BULLET BULLETIN: HOLLOWPOINTS FOR HUNTING  A CHANGING TRADITION

BULLET BULLETIN

Hollowpoint rifle bullets come in many forms, and each can have a unique application.

HOLLOWPOINTS FOR HUNTING – A CHANGING TRADITION

Where they were once shunned in deer camp for their unwelcome effects on game meat, today’s versions ‘rank among the toughest bullets available.’

STORY BY PHIL MASSARO • PHOTOS BY MASSARO MEDIA GROUP

Sitting in one of my favorite deer spots – a small hilltop we referred to as “Mt. Paul” in honor of my grandfather – I was enjoying the November sun on my face. It was pleasantly mild for Thanksgiving weekend, and I was actually getting drowsy until I heard the signature rhythmic footfalls of a deer walking through the fallen oak leaves. The buck wasn’t a monster, but was mature and would fill the freezer, so my old .308 Winchester came quickly to shoulder, and I sent a Sierra hollowpoint through that buck’s heart, ending both the hunt and his life quickly.

While discussing hunting bullets, which happens very often in any hunting camp, I’ve had some guys insist that using a hollowpoint bullet on deer or similar-sized game is nothing shy of insanity. “You’re looking for trouble! Those things are damnednear explosive, ya fool.” At one point in time, the gentleman might have been correct, but not all hollowpoints are created equally; in fact, many modern hollowpoints rank among the toughest bullets available. Let’s look at the

A traditional jacketed hollowpoint bullet loaded in the classic .45-70 Government.

history of the hollowpoint bullet and how it has evolved.

WHEN CARTRIDGE RIFLES finally took root in the latter part of the 19th century, velocities increased considerably in comparison to the muzzleloaders, but it seemed that there was no end to the desire for more velocity. Even before the jacketed bullets appeared on the scene, the lead projectiles were hollowed out at the nose – not in an e ort to increase expansion, as that would come later, but in order to reduce weight. The theory was that if the weight of the bullet could be reduced, the velocity would increase, giving flatter trajectories. Couple that design with the expansion associated with pure lead projectiles, and you can see where the hollowpoint’s reputation for violent expansion came from.

As black powder gave way to the newfangled smokeless powder, the pressures and velocities increased to the point where the lead bullets couldn’t handle the heat. The solution

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One of author Phil Massaro’s favorite deer recipes: the Sierra 165-grain HPBT loaded in the .308 Winchester.

Sierra’s GameKing hollowpoint boattail is a tough cup-andcore bullet, which will deliver a balanced combination of expansion and penetration.

was to encase the lead with a jacket of copper, which was hard enough to resist the e ects of the higher velocities yet was still soft enough to be engraved by the rifling in the barrel. Completely encasing the lead core in that copper jacket resulted in a bullet that o ered excellent penetration but very little expansion. While the full metal jacket bullets were prescribed for war, things didn’t work out so well when it came to using these projectiles on game animals. To ensure that the hunting projectiles would expand reliably (thereby destroying vital tissue to result in a quick, humane kill), either a small section of the lead core was exposed at the nose of the bullet, or a hollow cavity was employed once again. If the jacket was skived, or if the thickness was reduced toward the front of the bullet, expansion would increase.

Modern bullets designed for precision shooting – most often referred to as match-grade bullets – often employ a hollowpoint with a very fine hole at the meplat. This is to keep the nose of the bullet as uniform as possible. The designers of these bullets do not take any terminal performance into consideration, as the bullet’s job is over once paper is ripped or steel is rung. Quite often, the bullet jackets are thin, and these bullets are extremely frangible; this is probably why the gentleman opined in the manner he did when it came to using a hollowpoint on deer. He wasn’t completely wrong, as match bullets and big game really don’t go together well.

The Barnes TSX often used for thick-skinned dangerous game, as loaded here in the 9.3x62 in Federal’s CapeShok ammo line.

WHAT HE DIDN’T understand was that I was using Sierra’s 165-grain GameKing hollowpoint boattail (No. 2140). It was modeled after the 168-grain MatchKing bullet, but has a thick jacket and is absolutely designed for hunting game as large as elk and moose, even in a magnumclass cartridge. With a crimped nose – in order to resist meplat deformation – this bullet delivers fantastic accuracy and has been a wonderfully reliable choice in my .308 Winchester and .300 Winchester Magnum alike. Sierra also o ers this bullet in 7mm diameter at 140 grains, .277-inch diameter at 140 grains, and 6.5mm diameter at 130 grains. If you’re looking for a good deer bullet – and if you can find them – these GameKing HPBT bullets are excellent. Looking to other hollowpoints in the Sierra GameKing line, you’ll find models which are not suitable for deer hunting, as they are designed for varmints and predators, for which you want that instant energy transfer.

