Bullet

• US 5,641,937 A
• Filed: 07/01/1996
• Issued: 06/24/1997
• 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:
  US08/673,912
• Time in Patent Office: 358 Days
• Field of Search: 102/501, 102/507-510, 102/514-517, 29/1.2, 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 pistol bullet comprising an outer jacket of copper based material, said jacket including a solid base portion and a nose portion, said nose portion having a cylindrical wall that decreases in thickness 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 cylindrical wall having an outer lip of uniform thickness, with the wall at the lip of the cavity having a thickness between 0.012 and 0.015 inches and the ratio of the thickness of the lip to the thickness of the wall at the base being between 0.33-0.40 and the thickness of the base being about two times the thickness of the cavity wall at the base to provide a pistol bullet that will withstand high chamber pressures without deformation.

2. The bullet of claim 1 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.

3. The pistol bullet of claim 1 or 2 in which the ratio of the diameter of the cavity at the lip to the diameter of the cavity at the bottom ranges from about 1.09 to 1.22.

4. A pistol 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 having a cylindrical wall that decreases in thickness away from the base portion and curves inwardly to form a cavity, said wall having an inner surface, an outer surface, an upper end, and a body of lead in the cavity that is bonded to the inner wall, said cylindrical wall having an outer lip of uniform thickness, with the wall at the lip of the cavity having a thickness between 0.012 and 0.015 inches, the ratio of the thickness of the lip to the thickness of the wall at the base being between 0.33 and 0.40, and the thickness of the base being between about 0.060 inches to 0.090 inches.

5. The bullet of claim 4 in which the copper based material of the jacket increases 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 1.4 and 1.5 times the diameter of the bullet as the bullet travels into the target with a minimum in weight reduction.

6. The bullet of claim 4 or 5 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.

7. A soft nose, bonded lead core bullet for pistols comprising a jacket of copper based material having a solid base portion and a nose portion having a cylindrical wall extending from the base that decreases in thickness away from the base and curves inwardly to form a cavity, said Wall having an inner surface, an outer surface, an upper end, and a body of lead in the cavity 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 of the bullet, said cylindrical wall having an outer lip of uniform thickness between 0.012 and 0.015 inches and the ratio of the lip thickness to the bottom cavity wall thickness being between 0.33-0.40.

8. The bullet of claim 7 in which the pistol bullet expands between 1.4 and 1.5 times its diameter upon impact.