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Author Topic: XP & Cavitation  (Read 2081 times)

Offline Sabotloader

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XP & Cavitation
« on: February 28, 2015, 11:23:40 AM »
Dutch on another forum posted this information about Cavitation or Supercavitation.  He was kind to try to explain to me the theory of Operation of the new Lehigh XP bullets.

As noted in an earlier post the penetration is enhanced by the flat surface on the front on the bullet. The mechanism is called super cavitation. A typical flat point bullet will have a round, flat meplat. If the meplat is a large enough diameter it will create a vapor bubble that will be large enough to form a cavity around the body of the bullet. This vapor cavity effectively eliminates all drag that would be produced by the target medium (liquid and remember flesh is mostly water so this applies to the chest cavity of a game animal). The only drag is from the meplat itself. This is why non-deforming, flat pointed bullets always penetrate further in a liquid medium than do non-deforming sharp pointed bullets. It seems counter intuitive at first but it really is true.

When looking at the "x" shaped damage created by this bullet in ballistic gel, I think we are seeing two things. First the extreme penetration of the bullet is a certain indication that super cavitation is in play here. The "x" shaped wounds look to me to be the result of shock waves emanating from the arms of the X as the bullets travels through the gel.

One other thing to point out is the super cavitation only works in a dense medium like water, ballistic gel, or animal flesh. Pointed bullets are much better in air. Penetration in air is measured in thousands of yards! The military calls it maximum effective range and spitzers have a much longer MER than do blunt bullets.

There was a article several years ago in Scientific American magazine about super cavitation. It seems the Russians developed a 300 mph torpedo! It has a rocket motor instead of screw and a hardened flat meplat to generate the vapor cavity around the body of the torpedo. Thank goodness they never figured out a way to steer or guide the torpedo because there were no fins or rudders in the water to turn it. Had they found a solution it might have instantaneously obsoleted our submarine fleet.

Thank you Dutch

Keep shooting muzzleloaders - They are a blast!!

Offline Soady

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Re: XP & Cavitation
« Reply #1 on: March 05, 2015, 10:00:31 PM »
My question is what would be the primary performance difference between the copper and the brass projectile/bullets both being the same weight fired with the same respective powder charges and sabots?Given the fact that both bullets share the same basic design, same weights and the only difference I see being the copper bullet has the cannula groves and the brass has the scored groves. Oh and the $$ difference copper versus brass.
Any input or shared knowledge as I have not found any on the web to say otherwise. Willing to entertain plausible theory at this point.
Whatever........

Offline Sabotloader

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Re: XP & Cavitation
« Reply #2 on: March 06, 2015, 07:21:34 AM »
My question is what would be the primary performance difference between the copper and the brass projectile/bullets both being the same weight fired with the same respective powder charges and sabots?Given the fact that both bullets share the same basic design, same weights and the only difference I see being the copper bullet has the cannula groves and the brass has the scored groves. Oh and the $$ difference copper versus brass.
Any input or shared knowledge as I have not found any on the web to say otherwise. Willing to entertain plausible theory at this point.

The easiest answer I can provide is.. The brass is harder than copper and does not deform as much when it hits a hard surface.  A copper bullet will deform slightly when hitting hide and soft tissue and they deform a lot when hitting bone.  This deformation increases the frontal surface area of the bullet and expends energy on the deformation process and both factors reduce the penetration.  The brass will not deform at all on hide or soft tissue and much less in bone so the velocity stays higher and the bullet path straighter providing deeper penetration.

Because of these qualities of brass the Federal ATF will let manufactures use any brass bullets in any pistols, because of the increased penetration and the fear/fact that it will penetrate BP vests, which at this point copper bullets do not.



Keep shooting muzzleloaders - They are a blast!!

 


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