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Have any of you who load your own self defense ammo ever thought about this. What materials would you even use to make your own "polymer" tip. Of course, you could just buy the FTX bullets from Hornady and load those.

I am wondering if this can be done to also modify existing manufactured SD rounds. It would be nice to have complete confidence that the hollow point would not get clogged by heavy clothing. I did come across this in my search where they used wax http://www.shootingtimes.com/2011/01/04 ... nt_200811/

Ya know, I've been wondering how much of this "polymer tip bullet" business is just somebody's idea of a way to charge more for a hollow point bullet to make an extra buck? Is there any scientifically controlled ballistic testing evidence that shows the polymer tip makes anything better? All I've heard is claims like the chrome exhaust tips on the corvette make it go faster. HA!!

When you think about it, a regular hollowpoint is going to perform just as well filled with lint, fiber or flesh. The lint or fiber will transform the pressure created by the bullet's deceleration through flesh into an expansion force that will rupture the lead wall of the cavity just the same as anything else it passes through.

Wait, you say, the lint / fiber is compressable!

Well, yeah, that's right, but by the time the the bullet is half its length into flesh the lint / fiber trapped in the nose cavity is only a thin liner compressed against the lead walls of the flesh filled cavity. The smushed fiber has no tensel strength and no shear strength to speak of. In no way can that liner of fiber retard the normal splitting of the nose cavity and expansion of the bullet.

So why go to the trouble to put a plug in the cavity? To sell more expensive bullets to the "Rubes" obviously. As P.T. used to say: "There's one born every minute."

Just my 2c

Gerry

I had the poly tipped Hornady loaded in my Judge. They had been in there for a while, so I figure I would just shoot them and load a new set. The way my range is set up I can recove a bullet fairly easy, when I dug them out the bullets had curled inwards, not out. It turned into a ball with a red pointy thing sticking out of it, kinda makes me wonder, I have since started loading Barnes Vortex as my PD rounds.

I shot them into first the backstop and noticed how they were curling in, then a bucket of sand, I work in a sand pit so I had plenty, and then a bucket of water. All of the rounds curled in towards the tip, including the water. The Barnes shot into the same the hollow points opened outward..

The polymer tip in thous rounds are to keep a bullet from premature expansion, like when striking a heavy winter coat. After the round penetrates to the body the much harder surface will force the polymer into the cavity then allow the hallow to expand correctly. This is all in theory of coarse, and to my knowledge the new ones are far better.

DubiousDan wrote:

Richardc wrote:The polymer tip in thous rounds are to keep a bullet from premature expansion, like when striking a heavy winter coat. After the round penetrates to the body the much harder surface will force the polymer into the cavity then allow the hallow to expand correctly. This is all in theory of coarse, and to my knowledge the new ones are far better.

I got curious and looked around a bit and the only polymer tipped handgun caliber ammo form Hornady (currently offered) that I could find is the "FTX®LEVERevolution®" that is designed to be fired from a lever action rifle. I know in some cases such as with the Powerball, the polymer tip is designed to improve feeding in pistols that have problems with hollow points. With polymer tip rifle rounds they are designed to control expansion and to prevent damage to the tip of the bullet (vs. soft points) when feeding from the magazine into the chamber (this from Nosler).

Did you look at the Critical Defense lineup?

Dont forget about the Z-MAX ammo Its just critical defense with green instead of red.

In addition to affecting the way the bullet expands, I always thought the polymer tips were supposed to help the bullet feed better in guns that don't cycle hollow points very well.