How does the hollow point cause the bullet to do more damage?
“regular” bullets are quite aerodynamic. They can go into you and through you (if high enough power) making a little hole in and a bigger hole out. If they don’t exit, they pretty much stop and sit there - unless they hit bone where they can change direction or break into pieces, each moving on.
The hollow point bullet is not as aerodynamic. The hollow point moves through the air and the tip begins to mushoom out. The bullet loses some velocity and “power” but makes a bigger hole going in. Also, it is makes more of a mess inside (moving a bit more slowly and more likely to fracture or hit something).
It is also much more likely to be stopped by Kevlar™.
I got this link from google - it has a little diagram showing it. The hollow point lets the outer edge of the bullet peel back from the front as it enters, allowing it to expand in size and cause more tissue damage.
http://detnews.com/2000/metro/0008/02/d01-99468.htm
This seems like quite a good link too:
http://civic.bev.net/shawnee/ammo.html
Actually, hollow point bullets can be very aerodynamic. You can get match grade hollow point rifle ammo.
Bullets do damage by punching holes. In general, the bigger the hole, the more damage they do. When a bullet hits something, it flattens out and so gets wider, punching a bigger hole than the original bullet size.
Hollow point bullets are designed for controlled expansion. They count on soft tissue [flesh] or liquid [blood] being forced into the hollow point as the bullet hits. This increases the pressure inside the hollow part and causes it to open up, making the bullet bigger.
That’s exactly right. It’s basically firing a larger bullet (3/4" in diameter or bigger) from a .45 barrel, with the aerodynamics of a .45. As starfish pointed out, once the bullet hits, it is designed to maximize “mushrooming” or expansion, giving it a larger area and able to do more damage.
A hollowpoint is much less likely to punch straight through a (live) target, and will transfer 100% of its kinetic energy to the target, making a kill or disabling shot much more likely.
In case anyone is confused, the hollow points do not start expanding in the air. They expand on impact of a soft tissue or gellatin material. It is possible for them to be shot into 2x4s or bowling pins without expanding at all. So in flight they don’t really lose velocity.
They do more damage inside because they expand once they hit you skin. So the bullet is about twice the size going through your body. And bullets like Black Talons are specifically designed to spread in a star shape. This does much more damage for obvious reasons.
One reason hollow points are great for home defense and law enforcement is because they are designed to transfer all of the bullet’s energy to the target. If you shoot someone with regular ball ammo, it goes right through (providing it doesnt hit a really hard bone or something. By going through a person, not much energy is transferred. The bad guy just has a hole in him now and he may bleed to death eventually. The bullet continues to travel after exiting and all that kinetic energy is wasted. On the other hand, a hollow point hits and stays in the person, transferring all the energy into the person and knocking him back. Like getting hit with a bat, but worse. PLUS, he still has that massive hole in him and he is bleeding a lot.
I am no surgeon, but I bet a hole from a larger, mishapen projectile is much harder to fix than a clean round hole that goes all the way through.