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US 2003/0192425 A1Published application
Soft point bullet
AssigneeAlliant Techsystems Inc.
InventorBrett Mathew Olin
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AssigneeAlliant Techsystems Inc.
InventorBrett Mathew Olin
Estimating the term…
A method of manufacturing a soft point bullet and the bullet resulting there from. The method comprises forming a bullet core of a first material plated with a second material; providing a cavity in one end of the plated core of preferably polygonal shape and positioning a shaped blank of plating material into the cavity; and forming the core into the final bullet size and shape by extruding the core into the cavity to form the bullet nose and encapsulate the shaped blank within the bullet.
The method of manufacturing a soft point bullet comprising the steps of:
The method of manufacturing a soft point bullet comprising the steps of:
A soft point bullet comprising a core of a first material plated with a second material and shaped to define a generally conical nose on one end;
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.
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Characterised by the warhead or the intended effect: expanding before or on impact, i.e. of dumdum or mushroom type
Explosive charges
Term end not estimated
This invention relates to a method of manufacturing a soft point or soft nose bullet and the bullet resulting from the method.
Jacketed or plated soft point bullets are generally well known. In such bullets a core of soft metal such as lead or a lead alloy is plated with a jacket of copper or copper alloy. The copper or a copper alloy provides a degree of lubrication for the bullet as it passes through the rifling of a gun barrel. This minimizes damage which would otherwise occur to the barrel with a solid lead bullet. The jacket further maintains the integrity of the bullet intact as the soft point expands on impact.
As discussed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,387,492 for a “Plated Jacket Soft Point Bullet”, it is common to produce soft point bullets by making a cup-shaped jacket of copper or the like, and by inserting a core from a base metal such as lead. Nose weakening features may be added to the bullet nose in subsequent operations to produce a soft point bullet. This prior technique resulted in several problems including the potential for separation of the core from the jacketing material.
The manner in which the foregoing and other objects and advantages of the present invention can be accomplished will become more apparent from the following description of an exemplary embodiment and from the appended claims, considered in conjunction with the drawings wherein:
FIG. 1 is the perspective view of a soft point bullet constructed in accordance with the present invention;
FIG. 2 is a perspective view of a bullet of this invention shown as expanded after impact;
Referring to FIG. 1 of the drawings, a bullet 10 manufactured in accordance with this invention has a generally cylindrical main body 12. A front end of a bullet forms a nose portion 14. The bullet also includes a generally flat second or rear end 16. The core of the bullet is made from a deformable metal such as lead or a lead alloy which is electroplated with a jacketing material such as copper or copper alloy.
The initial phase of the method of manufacturing the soft point bullet includes the formation of a slug 20 of soft metal such as lead alloy formed into a selected geometric shape. This slug 20 can be made, for example, from lead and antimony, and is preferably formed into a generally right cylinder, as illustrated in FIG. 3A. The slug 20 is then plated with a plating metal 22 such as copper or copper alloy to form a plated core 30 of generally cylindrical shape. FIG. 3B illustrates the resulting plated core 30 comprising the soft metal slug 20 and the outer plating material 22.
The plated core 30 in accordance with this invention is then fed into a forming machine or the like and one end is subjected to an operation such as punching. In the preferred embodiment, the punch is polygonal in shape and has a generally flat face. As shown in FIGS. 3C and 4, a six-sided polygonal punch is preferred, although other tool shapes can be used to produced the desired results. A preferred range is a shape having from 3 to 10 sides or surfaces. The punching of the plated core 30 with the polygonal punch forms a cavity 32 and multiple cuts or notches 34 spaced uniformly around the periphery of the punched cavity 32. This punching operation further drives a polygonal metal blank 36 of the plating material into the interior of the soft metal core 20. The shape of the blank 36 corresponds to the shape of the cavity 32, as shown in FIG. 4. This operation results in the formation of a blanked plated core 40, as illustrated in FIG. 3C.