Bullet types explained

What are the main types of bullets?

Bullet types differ in two things: what the bullet is made of, and what it is designed to do when it hits something. Most bullets are a lead core with a copper-alloy jacket; some are solid copper, plain lead, or compressed metal powder. On impact, a bullet is designed either to hold its shape (FMJ, wadcutter, round nose), to expand to a larger diameter (hollow point, soft point, polymer tip, bonded, monolithic copper), or to break apart (frangible, and some varmint bullets).

The sections below describe each in more detail. Bullet type is separate from bullet weight, which is covered in what does grain mean?.

How are bullets built?

Three construction terms come up repeatedly:

• Core. The dense inner mass, usually lead or a lead alloy. Lead is used because it is dense and soft enough to be swaged into shape.
• Jacket. A thin shell of copper or a copper alloy (often called gilding metal) around the core. A jacket keeps lead off the barrel at higher velocities and controls how the bullet deforms.
• Plating or coating. A very thin copper layer applied electrochemically, or a polymer coating, on an otherwise plain lead bullet. It is thinner than a jacket and is common on .22 LR, budget handgun ammunition and many cast bullets.

How the core and jacket are joined — or whether there is a core at all — is what separates most of the types below.

What are FMJ and hollow-point bullets?

FMJ (full metal jacket) has a jacket that covers the nose and sides; most designs leave the base exposed. It is designed not to expand, and it is the standard construction for range, training and military ball ammunition. Variants called TMJ (total metal jacket) or encapsulated bullets cover the base as well, which reduces airborne lead at indoor ranges.

JHP (jacketed hollow point) has a cavity in the nose. On impact with soft tissue or gelatin, fluid pressure in the cavity forces the nose open, which widens the bullet and limits penetration. It is the standard construction for law-enforcement and civilian defensive handgun ammunition.

The full comparison of these two — construction, penetration, feeding and cost — is in FMJ vs hollow point.

What is a soft-point bullet?

A soft point (SP or JSP) is a jacketed bullet with the jacket left open at the tip, so the lead core is exposed at the nose. On impact, the exposed lead deforms first and the bullet mushrooms back toward the jacket. How fast it expands depends on the hardness of the lead, the thickness of the jacket and the impact velocity.

Soft points are common in hunting rifle ammunition, and in lever-action cartridges as flat-nose soft points, whose flat tips are designed to sit safely against the primer of the cartridge ahead in a tubular magazine. Conventional soft points with a separate jacket and core are often called cup-and-core bullets. The .308 whitetail loads compared page shows how cup-and-core, bonded and polymer-tipped hunting bullets appear side by side in one cartridge.

What is a polymer-tipped (ballistic tip) bullet?

A polymer-tipped bullet has a plastic tip inserted into the nose cavity of a hollow point or soft point. The tip does two jobs: it gives the bullet a sharp, streamlined nose that holds its shape in the magazine, and on impact it is driven back into the cavity to start expansion.

How the rest of the bullet is built determines what happens next:

• Varmint designs such as Hornady's V-MAX have thin jackets and are designed to fragment rapidly on small animals.
• Hunting designs such as Nosler's Ballistic Tip and Hornady's SST use heavier jackets and are designed for controlled expansion on larger game.
• Bonded polymer-tip designs such as Nosler's AccuBond combine a tip with a bonded core (see below).
• Defensive handgun designs such as Hornady's FTX use a softer, flexible tip intended to resist clogging with clothing.

Because the brand names differ across manufacturers, the product description usually states which of these a given load is.

What is a bonded bullet?

In a conventional jacketed bullet, the core sits inside the jacket and can separate from it on a hard impact. A bonded bullet fuses the core to the jacket — by heat-bonding, or by building the jacket onto the core electrochemically — so the two stay together as the bullet expands. The design goal is higher weight retention and deeper penetration than an unbonded bullet of the same weight.

Examples include Speer Gold Dot, which Speer describes as a lead core with a plated jacket bonded to it, used in defensive handgun ammunition; and Nosler AccuBond, a bonded-core hunting rifle bullet with a polymer tip. A related approach is the partition bullet (Nosler Partition): a jacket with an internal wall that separates a front core, designed to expand, from a rear core, designed to stay intact.

What is a monolithic copper bullet?

