Bullet

• US 4,879,953 A
• Filed: 10/24/1988
• Issued: 11/14/1989
• Est. Priority Date: 02/06/1987
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Friedkin Companies Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Trophy Bonded Bullets, Inc.
• Inventors: Carter, Herman L.
• Primary Examiner(s): Tudor, Harold J.
• Application Number:
  US07/261,755
• Time in Patent Office: 386 Days
• Field of Search: 102/507-510, 102/514, 102/516
• US Class Current: 102/507
• CPC Class Codes: B21K 1/025 of bullets
• CPC Class Codes: F42B 12/78 of jackets for smallarm bullets ; Jacketed bullets or projectiles

Abstract

A bullet is disclosed. The bullet comprises an outer jacket of cooper base material and an inner core of lead. The jacket includes a base portion and an ogive shaped cylindrical portion. The base portion has a higher yield point than the cylindrical portion so that the base portion will remain intact after impact with a game animal while the cylindrical section splits longitudinally and expands as the bullet travels into the target with a minimum in weight reduction.

Claims

1. A bullet comprising an outer jacket of copper base material and an inner core lead bonded to the jacket, said jacket including a base portion and an ogived shaped nose portion having a wall that decreases in thickness away from the base portion, said base portion having a tensile strength sufficiently higher than the nose portion for the base portion to remain intact after impact with a target while the nose portion splits longitudinally and expands as the bullet travels into the target with a minimum in weight reduction.

2. The bullet of claim 1 in which the base portion is drawn to increase the hardness and tensile strength of the base portion above that of the nose portion.

3. The bullet of claim 1 in which the jacket has a transition portion between the nose portion and the base portion and in which the base portion and at least part of the transition portion are work hardened.

4. The bullet of claim 1 in which the wall of the nose portion decreases in thickness to a thin edge at the forward end of the nose portion.

5. A bullet having an outer jacket of copper base material and an inner core of lead, said jacket including a base portion, an ogive-shaped nose portion, the walls of which decreases in thickness away from the base portion, and a transition portion between the base portion and the nose portion, said bullet being made by the method comprising the steps of forming the outer jacket from a rod of copper base material with the base portion and the transition portion having an initial outside diameter greater than the desired caliber and the walls of the nose portion being tapered inwardly, placing a predetermined amount of lead in the jacket, heating the jacket to melt the lead to cause the lead to bond to the inside surface of the jacket and to anneal the jacket to increase its ductility and reduce its hardness, drawing the outside diameter of the jacket to a diameter slightly less than the desired caliber to increase the tensile strength and hardness of the base portion of the jacket and to increase the tensile strength and hardness of the transition portion to a lesser extent, and forming the nose portion into the desired ogive curve while increasing the diameter of the base portion and the transition portion to the desired caliber to further increase the tensile strength and hardness of the base portion to provide a bullet that will remain intact after impact, a nose portion that is slightly work hardened by the forming operation and a transition portion that is work hardened more than the nose portion but less than the base portion so that the nose portion and at least part of the transition portion will split longitudinal into several sections that curl outwardly while remaining attached to and carried by the base to reduce the weight loss of the bullet to a minimum as it penetrates a target.

6. A bullet comprising an outer jacket of copper base material and an inner core of lead bonded to the jacket, said jacket including a base portion, a nose portion, and a transition portion between the base portion and the nose portion, said nose portion being ogived shaped with a wall that decreases in thickness away from the base portion, said copper base material of the jacket increasing in hardness and tensile strength from the nose portion to the base portion so that the base portion will reamin intact after impact with a target while the nose portion and at least part of the transition portion splits longitudinally and expands as the bullet travels into the target with a minimum in weight reduction.

7. The bullet of claim 6 in which the base portion is drawn to a diameter less than its finished diameter to increase the hardness and tensile strength of the base portion above that of the cylinder portion and thereafter expanded to its finished diameter to further increase its hardness and tensile strength.

8. The bullet of claim 6 in whcih the base portion and at least part of the transition portion are work hardened.

9. The bullet of claim 6 in which the wall of the nose portion decreases in thickness to a thin edge at the end of the nose portion.

10. The bullet of claim 6 in which the inner core of lead extends through the transition portion.

11. The bullet of claim 6 in which the inner core of lead extends part way through the base to increase the weight of the bullet.