From: Norman Johnson <njohnson@marlin.nosc.mil>
Newsgroups: rec.guns
Subject: wood destroying bullets
Date: 7 Mar 1997 00:34:34 -0500

#The object is for a team of two shooters to cut a two-by-four in half
#in the shortest possible time using handguns.  There are no
#restrictions on caliber, magazine capacity, sights, number of guns, etc.

#My question is this.  Does anybody have any first-hand comparative
#information as to which style bullet will cause the most damage to a
#thin piece of wood like a two-by-four?  I handload and have on hand
#plenty of styles of bullets, but nowhere to test them out for
#performance on wood.

#Also, would jacketed vs. hard cast vs. swaged (soft) lead make any
#difference?

In my experiments with slow moving lead bullets, I have concluded that the
flat wad cutter, or still better, the cup point filled with grease will tear
up wood faster than any other shape that I have used.  

Pure lead bullets can be driven plenty fast to do the job at short ranges
and the devestation of a grease filled gaping cup point is really
impressive, even at very low velocities.  

If you do not have a mould or press to cast or swage the cup point, next
best thing is to cast a pure lead flat base bullet and load it backwards. If
your bullets are sized to fill the gun's throat well, standard .38 and .45
velocities will not give excessive leading.  Addition of 2% tin to the pure
lead will not harden the alloy appreciably and will aid in good mould
fill-out.  

This sounds like a good game and I have no doubts that heavy bullets at very
slow speeds will do the job well while keeping recoil recovery time to a
minimum.  

God Bless!

Norm