Understanding The Phenomenon Of Jacket-Core Separation

[grand veneur]

I have not heard of any Woodleigh coming apart like that. I guess a dud can always get through.

Just out of curiosity what was the brand of ammo? I would still send the recovered bullet to them as the Ammo manufacturer may have put some other bullet in the mix. Not say it is a deliberate move as they would not want to get a bad name, just a mistake.

Just trying to cover all bases as looking at the photo it does not look like it was a bonded bullet.

This happened to me about 20 years ago when I shot a buffalo at a very short distance with the cartridge 500 Schüler and a 535gr FMJ bullet from Woodleigh. The jacket of the bullet was split lengthways and the lead core was hanging out. I shot elephants before and even afterwards with the same bullet without any problems.

Unfortunately I don't have a picture of this bullet because I sent it to the Woodleigh company after the hunt. Geoff McDonald responded quickly and informed me that unfortunately they are not responsible for the quality of the alloys. Is understandable and I remained loyal to Woodleigh. At the moment, however, I am a client of Degol in Belgium, among other things because Woodleigh no longer delivers, although I must also note that Degol's bullets are much stronger than those from Woodleigh, at least as far as some calibers are concerned.

 

[1dirthawker]

If you lost the animal and couldn’t examine the bullet, how do you determine it was bullet failure by the core losing its jacket?

i did not lose the animal

i had a sierra game king 175gr (at 2900 fps) come apart on a sitka blacktail deer (under 150#) and recovered the jacket. the deer did die, but, had it been a larger animal or a tougher angle, then the story might not have ended well.

the bullet just came apart. hey, if someone wants to shoot cape buffalo with a crappy bullet, or a moose, eland, etc. thats on them. only costs you the trophy fee, oh yeah, and a sick or wounded animal.

sorry so late on the reply, been hunting in Namibia.