Bullet annealing : anyone have experience with hunting with them?

[joe.grey]

Hey,

I'm a big fan of Nathan Foster and find his knowledge to be an excellent source of information about hunting and more specifically, about terminal ballistics. I recently came across one of his articles where he discusses annealing Berger VLD bullets, making the tips a little more brittle for better terminal performance. He also anneals Hornady SST bullets. Has anyone experimented with this process?

Here is a link to the article: https://www.ballisticstudies.com/Knowledge+Base/Berger+VLD+annealing+tutorial.html

 

[yomomma]

annealing copper makes it more maleable rather than brittle.

 

[joe.grey]

annealing copper makes it more maleable rather than brittle.

same difference as malleability can bend easier, which can lead to easier tearing.

 

[Eagleye]

Pick the right bullet to start with....no need to bother with annealing it.

 

[yomomma]

same difference as malleability can bend easier, which can lead to easier tearing.

Brittle = fragmentation.

Not the same thing...

https://www.e-education.psu.edu/matse81/node/2106

 

[joe.grey]

Brittle = fragmentation.

Not the same thing...

https://www.e-education.psu.edu/matse81/node/2106

Not the same thing but leads to the equivalent result. Go read the article I tagged in the original post.

 

[joe.grey]

Pick the right bullet to start with....no need to bother with annealing it.

Obviously did not read the article tagged in the original post. Read it.

 

[chappy]

no i believe eagleye fully understood the the article and had the correct answer. pick the right bullet to start with.

 

[yomomma]

Not the same thing but leads to the equivalent result. Go read the article I tagged in the original post.

No it wouldnt.

 

[Eagleye]

no i believe eagleye fully understood the the article and had the correct answer. pick the right bullet to start with.

This is correct!! Thanks, chappy. I read the article fully, and have read plenty of Nathan Foster's prose in the past.
I appreciate he has quite a bit of hunting experience, but I am not particularly enamored by his ideas regarding
bullet annealing. You cannot make a premium bullet from a Ho-Hum bullet by annealing it, period!!

There are so many very good hunting bullets out there, ready to load and use, that I will be hanged if I am going
to spend precious time trying to make something mediocre into something better [possibly, but not likely] Dave.

 

[Gatehouse]

That looks pretty damn painful.

I understand his goal, but there are easier ways to get from A to B

Once again, Eagleye is on the money.....

 

[FLHTCUI]

no i believe eagleye fully understood the the article and had the correct answer. pick the right bullet to start with.

And some people like to reinvent the wheel every couple years.
I was off the same opinion as Eagleye before I read the complete original post.
There are more ways to skin a cat and sometimes there is room for one more, but if one likes to putter then aneal away.
Rob

 

[Dogleg]

That looks pretty damn painful.

I understand his goal, but there are easier ways to get from A to B

Once again, Eagleye is on the money.....

There are absolutely easier ways to get from A-B. Blue box Federal is a great way to nail down A-B. Articles of this nature are more about putting the last few finishing touches on X through Z. Few people should be playing around at that end of the alphabet.

That's the trouble with pushing things to one end of the spectrum; inevitably you'll give up something at the other.

 

[Tokay444]

Brittle and malleable are exact opposites.

 

[Dogleg]

I’ll take a few annealed Bergers to NZ in June; but in the normal 3-700 range don’t expect to see much if any difference.