Deformed exposed lead tips on bullets have absolutely ZERO effect on anything. The poster who mentioned that they are gone by the time they reach the target is correct. If you recover bullets from soft snow after they are spent, you will find they have no exposed tip, and the lead is "splashed" back on the front of the jacket as a very thin layer. Many years ago, we used to shoot 1000 yard competition on a large frozen lake. After the weekend, we would go down the ice and pick up bullets that were spent and lying on the surface of the lake. These bullets looked like unfired bullets with two exceptions: they had rifling grooves in them, and any pointed soft point bullets were lacking the exposed tip. These bullets always showed a "wash" of lead on the ogive part of the bullet, leading us to the conclusion that this lead tip actually was hot enough to wash back on the jacket and adhere to it during flight. In any case, deformed tips at the time of firing do not affect accuracy in any way. Groups from single-loaded ammo with perfect tips shot groups that were no better than ammo with distorted or even partially missing lead tips. A lot more important for accuracy is the "heel" of a bullet. Any deformation at that point will affect accuracy. Regards, Eagleye.
