Jacketed lead bullets

Detectable FDR is mostly particulate in nature. Unjacketed lead bullets produce residue in which greater than 70% of the particles are lead. Coated bullets give the same result, except that a substantial proportion of the lead particles contain copper from the coating material. With jacketed or semi-jacketed bullets the proportion of lead particles in the residue is greatly reduced. It was concluded that most of the lead in the residue comes from the bullet rather than from the primer. This has subsequently been confirmed by experiments involving the use of radioactive tracers.172... 

Copper alloy bullet jackets are by far the most common and coated iron jackets are also frequently employed. Lead is by far the most common bullet core material and is often hardened with antimony, but not as often as originally presumed, with antimony occurring in only 25% of the lead bullets examined. Only one of the bullets examined was hardened by tin. Some... 

Ammunition substitution. Exposure of shooters to airborne lead might be reduced by replacing traditional lead bullets with nylon-clad, copper-jacketed, zinc-based, or other forms of ammunition. However, the committee recognizes that training requirements may limit the use of those forms of ammunition and that the use of jacketed and other alternative bullets may entail increased cost. 

Indeed, Industry insiders wonder about a lead scare perhaps promoted by Individuals with ulterior motives. Certainly jacketed lead-core bullets are cheaper to shoot, and perhaps that s what keeps people shooting, says Jessica Brooks from Barnes Bullets, a company that has specialized in developing non-lead bullets for more than a generation. If people have to pay a premium price for ammunition, then they re going to either put down their guns and not shoot or shoot sparingly That doesn t do a whole lot to preserve this industry for future generations. Which many believe is exactly the point. 

Previous firing range studies showed that airborne lead exposure could be reduced to less than four pg/m3 when jacketed lead or zinc bullets were used. The disadvantages were the greater cost and the tendency for the harder zinc bullets to damage the range. 

Bullet performance drives Barnes designs. Whether a Barnes bullet contains a lead core or not depends on the desired terminal performance. We have several lines of products manufactured from lead-free materials that were developed for their performance. These happen to meet the criteria set forth under the Condor Preservation Act, but we still manufacture the premium Original line of jacketed, lead-cored bullets. A lead ban would remove the very foundation on which our company was built. 

XPB - All-copper XPB pistol bullets offer dramatically increased penetration and energy transfer, plus superior expansion and weight retention over conventional jacketed lead-core bullets. Neither do they leave any harmful air-borne residue behind in practice environments. These lead-free bullets are ideal for use in environmentally restrictive areas, Barnes catalog summarizes. They re in full compliance with California game laws, and should be acceptable in other states considering lead bullet bans. ... 

A-l iLuiNG meiAL JACKET -COPPER-PLATED STEEL JACKET C-LEAD-ANTIMONY SLUG 8— iuriilCK CuMrCaiTiCn I-TRACER COMPOSITION US Caliber. 45 Revolver Bullets... 

The principal military use of brass was formerly for the manuf of cartridge cases (See Vol 2, pC78-R), but now other materials are used, such as steel, plastics and colloided smokeless proplnts. Another Cu alloy, bronze (Cu 90 Sn 10%) was formerly used for casting gun barrels (Ref 13, p 167), but now steel is used for that purpose. The so-called gilding metal (Cu 90 Zn 10%) has been used as a jacket for lead-alloy bullets (See Vol 2, p B327-R, under Bullets, Metal Jacketed)... 

In the majority of bullets the lead base is exposed to the hot propellant gases. This applies to unjacketed and jacketed bullets (excluding total metal jacketed bullets). Some bullets incorporate a gas check in the base to prevent erosion by the hot gases. Such erosion can upset the symmetry of the bullet and consequently the accuracy. The base of the bullet maybe filled or covered with a substance, for example, Alox base lubricant, that is unaffected by the... 

The bullet jacket material is almost always harder than the bullet core material, with the one exception of armor-piercing bullet jackets. Bullet jacketing is done either by electroplating or, much more commonly, the jacket is manufactured separately from the bullet, and the bullet then forced into the jacket in a press. Another method is to pour molten lead into the jacket. The edges of the jacket are usually partly rolled over the base of the bullet or attached by some other physical means. 

