Bouncing Bullets

The concept of frangible bullets is probably older than we think, much older.  Imagine the Roman Soldier with his sling realizing that every stone he flings at the enemy is ammo they can fling back at him.  But what if the stone broke when it hit a man, or the ground?  That would turn ammo into scrap.  Google ‘frangible.’  I googled frangible ammo and got 37,200 hits.  Certainly suggests interest out there in cyber space. 

Glaser Safety Slugs wasn’t the first to worry about collateral damage, but it was the first one I’m familiar with. They were introduced in 1975 and used by Federal Air Marshals in the 70s and 80s over concern of excessive damage to an aircraft in flight.  Over the years Air Marshals have attempted to walk a fine line between stopping power, over penetration and ricochet hazards.

The problem is Glasers can expend most of their energy destroying a heavy winter coat, a bicep or some non-critical area leaving a violent criminal offender (VCO) still functioning.  They do work well for training close to steel targets.  I use them to demonstrate penetration through plaster board walls to highlight concerns about invisible bystanders in other rooms.

Since then, frangible has taken on a second marketing meaning: lead free.  Only a fool would refuse to admit that there is a potential hazard of lead inhalation and digestion at ranges.

I am aware of at least one trap club closed down because of potential lead hazard to their impact zone (a shallow swamp) used by migrating water fowl.  This new aspect of frangible creates a market and opportunities for lead free rounds.  Most of the frangible rounds are lead free.  I have a box of Remington’s Disintegrator cartridges.  The bullet is a skin of brass holding a core of “compressed” iron.  The rounds I have are partially scored at the tip to increase the frangible nature.

Winchester Ranger frangible takes a different approach.  They use a nylon matrix filled with copper and tungsten powders to reduce lead and reduce ricochet hazards.

Both of these look like the traditional bullets we know, but ARX by Polycase breaks that mold.  The shape of the bullet looks like something out of science fiction.  The idea, I’m guessing is to cause more tissue damage while retaining the more frangible nature of the bullet.

So why aren’t we using these?  Fired rounds that don’t ricochet, or at least loss enough mass to become harmless would eliminate a major concern and legal nightmare.  To my knowledge or at least to my google search, the military uses frangible rounds in training, but not combat.  It appears that not a single police department issues them to their officers as a duty round.

There are some concerns. Are they effective in stopping a VCO?  Neither police nor the armed civilian wants to end up in court because we had to shoot someone 8 times to stop them.  It seems excessive.  The opposing lawyers would point out to the jury that you used frangible rounds because you want to punish the person you shot, otherwise why would you not use a simple hollow point that so humanely stops people?

There is some possibility these rounds would strike a bone, disintegrate and result in years of painful surgery and costly medical complications.  Yeah, the lawyers and media would love that.

Other than training, are there any good points?  Frangible rounds are often used where potential combat and the resulting physical damage would be disastrous, like an airplane at 40,000 ft. or inside a petrochemical plant.

My own crude experiments indicate that frangible rounds will pass through at least one sheetrock wall and be able to endanger people in that room.  Many pass through a second wall where my experiment ends.

I remember when gun writers promoted .223 Remington as the perfect round for no-knock raids and home self-defense.  Supposedly, the round would tumble as soon as it struck wall board and this violent, chaotic tumbling would exceed the bullet’s tensile strength causing the bullet to fragment on the wall board on the back of the wall.

The holes on right are from .38 spl rounds, the two marked 223 are .223 rem rounds from an AR.

Only it didn’t.  55gr .223 FMJ punches holes in plaster board walls like it was designed to do so.

Recently I got my hands on Federal 5.56X45mm frangible rounds.  The round is an open tip 43 grain bullet and is reported to be all copper.  Let’s shoot a few.

I had two plaster board walls set up to demonstrate penetration of pistol rounds, but there was enough room for two rounds of 5.56 rounds.

This is the front of the second wall.  It would be one room over from the room were guns were fired.  Again the holes on right are .38spl rounds  The other two are ..223 rem and the frangible round made the WTAF hole.  (I'm improperly using .223 rem for both 5.56X45mm and .223 rem as a short cut)

If each wall represented a partition of one room into another, this little demo represents three room in your home or perhaps work place.  The larger hole is the frangible round.

The full metal jacket was like a drill.  The round went in one surface and out the 4^th wall board with complete impunity, just leaving round holes.  The Federal frangible went in smoothly enough, but blew a poker chip size hole of wall board out of the 4^th wall board.

This is the back of the second wall or the 4th wall board.  There is a smaller hole below it, perhaps the bullet is fragmenting.

The first wall entry and egress looked normal, so I’ll speculate the frangible round experienced wobble around its spinning axis.   

The third wall board was enough to push it complete off axis.  I assume it hit the last plaster board sideways.  In any case, you wouldn’t want to be in its path beyond the 4^th wall board.

Well, the dream of reduced penetration is scrapped.  What about fragmentation on steel for up close training.

I had access to some damaged pistol grade steel, backed off about 20 yards and left two rounds fly.  The results were impressive.

Hollow point all copper rounds and the damage

The rounds gouged out a pit in the half inch thick AR300 steel.  The copper was pressure welded with raised ridges like some lunar crater.

Yeah, I'd call that damage.

Let’s rule out in close training, unless your steel replacement budget is huge, I mean really huge.