The same can be said for the Berger, Speer and Hornady hollowpoint rifle bullets. Some models are designed as match (target) bullets; others are geared toward coyotes, foxes, woodchucks and prairie dogs; and some are perfectly suitable for big game species. It is up to you to do your research to determine the proper application of whichever cup-andcore hollowpoints you’re looking at. A little common sense can go a long way, as a jacketed hollowpoint for the .45-70 Government or .44 Remington Magnum will almost certainly be suitable for hunting big game, whereas the majority of hollowpoints for the .22250 Remington will be far better suited to small game species.

Berger’s hunting bullets – like the Elite Hunter projectiles shown here – are most often a hollowpoint design. The Barnes TSX is a homogenous copper alloy, which relies upon a hollowpoint for expansion. It is shown here in profile, section and as recovered from ballistic gelatin. (FEDERAL PREMIUM)

SWITCH THE BULLET construction from copper jacket/lead core to the monometal copper alloy designs – and I’m taking about the Barnes TSX here – and the hollowpoint essentially changes from optional to necessary. To be completely honest, I had severe issues with the original Barnes X design; most didn’t shoot well in my rifles, and those that did often failed to open at all and just whistled straight through like an FMJ. The revamp of

Sierra’s famous MatchKing bullet (left) aren’t really designed for big game hunting, but their GameKing hollowpoints and Tipped GameKing bullets certainly are.

Like so many polymer tipped bullets, the Nosler AccuBond is really just a capped hollowpoint. FEDERAL

PREMIUM

Federal’s Trophy Bonded Tip – a tough bullet and a great allaround choice – is a hollowpoint with a polymer plug at the nose. This feature now dominates the the design that resulted in the Barnes TSX solved the issues, and that bullet not only shoots well but delivers the proper terminal performance. In fact, the Barnes TSX is one of the toughest expanding bullets on the market.

The Cutting Edge Bullets’ Raptor hollowpoint copper bullet also has a deep hollowpoint, but also skives the ogive of the bullet to have the front of the bullet intentionally break into small blades (doing considerable damage on the front side of the wound channel), while the base of the bullet remains at caliber and o ers the deep penetration of a solid-type bullet.

The polymer-tip bullets, which have become dominant in the market over the last quarter century, are essentially hollowpoint bullets with a plug at the nose. That plug serves two functions: to maintain the configuration of the meplat (keeping the ballistic coe cient as consistent as possible), and to act as a wedge that will initiate expansion

Federal’s HammerDown line uses a bonded core, hollowpoint design to maximize the performance of lever-action rifles. FEDERAL PREMIUM upon impact with the game animal. The concept is quite obviously a sound one, and polymer-tipped bullets have taken their seat at the head of the table. Even classic lead-tipped bullet companies have adopted the design, like in Sierra’s BlitzKing, Tipped GameKing and Tipped MatchKing bullet lines. Additional examples of the tipped bullet include Barnes’ TTSX and LRX; Hornady’s ELD-X and ELD Match; Federal’s Trophy Bonded Tip and Terminal Ascent; Nosler’s Ballistic Tip and AccuBond; Swift’s Scirocco II; Remington’s Core-Lokt Tipped; Norma’s EcoStrike, TipStrike and BondStrike; and Winchester’s Copper Impact.

ONE OF MY favorite dangerous game bullets makes clever use of a hollowpoint, though in an unconventional and unapparent manner. Peregrine Bullets, hailing from South Africa, has a most unique design in their VRG-3 BushMaster bullet. It is a homogenous copper alloy with a boattail and a healthy hollowpoint, yet it is capped with a flat bronze insert. The concept – a brilliant one, I might add – is that that pocket of trapped air is not easily compressed, and the impact of the bullet causes the compressed air pocket to drive the sidewalls of the bullet outward, giving consistent and reliable expansion. I’ve

Cutting Edge Bullets’ Raptor is a copper bullet with a very deep hollowpoint, designed to break apart on impact in order to create massive trauma.

These Sierra SportsMaster jacketed hollowpoints are certainly strong and perform very well in the author’s Ruger Blackhawk .45 Colt.

used this bullet to take a number of Cape bu alo and other African game species, and it has never let me down.

Reverting back to the rule of shunning match bullets for hunting, I only apply that for big game species. I have taken many coyotes, foxes, woodchucks and other small species with small-caliber cartridges topped with match-grade bullets, and they do work well. My battered .22-250 Remington absolutely loves the 53-grain Sierra MatchKing (No. 1400), and that bullet goes exactly where I aim it and is tough enough to dump the largest coyote. I’ve also used other brands, like the Speer TNT and Hornady Varmint, with equal results. If you like the way a match hollowpoint bullet shoots in your varmint rifle, have no worries about taking furbearers with it. 

The Sierra 53-grain .22-caliber MatchKing bullets are certainly accurate but are also both tough and yet frangible enough to handle varmints and furbearers. Move up to deer-sized game, and you’ll want to avoid match bullets.