LEAD: "Flowers", "Mushrooms" and "Pancakes".......ummmmm ummm!

If you've ever wondered how air gun projectiles perform when they hit objects, then wonder no longer!  These "objects" range from flesh to steel to fruit to water filled bottles/jugs to ballistic gel on down to rubber mulch and plumbers putty.



While many an air gun lacks the all out foot pounds of energy (FPE) compared a powder burner, the one thing that they do have is that just about all the projectiles made for an air gun is either PURE LEAD or a 20-1 mix (Lead to Tin).  Bullets and Pellets.  What does this mean you ask?  Well, pure lead is very soft and malleable and can often be scratched, dented, smashed, mushroomed, flattened, or even reshaped with just your fingers.  Airgun projectiles can be made from a variety of soft metals but anything other than pure lead will create a performance void when compared to pure lead.  Antimony, Tin, Bismuth or any other type of metal simply will not perform like lead will.  Especially at many air gun speeds/power levels.  Lead is one of our planets most plentiful elements and is normally only dangerous when ingested, inhaled or SHOT WITH....lol!  It is by far one of the best and cheapest metals for our sport.

So if lead is this soft, imagine what happens to lead when its pushed 600+- MPH and its hits an object that's soft or solid?  And this is the premise of this post...........

Let's take a look:

A MUSHROOMED .25 cal Predator Polymag pulled from ballistics gel at 10 yards (930 fps).

A MUSHROOMED 7mm 20-1 HP bullet after impacting 2 jugs at 110 yards away. 880+ fps.

  

 

MUSHROOMED Predator PolyMag in 20 caliber after impacting ballistics gel at 10 yards.  880 fps



 

PANCAKED.454 cal/220 gr bullets after impacting AR500 steel at 75 yards!  660 fps.



PANCAKED .308 20-1 bullets after impacting my AR500 steel swinger set at 100 yrds.  880 fps.













 

MUSHROOMED .457 310 gr HPs recovered from Plumbers putty set at 50 yards.  800+ FPS.

 

MUSHROOMED .257 cal HP shot into Ballistics gel.  900 FPS.

 

A FLOWERED trio of .251 slugs after hitting a electricians junction box from 100 yards away.



 

A MUSHROOMED .22 cal Predator PolyMag recovered from Ballistics Gel at 880 FPS!





MUSHROOMED .308 148.5 gr HPs after impacting Duct Seal from 55 yards away!



 

 

FLOWERED 7mm cast bullets after hitting my AR500 plate placed at 200 yards downrange!

 

MUSHROOMED 220 gr .454 cal Raptor bullet after impacting a pigs skull at 40 yards.  660 FPS!



 

A lastly, this is the aftermath of the OBJECT that these projectiles (above) hit:



 

Corsair 308 vs Jack Haley 457.  Jugs set at 91 yards.  Both guns using HP projectiles.

 

Pool ball hit by Corsair 308.  Set out at 55 yards.



 





So as one can clearly see, for air guns, pure lead is one awesome performer and helps the projectile tremendously in transferring its Foot Pounds of Energy on target.  With current bullet casting molds and practices and current pellet making techniques, projectiles and air guns are getting more and more accurate (when combined) and sophisticated (polymer tipped, tin and HP projectiles).

 

DISCLAIMER:  ALWAYS WASH YOUR HANDS WITH SOAP AND WATER AFTER HANDLING LEAD! NEVER PUT YOUR FINGERS IN YOUR MOUTH, EARS AND OR EYES WHILE HANDLING LEAD!

 

For more information on LEAD, please either Google and Wikipedia it.

 

Stay tuned.