Thread: Bullet Blew Up. Is it a thing?

Plenty of talk about bullets being too soft for close shots and bullets "blowing up". But does it really matter and how often are animals actually wounded and lost? My limited experience is that bits of jacket and lead invariably do make it to damage something fatally and what looks like a surface wound does actually kill. Otherwise, how else would you be standing there looking at it and taking pics?

I hypothesise too that using hard/controlled expansion bullets is just as likely to wound at close range as a fragile bullets - through pencilling.

What do people think?

Here's a so called blow up. 100 yards with .243 95 grn Targex. But the thing was still dead.

The early Nosler Ballistic tips in 7 mm and 30 cal were capable of creating a wound 1.5 inches deep and 10 inches round

Saw it a lot shooting Sika from above and it would seperate whole shoulders from rib cages with no penetration into the vitals

They always needed a second shot

Once everyone complained Nosler responded by toughening up the jackets and the problem went away.

I have had Berger projectiles pencil through at all distances if the meplat is under 20 thou or completely closed. Had swift sciroccos pencil through as well

I’ve had a couple just like this, most of the jacket laying on the wound surface, the lead core penetrating through. Like you say, still dead.


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Originally Posted by 7mmsaum

The early Nosler Ballistic tips in 7 mm and 30 cal were capable of creating a wound 1.5 inches deep and 10 inches round

Saw it a lot shooting Sika from above and it would seperate whole shoulders from rib cages with no penetration into the vitals

They always needed a second shot

Once everyone complained Nosler responded by toughening up the jackets and the problem went away.

I have had Berger projectiles pencil through at all distances if the meplat is under 20 thou or completely closed. Had swift sciroccos pencil through as well

That Targex'd tahr was from above.

Bullet Blew Up. Is it a thing?. Yep, classic example last week. Sika hind @ roughly 80 metres. !65 Nosler BT 2450muzzle velocity.
Downhill shot into the chest just behind the shoulder. Definite hit.
I've shot several at various ranges using the same projectile recipe. All of them have blown a fist sized exit wound, one even left a front shoulder pretty much hanging in the wind.
This last one though!
Hind bolted, 100% sure of shot. So I scrambled down to search. " Does it matter if it blows up?" Again, " yep "
No blood sign what so ever, no discernible tracks either, bugger. I found her eventually by following the easiest line of flight. An element of luck involved too.

No sign of the projectile when I cleaned her. In the opposite side of the chest cavity from entry wound were a number of small shrapnel wounds, little slits really.

One very dead deer, but took some finding. So IMHO, yeah, it does matter.

I had it on a fellow deer with a 162amax from my 7-375r they were doing i think 3250 from the barrel took a high shoulder shot at about 60y took a massive chunk of flesh out but no penetration was able to get another one in her at 200y across the valley.

I've had it happen, shot a nanny Tahr at about 100M with a 105 Amax from a 243. Could see a massive wound on her shoulder but couldn't get another shot. She ran into a very steep gully/bluff system and couldn't be extracted or found, very distressing.

But bullets do funny things. Shot a big Red spiker this morning, 77gn TMK at 240M. It was a difficult "from the knees with no time to lose" shot that entered quite low in the crease. The opposite shoulder was fine, no damage, but his offside front leg was broken below the knuckle, a very large bone to be broken by a frangible bullet after full generation. The remains of the projectile must have been in the muscle somewhere but I didnt think to find it.

Bullet Blew Up. Is it a thing?

Yes definitely a thing if the projectile is "outside its operating envelop"

Too slow it will pencil ie very long range or heavy for calibre & small cartridge driving it, premium bonded tough hunting projectiles are renown for it in this country with our small animals

The opposite if the projectile is going "too fast" ie light for calibre in a big cartridge or close range and, or fast twist barrel providing too much rpm

Typically blowing up is not something a mono projectile suffers from, predominately a cup & core issue

Either way it is a frustrating event & often the animal isn't recovered

I've had it with .224 vmax.

I ve never had failure to penetrate if the angle is right.

But a bullet can go between ribcage and front leg and Ive had that a few times. They were usually facing toward me but quartering just a little bit and the shot entered over the brisket and continued inside the scapula to exit or not behind the front leg. This is why the “front on” shot can be difficult to succeed with. As noted, its a severe injury and often you get another shot and its all OK and you can photograph it.

I expect it can also happen shooting from above.

The only time Ive seen a bullet disintegrate with minimal penetration is on a plate of AR500.

I had a 303 that launched tumbling bullets, not so much a blow up but shot a deer (fallow) with it at about 60 yards and thing looked like it had been hit by a grenade launcher nearly cut it in half.

Try a 50 grain Blitzking at approx 4000 feet per second out of a 220 Swift if you want to see a projectile blow up.
Be very careful about what you try them on though. A poorly placed shot will mean you probably won't see the animal again if it recovers from the initial shock.

Early Nosler Ballistic Tips in 308 were chronic not so much for blowing up but jacket separation at close range.Lead core usually sealed the deal though. Hornady VMax out of 223 though can explode quite spectacularly at times. Had a few close range goats where the entrance wound was massive with bits of jacket on or near skin surface, animals generally still died though. Sure as shit wouldn't use them on a pig or deer though, but they are a varmint bullet after all.

Certainly in a .17 REM it’s not uncommon with the std 25 gn hps. In the air prior to hitting the target. Near 4000 fps though.


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My experience is mostly 140 gr NBT from 7mm08 at 2800 fps from about 2011 onwards.