A monolithic bullet is made from a single piece of copper or copper alloy, with no lead core. Most expanding monolithic designs have a deep nose cavity; Barnes describes its TSX as expanding into four petals while retaining essentially all of its original weight. Some add a polymer tip (Barnes TTSX).

Because copper is less dense than lead, a monolithic bullet is longer than a lead-core bullet of the same weight and caliber, which can affect how it stabilizes in a given barrel twist and how much case capacity it occupies.

Monolithic copper bullets are the main way to meet lead-free hunting rules. California, for example, has required certified nonlead ammunition for taking any wildlife with a firearm since July 1, 2019. Other jurisdictions and some federal lands set their own requirements.

What is an open-tip match bullet?

An open tip match (OTM) bullet — also sold as hollow-point boat-tail (HPBT or BTHP) — has a small opening at the nose because the jacket is formed from the nose end, leaving the base closed and uniform. The opening is a manufacturing feature for consistency, not a cavity designed to expand, and terminal behavior varies by design. These bullets are built for accuracy in target and long-range shooting; what is match grade ammo? covers how match bullets and loads differ from standard ones.

What are wadcutter and semi-wadcutter bullets?

A wadcutter (WC) is a flat-fronted cylinder, usually plain or coated lead, with a nose as wide or nearly as wide as the bullet itself. It is designed to punch a clean, round hole in a paper target, which makes scoring easier. Wadcutters are loaded to low, subsonic velocities and are associated with short-range target shooting, especially in .38 Special revolvers. A hollow-base wadcutter (HBWC) has a cavity in its base that expands to seal the bore at low velocity.

A semi-wadcutter (SWC) has a smaller, conical or rounded nose ahead of a sharp, full-diameter shoulder. The shoulder still cuts a clean hole in paper, while the nose shape feeds more readily and flies more accurately at longer distances than a full wadcutter. Keith-style semi-wadcutters are a well-known heavier revolver design.

What is a frangible bullet?

A frangible bullet is made from metal powders — commonly copper, sometimes with tin or other metals — compressed or sintered into a bullet shape. It is designed to break into small particles when it strikes a hard surface such as a steel target or a backstop, which reduces ricochet and splashback compared with a solid bullet.

Frangible ammunition is used for close-range steel-target training and in facilities that restrict lead or ricochet. Because the powdered material is less dense than lead, a frangible bullet is usually lighter, or longer, than a conventional bullet in the same caliber. Some frangible designs are also built to break up in soft targets, so the product description is the reliable guide to which behavior a load is designed for.

What is a lead round-nose bullet?

A lead round nose (LRN) bullet is a plain lead or lead-alloy bullet with a rounded nose and no jacket. It is one of the oldest bullet designs still in production, and it is common in low-velocity loads such as .38 Special practice ammunition, cowboy-action loads and much .22 LR. Plain lead bullets usually carry wax or a lubricant in grooves to reduce leading of the barrel; coated versions use a polymer coating instead, and plated versions use a thin copper layer.

Because an unjacketed lead bullet deposits lead in the bore at higher velocities, LRN is mostly found in cartridges and loads that run at modest speeds.

How do the bullet types compare on impact?

"Relative" values compare the types with each other in general terms; the result for a specific load depends on its velocity, the target material and the individual bullet design. Manufacturers that test against the FBI protocol publish penetration, expansion and retained-weight figures for named loads.

How do you read bullet abbreviations on an ammo box?

Abbreviations are not fully standardized, and many manufacturers use trademarked names instead, so the product description is the authority for a specific load.

Related articles

• FMJ vs hollow point
• What is match grade ammo?
• 5.56 ammo types explained
• Rimfire vs centerfire

Sources

• Soft-point bullet — Wikipedia — Soft-point construction and expansion
• Wadcutter — Wikipedia — Wadcutter, HBWC and semi-wadcutter profiles
• Frangible bullet — Wikipedia — Powder-metallurgy construction and ricochet behavior
• Speer Gold Dot — Bonded-core construction
• Nosler AccuBond and Nosler Partition — Bonded and partitioned construction
• Barnes Bullets FAQ — Monolithic copper TSX construction and expansion
• California Department of Fish and Wildlife — Nonlead ammunition — Statewide nonlead requirement since July 1, 2019