05-28-2011, 01:32 PM
Tony Williams Wrote:The "yaw after 2 inches" criterion I set was to maximise the soft-target effectiveness...It might be expressed as "early and reliable onset of yaw" in general terms, with threshold and objective figures to aim for: e.g. threshold is that 80% of bullets must commence yaw within 3 inches of penetration, objective is that 90% should do so within 2 inches"...Thanks for the words -- I'll incorporate words to that effect into the soft-target lethality criterion.
Quote:In principle I like the idea of a very aerodynamic jacket with a hardened steel core (with a blunt penetrating point) set back inside the jacket, with either an air space or lightweight plastic tip filler. This should yaw readily on penetration of a soft target and also penetrate hard targets...Can the bullet design be complex enough to allow a three-part construction? I'm thinking of the core you describe, a copper-based cup/driving band, and an aluminum or other light metal alloy wind-screen.
Some aluminum alloys exceed the strength of copper while having about 1/3 the density. This gives one a chance to design a windscreen that will remain intact and attached in soft targets. The low density metal coupled with any void would help shift the center of gravity further aft. Aluminum is opaque enough that it will be readily visible to conventional medical x-rays.
As an aside -- advances in availability of MRI, cat-scan, ultrasound and other medical imaging techniques may give a path allowing the use of plastic. I don't recall the exact language, but it seems to have gone along the lines of prohibiting things not readily detectable.