Barnes TSX Triple Shock
This solid copper bullet has an innovative nose cavity that predetermines and controls expansion, and it features circumferential relief grooves in the straight, bore-bearing section of the bullet. Firing tests show that the bottoms of these grooves are not engraved by a barrel's rifling during firing, greatly reducing the bearing surface of the bullet.

Being a homogeneous copper bullet, there is no core and jacket separation issue. A specially shaped cavity in the forward section of the bullet produces a predetermined and predictable formation of petals during expansion. The depth of the cavity also determines the degree of expansion. Uniformly shaped expanding petals fold back, and expansion stops when the bottom of the nose cavity is reached.

This type of bullet penetrates most deeply of any bullet in test after test. Under ultra high velocity close range impact, the expanded petals tend to break off, leaving a smaller frontal diameter for greater penetration with reduced meat destruction. At the same time, the blunt front end transmits considerable shock to surrounding tissue.

Expansion at normal downrange impact velocity produces a beautifully symmetrical front end with four petals. The Barnes TSX expands with a relatively long bullet shank, no matter what the impact velocity. The near 100 percent weight retention (at normal impact velocity) maintains kinetic energy. This, combined with the bullet's controlled smaller front end formation, results in deep penetration

Winchester Fail Safe
One of the most complex bullets on the market, the Fail Safe, available in Winchester factory ammunition, has a solid nose section sans a lead core up front but with a lead core in the rear of the bullet. This core is surrounded by two steel inserts nested together in the .30 caliber, 180-grain configuration. It is all capped at the base. This bullet penetrates deeply with a controlled smaller frontal diameter and near 100 percent weight retention at normal impact velocity.

Hornady InterBond
The Hornady InterBond is a red-plastic-tipped bullet with a boattail and an overall shape designed for a high ballistic coefficient. The jacket walls are thick and unusually shaped with a type of scallop in the forward section that results from the thinner forward jacket being pressed inward during bullet point formation. Together with a thin base design, the InterBond produces positive bullet upset and mushrooming at low velocity while the thick walls and bonding produce a fairly high retained weight even when the bullet impacts at high velocity.

Norma Oryx
The Norma Oryx is the shortest bullet of all because of its relatively thin cup-type jacket and blunt tip. This is an advantage if you have a rifle with a short magazine box, for example; the bullet base does not have to be seated very deeply inside a case and will intrude less into the powder space for a given overall cartridge length. However, this short length also gives it the lowest ballistic coefficient of all the bullets I tested.

Although the bullet expanded with an unbelievably large frontal diameter at ultra high impact velocity, it also penetrated the least of the group. Even so, the bonded bullet maintains its integrity and retains a very high percentage of weight. Generally, the bullet expands with four petals and even at normal velocity produces a good-size frontal area to transmit a maximum amount of shock to an animal. While the bullet expands almost to its base under ultra high impact velocity, under normal impact velocity it retains a considerable shank length and weight.

Nosler AccuBond
This bullet has a sharp plastic tip (white) and boattail base for a high ballistic coefficient. The AccuBond is formed by an impact extrusion process from a billet of metal rather than from a flat sheet. The base and jacket base walls of this bullet are very thick and taper thin toward the forward section, resulting in a wider (larger diameter) lead core in the forward portion of the unfired bullet. The AccuBond expands right down to the base during high velocity impact while, like most bullets, a relatively long shank is retained under normal to low velocities. While the AccuBond penetrated well during all tests, it shed also the most weight (among bonded bullets) during both high- and low-velocity testing.