The Jacketed Bullet

After the end of the Civil War cartridges for firearms began to become popular, so started the beginning of the Cartridge era. Up until then black powder and pure lead bullets were thought to be the "state of the art" technology. Along with the cartridge realization came the realization that having a smaller bullet increased the velocity and offered flatter trajectories, therefore the military began making the gun bores smaller for the smaller bullets. With these realizations an upgrade in the bullets technology was in high demand, but the upgrade would not have happened if not for a slight oversight, and the new solution was to cover the bare lead in a thin "jacket" of stronger material.

As the black powder was used in the smaller bores, it was found that it fouled the barrel much quicker, thankfully another solution in the technology in smokeless propellants was in the works. This allowed the barrel to remain largely foul free, however another small issue arose. As the smokeless powder kept the barrel mostly foul free, it also provided a lot higher temperatures than the black powder ever produced. With the higher temperatures the bases of the bullets would become melted, and rub off on the barrel as the bullet was fired. Thus the simple solution of the jacket around the lead was designed. During the past 100 years almost every type of alloy has been tried as a suitable jacket casing. The most common jacket materials are steel and copper, and with copper being limited in the rest of the world, mainly steel is used outside of the U.S.A. where the most common jacket is comprised of an alloy of copper and zinc called gilding material.

Since the introduction of the jacket, it has become very popular in all modern firearms. The creation of the alloy jacket also has facilitated the ability to create hollow point bullets and other newer bullet shape technologies. Of course along with jacketed and non jacketed bullet differences allow the reloader and shooters of all types to further customize their shooting experience. This ability to custom load and shoot has help keep the sport alive, if nothing else it sure has allowed many nooks and crannies for some great companies to nudge in and make a stand on their own

As technology continues to enhance our shooting experience, it is also very important to remember the history of the shooting sport. Recently there has also been a huge rise in the popularity of old world style shooting. With lead ball, sabots, flints, and black powder popularity rising it stands to remind us what a fine history shooting has. Along with that history is the fact of how fast technology increased over the years in the craft of firearms the future outlook for the technology involving firearms looks very promising. Technology has allowed us to get bigger and get smaller in all areas of firearms, and has allowed for new creations in the areas of resources used in every area of a firearms production.