Woodleigh Weldcore Soft Point: Protected Point v. Round Nose

[Red Devil]

Have been researching the Woodleigh Weldcore Soft Point bullet, specifically the .366/320 gr. RN, for my bolt action 9.3x62mm Ruger African rifle.

This argument comes up a lot.

"The Weldcore Protected Point bullet - protects against the battering the Round Nose soft point bullet gets in the magazine due to heavy recoil."

I find this statement somewhat dubious.

Protected Point bullets, as a design, are generally chosen to mitigate Pointed Soft Point bullet magazine battering.

And, while the Weldcore PP is, in fact, a protected point design - It is my contention that it was chosen for its improved ballistic coefficients, and not because the Round Nose Soft Point bullet was being "battered."

Have ordered Round Nose bullets accordingly.

Any evidence to the contrary would be appreciated.




Red

 

[Hunter-Habib]

I’ve seen quite a few cases of round nosed soft points getting battered and causing feeding problems , due to recoil in magazine rifles in the 1970s and 1980s . But after 1990 , I never experienced this problem with any popular brand of factory ammunition .

I personally had this happen to 510 Gr Remington round nosed soft point ammunition , in the magazine of a Remington Model 700 .

Saw it happen to old 347 Gr ICI Kynoch round nosed soft point ammunition , in the magazine of a 10.75x68 mm Mauser Oberndorf .

Saw it happen to 500 Gr Weatherby round nosed soft point ammunition , in the magazine of a .460 Weatherby Magnum Mark V .

In the old days ( 1970s and 1980s ) , Winchester actually advertised their Silver Tip soft point as specifically being able to resist getting it’s nose battered because the lead nose was protected by a silver colored cap ( initially , it was a mixture of copper and zinc and nickel but later they changed it to aluminum in order to reduce manufacturing costs ) .

To be fair , I never used Woodleigh soft point ammunition . So I’m sorry if I couldn’t give you an exact answer .

 

[colorado]

I really like the Woodleigh .375 350g HD SPs in my 375 Weatherby. Only shot mule deer and jack rabbits with them so far though. I load them to 2550 fps.

 

[Wyatt Smith]

I think the protected point is supposed to delay expansion a little bit.

 

[Frederik]

Red Devil, Woodleigh has a maximum impact speed on the bullet boxes and normally the Protected points have an higher Impact speed. So not just to get higher BC but slower expansion like Wyatt said above.

With calibres like 416, 450 Rigby, 458 win mag, lott and even 375 the ammo does get pushed a bit in the magazine and the Round Nose of the lead bullet does get indentations but unless you keep the same bullet on the top of the stack while shooting I have had no major issues with 480gr RN in 458 lott except a bit of a mark and slight dent.

With the 9.3 and speeds you are going to do I see no issues except happy results.

 

[Viral_SIGness]

I would think the round nose would stay on a straighter path (like a flat point). But I can't say if it is true or not.

 

[crs]

In my 1895 .405 magazine, there was no 'battering" damage to any Woodleigh Weldcore bullets.
In fact, it is stretching the definition of "soft point" to call those bullets soft!
They are the hardest lead tipped bullet that I have seen. And I think that is appropriate for their intended use on beasts like this:

I placed one 400 grain Weldcore shot behind the rearmost left rib and it travelled through the heart and out between the front legs and was not recovered. IMHO, these are well proven bullets suitable for any large and dangerous game.