Whenever a jacketed bullet strikes a target it is possible for the core and jacket to separate, with a consequent reduction in penetration. To prevent such an occurrence a variety of crimps, folds, jacket geometries, and melted core techniques are employed. Another method of interest to hand loaders is the use of a product called Core-Bond which is a flux that removes surface oxides allowing molten lead to bond directly to the jacket. This allows a degree of alloying between the two metals, which is claimed to provide bonding superior to that achieved by physical methods. Soldering of the jacket to the core has also been employed.65... 

The core of the bullet can be made from a variety of materials lead is by far the most common because of its high density and the fact that it is cheap, readily obtained, and easy to fabricate. But copper, brass, bronze, aluminum, steel (sometimes hardened by heat treatment), depleted uranium, zinc, iron, tungsten, rubber, and various plastics may also be encountered. (When most of the fissile radioactive isotopes of uranium are removed from natural uranium, the residue is called depleted uranium. Depleted uranium is 67% denser than lead, and it is an ideal bullet material and is very effective in an armor-piercing role, both in small arms and larger munitions components. Because of its residual radioactivity its use is controversial.) Bullets with a lead core and a copper alloy jacket are by far the most common. 

Sometimes a combination of bullet core materials is used to produce a hardness difference between the base and the nose (dual core bullets), for example, jacketed bullets with a lead nose and a steel base, a steel nose and a lead base, or a soft lead nose and a hardened lead base. 

AP rifle bullets usually have a bullet tip filler (usually lead) which is designed to cushion the effect of the impact on the AP core, which is very hard and brittle and can break on impact without a cushioning effect. The AP core is also frequently surrounded with a thin sheath of lead between the core and the bullet jacket. The AP core is usually hardened steel such as tungsten/carbon, tungsten/chromium, manganese/molybdenum, chro-mium/vanadium, or chromium/molybdenum. 

The tracer composition is frequently housed in a metal canister placed inside the base cavity. Copper, brass, gilding metal, gilding metal-coated steel, and copper-coated steel canisters are known. Some compositions are placed into the hollow base cavity without the use of a canister. A typical tracer bullet consists of a gilding metal bullet jacket and a lead core with a base cavity containing the tracer composition. Paper discs and lead, steel, or brass washers sealed with varnish are sometimes used to seal the base of the bullet. 

An explosive/tracer rifle bullet is known and consists of a copper alloy bullet jacket and a steel core. There is an explosive charge at the top of the cavity which consists of 40% PETN, 45% lead azide, and 15% tetracene. Below the explosive charge is black powder or smokeless powder contained in a small metal cup followed by the tracer composition at the base. 

Another German design was a jacketed bullet with a hollow in the nose. On impact the steel plug squashed the glass ampoule against the lead core, causing the fluid to pour out of the nose cavity. This is illustrated in Figure 11.13. 

The vast majority of the total particle population was due to lead only particles originating from the bullet in the case of the RNL (round nosed lead) ammunition whereas the JHP (jacketed hollow point) ammunition produced a much smaller proportion of lead only particles because the base and side of the bullet are enclosed in the jacket, with the only exposed lead at the nose of the bullet.175 This partly explains the much larger particle population experienced with unjacketed bullets. 

Analysis of the nny 82 ammunition as previously detailed shows that it uses a mercuric corrosive primer. Analysis of the Chinese 351/73 ammunition revealed that it has a copper-coated iron-jacketed bullet with an iron core and a lead tip, the cartridge case is steel with a brown colored lacquered finish, a brass primer cup, and the propellant is single based with DPA, 2 x nitrodiphenylamines, camphor, and contains no inorganic additives, and the discharged primer composition is antimony, potassium, chlorine, mercury, tin, sulfur, iron, manganese, phosphorus, zinc, and lead in descending order (lead, antimony, mercury type). 

Analysis of a round of. 38 Special caliber, Smith Wesson Nyclad ammunition revealed that the cartridge case and primer cup are nickel-plated brass, no inorganic additives to the propellant were detected, the primer composition contains lead, antimony, and barium, the bullet core is antimony-hardened lead, and the bullet jacket contains traces of calcium, cobalt, titanium, and phosphorus. 

The next stage in the development of environmentally friendly ammunition was when Geco produced ammunition with a totally jacketed bullet (TMJ) and a primer composition containing much reduced lead, antimony,... 

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