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Aluminum bullet cont.

dtknowles
Not surprised that the lathe turned bullet had poor accuracy, just depends on the technique and accruacy that was attained.

I also believe that Aluminum bullets do have potential but a lot of development is required. I don't think the benefit will be with lighter bullets, you can make lighter bullets out of other materials and it has been tried and the applications a limited but useful. for heavier bullets (more normal weights) made out of aluminum a benefit if the expansion could be controlled the expanded diameter could be greater because you have a greater volume of material to expand, we see that benefit with all copper (brass) expanding bullets. One problem I see for aluminum bullets is in most semiauto pistol calibers there is not enough case volume for a normal weight aluminum bullet. In the 38 special you have a lot of unused case volume so a 125 grain aluminum bullet could fit fine but it would be a long bullet with good velocity, it could have big long expanding petals to open up and expand a lot but at 125 grains it would still have a good secional density for initial penetration, you would need to design for controlled (delayed) expansion to get adequate penetration, need to get hardness and toughness right for controlled expansion, might want copper plating to eliminate bore fowling. Still, it would be a nitch market most bullets benefit from higher not lower density materials.

Tim
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3 comments

Date Votes
  • beantownshootah
    The biggest problem with aluminum projectiles is just that they are too light for good ballistic performance.

    Poor sectional density leads to rapid loss in velocity and poor accuracy.

    While there might be a few niche applications where these two things are actually desirable (like pre-fragmented type bullets for close range indoor use), in the vast majority of applications, they're no good.

    If you think about it, most ballistics design is trying to get HEAVIER bullets for better performance (eg using depleted uranium or other exotic heavy metals, etc), not lighter.
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  • dtknowles
    Bean

    I think you missed my point. If I was developing an aluminum bullet I would not make it light for caliber, I would just make it longer so it could be normal weight and have the normal sectional density. The problem with that is in most cases that does not leave enough room for powder. For .44 and .38 special they would be fine and could be design to expand to very large diameters because of all the material in the long bullet.

    Tim
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  • TRAP55
    quote:Has anyone done research on light weight bullets? Maybe aluminum.
    It would seem that, all things equal, a light bullet would have a higher muzzel velocity. This should have an advantage in a snub nose 38 at close range.
    To the OP's question, Winchester made (still makes?) the Silvertip for snubbies, aluminum jacket hollow cavity, with soft lead core, maximum expansion at close range. However, the aluminum wasn't for reducing weight, just expansion.
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