Bullet

• US 5,621,186 A
• Filed: 09/20/1995
• Issued: 04/15/1997
• Est. Priority Date: 09/20/1995
• 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 JAY
• Application Number:
  US08/531,118
• Time in Patent Office: 573 Days
• Field of Search: 102/507-510, 102/514-516, 29/1.21, 29/1.22, 29/1.23
• US Class Current: 102/507
• CPC Class Codes: F42B 12/34 expanding before or on impact, i.e. of dumdum or mushroom type
• CPC Class Codes: F42B 30/02 Bullets

Abstract

A soft nose, bonded lead core bullet for rifles and pistols and a method of making the bullets is disclosed. The bullets have a jacket of copper based material with a solid base portion and an upper nose portion having a cavity in which the lead core is located and bonded to the walls of the cavity. The walls of the cavity decrease in width away from the base and curves inwardly to form an ogive shape. The jacket increases in hardness and strength from the upper end of the cylindrical wall to the base of the bullet. The cylindrical wall has an outer lip between 0.012 and 0.020 inches wide and the ratio of the lip thickness to the bottom cavity wall thickness is about 0.18-0.20 for rifle bullets and about 0.3-0.4 for pistol bullets.

Claims

1. A soft nose, bonded lead core bullet for rifles comprising a jacket of copper based material having a solid base portion, and an upper nose portion having a cylindrical wall extending from the base portion that decreases in width away from the base portion and curves inwardly to form a cavity, said wall having an inner surface, an outer surface and an upper end, and a body of lead in the cavity that is bonded to the inner surface of the wall of the cavity, said jacket increasing in hardness and strength from the upper end of the cylindrical wall to the base portion of the bullet, said cylindrical wall having an outer lip having a uniform thickness between 0.013 and 0.020 inches and the ratio of the lip thickness to the bottom cavity wall thickness being between 0.18-0.20.

2. The bullet of claim 1 in which the rifle bullet expands between 1.6 and 1.8 times its diameter, upon impact.

3. A rifle bullet comprising an outer jacket of copper based material and an inner core of lead bonded to the jacket, said jacket including a base portion and an ogive shaped nose portion having a cavity in which the inner core of lead is located, said nose portion having an upper lip and a wall that increases in width from the lip to the bottom of the cavity with a thickness of the lip being uniform between 0.013 to 0.020 inches and the ratio of the width of the lip to the wall thickness at the bottom of the cavity being between 0.18 to 0.20, said base portion having a tensile strength higher than a tensile strength of 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 of weight reduction.

4. The bullet of claim 3 in which the expansion of the bullet ranges from about 1.6 to about 1.8 times the diameter of the bullet.

5. A bullet comprising an outer jacket of copper based material and a lead inner core 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 with the wall at the outer end having a uniform thickness between about 18-20% of the thickness of the wall at the base portion which is between 0.064-0.098 inches thick, said base portion having a tensile strength higher than a tensile strength of 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.

6. The bullet of claim 5 in which the base portion is drawn to increase the hardness and tensile strength of the base portion above the hardness and tensile strength of the nose portion.

7. A bullet having an outer jacket of copper based material and an inner core of lead, said jacket including a base portion and an ogive-shaped nose portion, the wall of which decreases in thickness away from the base portion, said bullet being made by the method comprising the steps of forming the outer jacket of copper base material with the base portion having an initial outside diameter greater than the desired caliber and a cavity in the nose portion, the wall tapers outwardly with the wall at the outer end having a uniform thickness between 0.013 and 0.020 inches and the ratio of the thickness of the wall at the outer end to the thickness of the wall at the base being between 0.18-0.20, 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 nose portion to a lesser extent, and forming the nose portion into the desired ogive curve while increasing the diameter of the base 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 and a nose portion that is slightly work hardened by the forming operation so that when the bullet strikes a game animal the nose portion will partly split longitudinally into several sections that curl outwardly.

8. A bullet comprising an outer jacket of copper based material and an inner core of lead bonded to the jacket, said jacket including a base portion and a nose portion, said nose portion being tapered with a wall that decreases in thickness away from the base portion with the wall at the outer end having a uniform thickness between 0.013 and 0.020 inches and the ratio of the thickness of the end wall to the thickness of the wall at the bottom of the cavity base being between 0.18-0.20, 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 remain intact after impact with a target while at least a portion of the nose portion splits longitudinally and expands to a diameter between 1.6 and 1.8 times the diameter of the bullet as the bullet travels into the target with a minimum in weight reduction.

9. The bullet of claim 8 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 the hardness and tensile strength of the nose portion and thereafter expanded to its finished diameter to further increase its hardness and tensile strength.

10. The bullet of claim 8 in which the base portion is work hardened.