Fully jacketed bullet, fully jacketed bullet boat tail, hollow point, hollow point boat tail, soft point, soft point boat tail, flat point... The availability of pistol or rifle bullets is now almost unlimited and the choice can vary among thousands of types, brands and shapes. In order to make it easier, we could circumscribe everything into two major types of most common and used bullets.

 

Jacketed / Armored Bullets

Formed by a lead core completely covered by a soft metal “jacket” (usually in copper or various alloys), they are suitable bullets for hunting grouse and fur animals, where allow. They are made in this way so as not to spoil or tear the game when the energy is released. These are basically military bullets, widely used in firing ranges.

 

Expansive Bullets

This category includes – sometimes forcibly – almost all the bullets commercially offered on the market. These ammunitions are designed to expand and each manufacturer offers different degrees of expansion depending on the type of use; some of them can fragment, causing extensive lesions in the prey.

 

Identify the bullets

Bullets are usually identified on the basis of their construction type (e.g. FMJ: Full metal Jacket) and their shape (e.g. BT: Boat Tail or FN: Flate Nose).

Nowadays, moreover, many denominations are identified with the commercial names given to the bullets, such as the famous Alaska bullet, loaded in the most common calibers for moose hunting, which in reality is nothing more than a traditional bullet and very accurate with soft tip, with zinc and copper alloy mantle. Or the Partition bullet, the gold standard for double-core bullets.

 

Which bullet to choose?

The bullet is the element that will hit the game, therefore the choice of the best conformation depends on the shooting distance and the game with which you will test yourself. The most common mistake is to delegate the choice of bullets or to rely on “hearsay”, because the choice of the correct bullet should be the result of careful personal research.

Today the supply of bullets is truly immense, but following the advice of a good munitions store 

that knows the type of fauna, the shooting distance and the environmental conditions you will encounter, you will certainly get some good tips: always pay a lot of attention and trust in professionals, don’t act like the larks!