Copper vs Lead Ammo and Source

T

Thewally

Inactive
Hey all, I am pretty new around here but I am interested in shooting copper bullets and found this website www.clarkarmory.com that seems to match or beat midway on pretty much everything. There is a lot of talk out there about copper vs lead performance and penetration and I am wondering if any of you have any data to support which is better for big-game hunting and personal protection.

Also if anyone has a better source for copper rounds than www.clarkarmory.com please let me know.

Thanks,
Wally
 
Copper hunting bullets can have some advantages, some disadvantages too. Compared to lead bullets they retain 98%-100% of their weight after impact compared to 50%-80% for jacketed lead bullets. This means a quite light copper bullet will match the penetration of much heavier lead bullets.

Disadvantages... They have to impact at much higher speeds to ensure expansion. Shoot them too slow and they often do not expand and act like a FMJ. A common mistake is to shoot the same weights in copper as you'd use with lead. This often leads to slow impact speeds and poor results. For best results drop down at least 1 bullet weight, maybe 2, than you'd normally use with lead bullets.

I'm loading 130 gr Barnes in my 308 @ 3050 fps. That is about the same speed as 180's from a 300 magnum. At closer ranges the 2 will impact at about the same speed,. The 130 copper bullet will end up weighing the same or more than the 180 gr lead bullet fired from a 300 mag and give about the same results.

But at mid to long range the 130 gr bullet will quickly slow down and be too slow to expand. The heavier 180 gr bullet from the 300 mag will retain energy and speed much longer and it needs less speed to expand so it is the better choice at longer ranges.

Used properly they can make less powerful guns suitable for bigger than normal game. At least as long as the range is kept reasonable.

I'm not as up to date on copper handgun bullets, but would think that the slower handgun speeds would mean less, if any improvement over lead.
 
Thanks for the info. What about some of the "fancy" copper self defense rounds like these or these. Does anyone have experience with them and can speak to whether or not they perform better than lead hollow points?
 
What about some of the "fancy" copper self defense rounds like these or these
Click to expand...
First link seems like they basically amount to light, copper, semi wad cutters. They'll penetrate well, but they wont be much more terminally devastating than most FMJ rounds.
Second link seems to be similar to what Cutting edge bullets offers. That is a round that purposefully sheds some of it's weight as semi-large fragments, which spread out and leaves the base of the bullet as a 'penetrator' basically, a light for caliber copper wadcutter. A good idea in theory, but not always in practice. There's the matter of the bullet performing consistently at pistol velocities and the fragments typically don't penetrate extremely well, in the tests of the R.I.P. ammo which also is based on the same concept(but in a more gimmicky package), the fragments performed comparable to .410 birdshot.

IMO expanding all copper bullets are better suited towards high velocity cartridges such as .270 win, .300win mag, .223, .22-250, .243, etc. Basically any cartridge that's going to be pushing them to ~3000+fps and more importantly impacting at velocities above 2200FPS, to ensure reliable expansion. Otherwise the bullet will fail to open up, or open up slightly and behave/wound much like a FMJ type round.
 
Except where required by law for environmental protection, I see no advantage to copper (solid copper) bullets over the conventional copper jacketed lead bullets. Of course, the makers of anything will be able to provide absolute proof that their product is superior. I don't have to accept their claims.

Jim
 
What about "frangible" ammo? That same website has a bunch of those...
Here
Here
Here

Some of them seem to be the usual eco-friendly training rounds but others seem to be intended to be used for self defense rounds. Are they actually good self-defense rounds and can similar frangible products like these .223 "exploding" bullets be used for hunting?
 
I know copper is much more expensive, and there seems to be a huge drive to make everything "new & improved" and more expensive to go along with it going on. Vehicle tires for example we went from 15 to 18 to 20 now its 22 inch factory wheels and the tires for each are more expensive the bigger you go now theyre amost all you can find. They've been coming out standard with touch-screens for a few years now and that adds a couple thousand dollars to the price as well. I fear ammo is no different in some aspects. When it becomes law that bullets must be made of more expensive materials then all ammunitions become much more expensive, which I believe has been a goal held by many people all along.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top