Does anybody here use frangible bullets?

[JKO]

I've never hunted, and the backstop at my local shooting range is composed of several tons of packed earth, but I was wondering:

do any of you have any recommendations about so-called "frangible" bullets--that is, bullets that break up when they encounter something harder than animal tissue, thus reducing the possibilty of ricochets?

I'm pretty certain that a Sierra MatchKing will disintegrate when it hits something hard enough, but I'm not certain about its sibling, the GameKing. (Several of each came with my .30 Cody Express/.30-416 RAI.)

Either way, I'd like to know if anybody has any suggestions. I've seen Websites advertising such bullets, but none of them have any information regarding accuracy potential, and most sell .30-caliber bullets that may be too light (usually between 125 and 168 grains) to withstand the kind of velocities that my rifle (and others like it, such as the .30-378 Weatherby Magnum and the 7.82mm Lazzeroni Warbird) can produce.

As always, any advice will be appreciated.

Thanks.
--JKO

[royinidaho]

[ QUOTE ]


I'm pretty certain that a Sierra MatchKing will disintegrate when it hits something hard enough, but I'm not certain about its sibling, the GameKing.


[/ QUOTE ]

I don't know if others will agree with me on this one but I think you're exactly backwards on the above.

Do a search on SMK failure. That has been my experience in sand backstop as well.

SMKs go sailin' or leave bananas laying around. GMKs hit, expand, shed core and lay on top of sloped sand hill. They seem to go about 12" beyond the creater.

[JKO]

Roy:

My mistake.

I guess that I wasn't thorough enough when I conducted that part of my research.

I seem to recall reading something to the effect that SMKs weren't suited for anything but small game and varmints because of their tendency to break up upon hitting heavy bone (which supposedly would create little more than a severe flesh wound in anything but small animals), but I may have misremembered it.

I tend to do that a lot. [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

--JKO

[Dave King]

I have shot a few rifle type frangible bullets and I was no where near pleased with the precision of these bullets.

Frangible bullets are typically a compressed powder bullet and I believe getting a uniform density would be a problem for rifles. I do have about a zillion of these for my 45 ACP and they seem to be fine for it, CQB range [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img].

SMK ARE NOT frangible, they are death to nearly everything they hit (unless POP uses them) [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img].