NEVER before has such a vast variety of rifle ammunition been manufactured around the globe and in so many different bullet types. However, for a couple of years, ramifications of the Covid-19 pandemic caused serious shortages in SA. While this is easing up now, supplies remain sporadic; it often comes down to accepting whatever a dealer has in stock. This can be detrimental to the hunter if he is not fully informed of the nature of the product he is buying.
In a given calibre, ammunition differences largely come down to bullet weight, shape, construction and velocity. Elsewhere in this publication, my articles Long-Range Hunting and All-Round Rifle deal with weight, shape and velocity; here we’ll focus on bullet construction.
Initially, bullets were made entirely of lead. During the late 1800s, nitrocellulose powder brought higher velocities, requiring lead bullets to be encased in jackets of harder metal to prevent the projectiles from ‘stripping’ through the rifling grooves. The jackets were thinwalled; most were made of copper, some of mild steel.
There were two basic designs: firstly, a non-expanding (‘solid-nosed’) bullet, the jackets of which were blind at the nose for non-expansion and 100% weight retention. In hunting terms, ‘solid-nosed’ bullets were designed for deep penetration, mainly in large, thickskinned animals. ‘Solids’ don’t fall within the scope of this article.
The expanding design, called ‘softnosed’, expansion.
