s been a lot of work done since then to engineer tips that don’t change in flight and enhance bullet BBC’s. But I’d argue that the shooting world could lose them without too much impact on our sport, and I guess one day we will.
Till then though, I’m a big ttsx, v max & cx fan. All tipped!

 

[Miki]

Not neseccary.

Because they look cool as custard and make us want to buy bullets.

I think originally it was (as per @25 Sharps ) "there to make the meplat ‘pointy’ so it is more aerodynamic and therefore improve ballistic coefficient."
Plastic is very easy (and cheap) to mould into a sharp and repeatable point.

This increased sales so the marketing team sat down and had a meeting with the engineering/technical team who said "not neseccary".
And the marketing team won....

Then one day a 'pretty in pink person' wearing rainbow socks with individual toes saw them and said "Oooh look at the pretty heads" ....

 

[Stalker-of-the-deer]

They have a dual role in ensuring expansion at lower velocities and increasing BC on a bullet designed for hunting.

In a match bullet, purley to increase the BC

Long range hunting and target being the rage at the moment alot of the new bullets coming to market have them, the ELD range has 2 offerings.

ELDX is the hunting one - X for expansion

ELDM is the target one - M for match

 

[Cyres]

I have read on here that some stalkers remove the plastic tip to enhance expansion. Cannot recall calibre. If you look at the blurb different tips for different uses. Also protects the metplat from damage. I have some old Lapua Scenar in .224 and the metplat are cut at angles. Appears tip damage has minimal effect on accuracy vs base damage which is far worse.
D

 

[25 Sharps]

I have read on here that some stalkers remove the plastic tip to enhance expansion. Cannot recall calibre. If you look at the blurb different tips for different uses. Also protects the metplat from damage. I have some old Lapua Scenar in .224 and the metplat are cut at angles. Appears tip damage has minimal effect on accuracy vs base damage which is far worse.
D

Tip removal is usually to aid stabilisation in slower twists rather than anything to do with expansion.

 

[Acm]

I have read on here that some stalkers remove the plastic tip to enhance expansion. Cannot recall calibre. If you look at the blurb different tips for different uses. Also protects the metplat from damage. I have some old Lapua Scenar in .224 and the metplat are cut at angles. Appears tip damage has minimal effect on accuracy vs base damage which is far worse.
D

I do this with 50grn Barnes ttsx in my .222. They work perfectly on deer inside 200m.

 

[Heym SR20]

The one benefit of plastic tips is that they protect the nose of the bullet in transport, within the magazine and also - or so I recall reading somewhere once - in flight. On the latter, there was a theory that the soft lead or plastic tip would be heated enough by air friction so that it would start to peel back and increase the drag of the bullet.

Writing the above made me think and google. It’s Hornady that showed the above and that’s why with the ElDM and ELDX they use a heat shield polymer to protect the tip in flight.

Have a read and watch of Heat Shield® Technology - Hornady Manufacturing, Inc

They even published a 26 page white paper on this

https://www.hornady.com/assets/site/hornady/files/resources/ELD-X_ELD-Match_Technical_Details.pdf

 

[Stalker-of-the-deer]

I do this with 50grn Barnes ttsx in my .222. They work perfectly on deer inside 200m.

Can't you just buy normal TSX that don't have the polymer tip?

 

[Acm]

Can't you just buy normal TSX that don't have the polymer tip?

It’s a different bullet, it’s much harder with a very tiny hollow point. I do have a load for it but I was having runners on foxes.

 

[25 Sharps]

It’s a different bullet, it’s much harder with a very tiny hollow point. I do have a load for it but I was having runners on foxes.

Out of interest why non lead for fox? Just to have one load for all?

 

[Acm]

Out of interest why non lead for fox? Just to have one load for all?

Just to make sure the rifle was worth hanging onto if we saw a total ban.