When professional shooters begin to win with it and when the consumer at median wage can afford to choose between projectiles then it has a chance at being the future. Till then its just another shiny object to most.

Editor: These bullets were developed before Ruger, and there are versions of Polymer-Copper Matrix bullets with conventional conical shapes. I have loaded just about every kind of pistol bullet you can name, and shot lots of matches with steel plates. I can tell you, I’d much rather handle these than lead bullets and I would much rather have these impacting close-range steel than jacketed bullets. Bottom line, as far as I’m concerned, these bullets offer a lot of benefits for training and gun games. I’m not so convinced they are as good or better than conventional bullets for self-defense purposes… but so what? Over the last decade I’ve probably shot 50,000 pistol rounds… and not one was intended to kill. The overwhelming majority of pistol bullets are shot in training, for fun plinking, or in gun games such as IDPA and Cowboy action.

Secondly, the bullets are designed to break apart at impact. This means conventional roll crimp dies would break the nose of the bullet right at the case mouth. They must be taper crimped and to the proper amount to stress the bullet but not fracture it.

Add these two factors together and we generate a new set of problems for the reloader.
I realize people have been loading Barnes bullets for decades and they have a much longer bearing surface. This is different.
We don’t want the 90gr bullet loaded into Joe’s 380 at max pressure for 90’s. Big problems.
Learning to properly crimp, well a smart guy could figure it out, but bullets get wasted doing so. It’s actually kind of comical how we used to test ours to see if the crimp was correct…

If the components became available, reloaders would need to take a small step back and learn a few different things. Powders and primers that work BEST with these bullets are also slightly different.

One other thing not pointed out in the article is this. If the only type of bullet used at these indoor ranges are copper frangible, then the entire amount shot is recyclable. Sweep it up, put it in a barrel and make new bullets out of it.
Or, .. sell it as scrap copper.

Editor: Mike wrote: “Secondly, the bullets are designed to break apart at impact. This means conventional roll crimp dies would break the nose of the bullet right at the case mouth. They must be taper crimped and to the proper amount to stress the bullet but not fracture it”. I’m not convinced this is true at all. These are not soft like gum drops or really brittle like hard plastic. I think most of the negatives discussed relating to these matrix bullets are offered by people who have never touched them, loaded them, or shot them.

Faster and lighter bullets for calibre (aka low density) and a poor ballistic shape means these bullets will have a very high level of drag, slowing them down rapidly. None of their marketing media seems to show velocity over distance.

Also, once a subsonic, the flutes will more than likely spin up or spin down the projectile. A similar fluting technology is used to deliberately destabilise training projectiles, limiting their range.

Whether this is a problem at the ranges pistols are normally used at, 0-25 yards, is another matter entirely.

Neil

How, exactly, is this a benefit over conventional ammo when shooting at 25 yards or less?

Editor: Fair point… but not all pistol work (even plinking) is “at 25 yards or less”. We regularly shoot steel at fifty yards for fun and challenge, and it’s fun to hit a gong at 100.