make your own soft point

In this time and age with a huge selection of affordable and high quality, purposely made hunting bullet, there are very few excuses not to use these, mostly, well made hunting bullets while hunting.

However, I see no reasons not to be resoursful, and be able to use softpoint hunting bullets made from military fmj bullets, if an emergency need arises.
 
If an emergency arose I would simply use FMJ rounds, why would you change them out in an "emergency". FMJ will kill! They just may not be as effective as modern hunting bullets on game. In an "emergency" all bets are off and the last thing I need is a bullet chopped up and perhaps not capable of decent accuracy due to its amended shape.

Cutting off tips of FMJ etc to make hunting bullets to save a couple of bucks, then go out in your $35K 4x4, $100 in hunting licenses, couple hundred on gas and god knows what for accomodation for a once a year week of enjoymnet is just plain STUPID.

Stay Safe

Bob
 
I have a bit of personal experience to relate. When a lot younger, and with a heap less common sense, I acquired a bunch of FMJ Military Ammo for my SMLE. Wanting to see if this ammo would expand if modified, I filed the tips off several rounds, leaving only a small amount of lead exposed in the center [maybe 1/16"-3/32"]of the tip. I then shot these rounds into various media, trying to recover them after to see what had happened. They say the angels protect the fools and half-wits [not sure which category fit me best at the time!]. I shot one of these modified rounds into a big Fir wood block, and then attempted to chamber another round. Couldn't quite close the bolt, even when I tried pretty hard. Opened the action and pulled the bolt out. Took a look down the bore. I could only see a small circle of light. I had figured out by now that something was seriously amiss, so found a ¼" brass rod and dropped it down the barrel and gave it a "rap" with a hammer. Out of the throat popped the complete jacket of the previously fired round, minus all the lead core. The lead had all squirted out through that small orifice at the tip of that bullet. In examining the Fir block, There was no bullet-sized hole in it, only a bunch of smaller perforations in the bark, none of which penetrated more than 1" or so. I shudder to think of the possible consequences if that jacket had lodged just ½" further up the bore than it did!! Nope, don't do it. It just is not worth it. Regards, Eagleye.
 
There you go- FIRST hand experience!;)

And, while I have not met Eagleye, I do know some folks who have. I've also seen his posts, and he is one of the few guys on the internet that when he posts, I make sure to check it out.

He doens't bull####, IMHO..

In any case-I wonder if those home made soft points that snowhunter talks abotu actually does any more damage than just leaving them as FMJ's.

I guess, when time permits and I am bored, I'll do some tests.

And I wil be sure to look downt he bore after EVERY shot, since filing off the points of a FMJ bullet is pretty much condemned by every firearms expert out there...;)
 
My experience is only from fmj 30-06 and 8x57 Mauser bullets that have been filed a bit or cut a cross at the bullet tip to expose the lead, and never had any problem with these "home made" soft point bullets.

The fmj military bullet .303 have an inside bulet tip made of aluminum or other light weight material, which are held together by the enclosed fmj bullet, and "puncturing" the .303 fmj bullet by filing the tip and exposing this lightweight material might have caused the the unbonded lead bullet, when moving ahead from the generous military freebore and when hitting the more narrow rifling with 18 tons a square inch force, left the bullet jacket behind in the bore since the light weight material at the tip of the .303 bullet was unable keep the lead from moving ahead on its own ?
 
snowhunter said:
My experience is only from fmj 30-06 and 8x57 Mauser bullets that have been filed a bit or cut a cross at the bullet tip to expose the lead, and never had any problem with these "home made" soft point bullets.

The fmj military bullet .303 have an inside bulet tip made of aluminum or other light weight material, which are held together by the enclosed fmj bullet, and "puncturing" the .303 fmj bullet by filing the tip and exposing this lightweight material might have caused the the unbonded lead bullet, when moving ahead from the generous military freebore and when hitting the more narrow rifling with 18 tons a square inch force, left the bullet jacket behind in the bore since the light weight material at the tip of the .303 bullet was unable keep the lead from moving ahead on its own ?
Click to expand...

After I stopped laughing... approximately 4 minutes... I had a moment of clear perception and this quote entered my mind....

Bertrand Russell:
Most people would die sooner than think; in fact, they do.

Thanks Snowhunter you made my morning.:)
 
Thanks Gatehouse, for the compliment! FWIW, I do not like to sling BS, but like most of us, am somewhat opinionated. Nevertheless, I like to think that most of my opinions are based on some experience in the matter at hand. If I have no experience, I will stand back and let someone else do the talking. As I see it, taking ANY FMJ bullet and filing off enough to expose the lead tip allows a distinctly possible scenario, Escape of the lead core through the front of the jacket. All these FMJ bullets have a generous amount of lead exposed at the base. High pressures can and DO cause strange things to happen to soft metals like lead. That the core could be expelled from ANY FMJ bullet is a very real possibility. Why play with life and limb when there is such a variety of inexpensive, decent softpoint bullets out there that do not present any hazards? JMHO, Eagleye.
 
Messing with bullets is a dangerous pastime, so please only shoot them when no one else is at the range. In WWI some guys (with picklehaubes) used to pull bullets and reverse them back into the case as a way to do more damage. I guess when the shells are flying that's low risk, but it might work for close shots. But see comment one!
 
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