Self-Separating Bullet

Abstract

Provided is a projectile with one or more structurally weakened zones that break apart into sub-projectiles after firing and prior to muzzle exit. The structurally weakened zones are generally of diminished cross-sectional area and designed to fail as the bullet travels down a rifled barrel. The failure occurs as a result of induced stress states in the structurally weakened zones that exceed material strength of the connective structure between sections of the initially unbroken projectile. The locations of structurally weakened zones can be selected to produce separated sub-projectiles that are of the same/similar or different individual mass, depending on the desired dispersion characteristics for a given application. The inventive self-separating bullet provides projectile multiplication for improved probability of hit per round fired, extended effective range, improved dispersion, and cost savings thanks to the simplicity of the projectile design and associated ease of manufacture.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.