Reloading and Ammo
CAST BULLETS FOR HUNTING
- AND WHY NOT?
By Umzingele
T
he main purpose of having a jacket on a bullet is
to protect it from damage caused by the rifling.
Even at relatively low velocities - below 1,500 feet
per second - lead can be stripped from a cast bullet to be
deposited in the rifling. But velocity is not really the factor,
pressure is. Different powders will give different pressures
while pushing the bullet out at more or less the same speed.
Velocity, however, can give you a good guesstimate as to
when you’re getting OTT with leading, and around about
1,400fps seems about the limit. And while most of us think
of leading as temporary damage to the bore, the bullet is also
affected. When a cartridge is fired, flame-cutting of the base
of the bullet, vaporisation of the lead and barrel leading can
all occur. In the early days, bullets were cast slightly undersize, and cloth patches were used to prevent these deleterious
effects. The modern solution, of course, is the jacketed bullet.
The forebears of modern cartridge firearms of course
were the muzzle-loaders - and they left their mark in Africa
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