Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Bi metal jackets on soft point ammo?

I have recently purchased a couple hundred old, obscure bullets likely made by a European manufacturer. They are .308", 215 grain, semi-pointed round nose soft point. No crimping groove. Jackets are copper coloured, but are magnetic.

I have used some steel jacketed copper plated soft point bullets in the past, ( S&B, Norma, and RWS) and wasn't very impressed by the rough and narrow "mushroom" shape of bullets recovered, and some jacket separations and core losses were also noted. But accuracy was OK, and the deer I fired them at all died, and I had no wounding losses. I believe RWS advertises their bullets of this type to be "fragmenting" not deforming bullets. Their bullets do have a decent reputation when used for hunting lighter big game in Europe.

What has been your experience in using such bullets for hunting? Are they comparable to standard USA made cup and core / gliding metal jacket bullets? With the current scarcity of components I'm wondering whether to use them in my 30-06 for practise only, or to take them hunting for elk or moose.

Having received no replies, I just loaded them all up. Federal 1x fired, trimmed and FL sized brass, Remington 9-1/2M primers, W760 powder @ 49 grains. My range is not available until the spring melt, so I'm hoping for the best when I get to shoot them.

I filed the noses of some steel jacket copper washed Soviet bloc (country unknown) in 7.62x54R. Shot them into mud filled gallon milk jugs at 100 yards. Core separations about 50%. The steel jacket on them was very thin. None of this does you any good, but if your bullets came with a soft nose, I'd say they might work very well. I see you are in Sask...my favorite and most reliable home bullet testing media is cardboard boxes filled with compacted snow at 100 yards.

Any magnetic bullet is not legal for deer here.
Don't know it they actually check.

Good suggestion flintlocke. It seems that a home made bullet expansion test is in my future.

Shot a black bear with a 7.62x54r using 203 gr. Wolf ammo. Bimetal jacket, soft point, lead core. Good bullet performance. The bear died quickly.