Light Bullet Versus Heavy Bullet: Which to Choose? | Winchester Ammunition (2024)
Selecting hunting bullets is something like ordering restaurant meals: do you want the heavy meal or “lite”? Heavy bullets have been trusted for hundreds of years for obvious reasons: dropping a bowling ball on your foot hurts a lot more than a golf ball!
Ah, but whack that golf ball with a 100-miles-per-hour club swing and you might change your mind. A basic rule of physics is that double weight doubles energy, but doubling velocity quadruples energy. This is what enables us to terminate 1,000-pound moose with bullets weighing less than a half-ounce!Knowing this does little, however, to clear up the confusion over various bullet weights offered in most cartridges.
Winchester, for instance, offers 30-06 ammunition with six different bullet weights. The little 308 Winchester gets six, too, and the 223 Remington is offered in nine! Why so many options? And which should you choose for what kind of shooting?
As a general rule, the heavier the game you hunt, the heavier your bullet should be. This is because heavier slugs always carry more energy. In a given caliber, they will also have longer shanks which aid in maintaining momentum for deeper penetration.
Another general rule is to use the lighter bullets in any caliber for a flatter trajectory. In 30-06 Springfield, Winchester’s 150-grain Ballistic Silvertip drops 7.3 inches at 300 yards (with a 200-yard zero.) Its 180-grain Ballistic Silvertip drops 7.9. That’s not a huge difference, but that will increase with range. At 500 yards the lighter bullet shoots 3-inches flatter, maybe the difference between hit and miss.
Something else to consider, though, is wind deflection. If bullets sport similar shapes such as boat-tail spire points and both are launched at maximum velocities, the heavier bullet will deflect less in crosswinds. Again, this isn’t a huge difference, but it, too, magnifies at long range. Because wind is fickle and ever changing, it’s more difficult to judge it and compensate accurately than to remember to aim a couple of inches higher to defeat good old, unchanging gravity. For this reason, many seasoned hunters choose heavier bullets for their hunting.
But then there’s recoil. If you’re sensitive to the buck of a discharging rifle, you’ll appreciate the reduced recoil of the lighter bullets. Recoil is the cumulative results of muzzle velocity, powder weight and bullet weight. Heavier bullets kick more than light.
Finally, you need to consider your shooting goals. Punching cans or paper hardly calls for a heavy bullet or an expensive, controlled expansion model. Inexpensive FMJs like the 147-grain in 308 Win and 30-06 or the 55-grain in 223 Rem. make perfect sense for plinking. Where lead-free bullets must be used, the 35-grain Ballistic Silvertip LF in 22-250 Rem. and 223 Rem. are perfect.
Remember also that bullet construction can offset some loss in mass. In 270 Winchester the 130-grain E-Tip and 130-grain Razor Boar XT, both monolithic copper hollow points, are tough enough to stay in one piece at high impact velocities and penetrate to and through the vitals of the largest game.
Ron Spomer has been hunting, shooting, and writing about it since 1976. His articles and photos have been published widely in magazines, newspapers, books, and websites. Ron has been the long-standing host of Winchester World of Whitetail. He’s roamed round the world in pursuit of big game and small game species alike. If you need to know anything and everything about hunting and ballistics, Ron is your man.
And which should you choose for what kind of shooting? As a general rule, the heavier the game you hunt, the heavier your bullet should be. This is because heavier slugs always carry more energy. In a given caliber, they will also have longer shanks which aid in maintaining momentum for deeper penetration.
Lighter grain ammunition generates more speed overall than heavy bullets. This results in maximum accuracy and a straighter trajectory over a longer distance. While light grain bullets are fast, they sacrifice energy to maintain their accuracy.
Lighter weight generally means more speed and distance, but also more recoil and less power at the target. Lighter bullets are good for competition and long-range shooting. Heavier weight generally means more effectiveness, making them excellent for defense, large game, and combat.
Recoil also causes the muzzle of a pistol to rise and rotate due to the centreline of the barrel being above the centre of contact (to the shooter). An established fact is that at a given PF a heavier bullet going relatively slowly will produce less recoil (and muzzle rise) than a light bullet going faster.
Weapons that use Heavy Rounds tend to deal more damage per round but fire slower and have more bullet drop compared to weapons in its class that use other types of ammo.
For self defense, a heavier bullet gives you a better chance at stopping a threat. There are people who swear by a heavier bullet weight in their self defense rounds. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) recently selected Hornady Critical Duty . 40 S&W 175 grain as their bullet of choice.
The higher grain weights are better for range & training ammo, as they're generally lower velocity, which means a little less felt recoil. For defensive purposes, the slightly lighter, higher velocity 155-165gr rounds are going to pack the best punch.
Overpressure ammunition, commonly designated as +P or +P+ (pronounced Plus-P or Plus-P-Plus), is small arms ammunition that has been loaded to produce a higher internal pressure when fired than is standard for ammunition of its caliber (see internal ballistics), but less than the pressures generated by a proof round.
The Best 9mm Bullet Weight. Generally, shooters can't go wrong with a basic 115-grain load when training. This ammo tends to be among the most affordable for 9mm shooters. 124-grain or 147-grain FMJ and TMJ offerings are also great general purpose loads for range time.
While this particular cartridge is offered in various configurations, the most common is the 115 gr. full metal jacket (FMJ). This is an excellent round for practice, matches and informal “plinking.” However, it is a terrible choice for self-defense because of its penetration capability.
Which is more important in a bullet round, mass or velocity? Short answer: Velocity — bullet energy increases with the square of velocity, and only in linear proportion to mass. A bullet moving just 10 percent faster (880 fps v 800 fps) has a 21 percent increase in energy, but only a 10 percent increase in momentum.
So, 9mm Luger is the most common name you'll see listed by manufacturers and ammunition stores. (Unless they simply have it listed as “9mm.”) The name honors Georg Luger, the German firearms engineer who in 1901 designed the cartridge for the German Weapons and Munitions Factory (DWM).
Heavier is not more accurate than lighter (or vice versa). However, certain grain bullets can work better in certain conditions. For example, you may want to choose a heavier bullet for a long-range shot on a windy day, because the wind would blow a lighter bullet off course.
Note that the heavier bullets (of each type) had a higher actual remaining velocity at 1000 yards despite starting out slower. The heavier bullets also retained a higher percentage of their initial muzzle velocity.
The heavier the projectile, the more effect a faster spin will have on it. This is why you tend to see slower twist rates for heavier, slower projectiles, and faster twist rates for lighter, higher velocity projectiles. Too much spin – or not enough – will destabilize a round instead of stabilizing it.
So, when comparing two same-caliber bullets, the one with the larger mass (hint: the heavier one) will have slightly greater momentum and therefore will hit the target a little harder and penetrate a little deeper.
Introduction: My name is Allyn Kozey, I am a outstanding, colorful, adventurous, encouraging, zealous, tender, helpful person who loves writing and wants to share my knowledge and understanding with you.
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