Nowadays, there is a bullet for everything. Just walking down the ammo aisle, you are bound to see dozens of different designs, even within the same cartridge. A lot of these designs are similar, but you can really mix and match them to create bullets that nearly belong to their own category. Still, the way these designs impact the cartridges’ ballistics gets more complex and interesting with every new bullet that hits the shelf. However, just knowing the general types of bullets and how they impact your performance can be extremely helpful the next time you are at your local sporting goods store.
Here I will go over the main bullet shapes and designs that you will see most often, why you would want to use them, and who they are likely best for. Handgun bullets have the most variety, so that is where we will start. Later, we will get into rifle bullets and the long range ballistics many of you are excited about.
Handgun Bullet Shapes
Handgun and pistol cartridges are usually focused on one of two things, self defense, or target shooting. Self defense bullets are designed to dump as much energy into their target as possible, often not penetrating far through what is past their target, like commercial buildings or houses for example.
Ammo focused on target shooting is usually a simple design that is cheap to produce. Since these bullets are often a bonded hunk of metal without any expansion aids, they usually penetrate well through many materials, from paper targets to entire houses. This target ammo is likely what you will see most often, so let’s start there.
Full Metal Jacket
The most common bullet you will see marketed toward target shooting is a full metal jacket (FMJ), also called “ball” ammo. These bullets are cheap to make, and you will find them in absolutely every cartridge, rifle cartridges included. An FMJ is made up of a lead core, and is surrounded by a copper jacket. There are some FMJs made from slightly different metals, or a mixture of metals, but the majority are lead and copper.
This jacket can be bonded to the lead mechanically or chemically to keep it from ripping apart on impact. These bullets are known to penetrate far into their target, and are usually used by the US military. Military use and the pure simplicity of the bullet has likely contributed to the economies of scale for FMJs, making them cheaper to produce on the civilian side, and equally popular.
Hollow Points
Hollow point (HP) bullets are designed to rapidly expand on impact, and dump most of their energy into a target as soon as they hit it. Instead of a pointed bullet, a hollow point has a hollow cavity in the tip. The size of this cavity heavily depends on the particular cartridge. Hollow points in general for handgun cartridges have been spun so many ways that there are dozens of options to choose from within this one category.
The relatively large cavity right in the front of the bullet does not help aerodynamics. You would not want to shoot very long distances with these bullets. Usually, hollow point bullets are used for close range self defense situations. They help avoid over penetration, and deposit a large amount of energy into the target very quickly, both of these are perfect for self defense against people, or dangerous game.
Most “hollow points” or self defense bullets you find on the shelf today are actually Jacketed Hollow Points (JHP). These are just like hollow points, except, you guessed it, they have a jacket. This jacket is going to keep the bullet together a bit better. Compared to HPs, JHPs will penetrate more and expand less; however, JHPs still penetrate much less and expand much more than your typical FMJ.
Wad Cutters
Wad cutters are a unique bullet. They are cylindrical in shape, and usually sit flush with the mouth of the case, but can also extend past the mouth. These cartridges have slower velocities than usual FMJ counterparts. They are usually used for target shooting, since they cut through targets well with less recoil. Pure wadcutters are just lead though, so they are known to gum up firearms, and can have issues feeding.
You can also get semi-wad cutters (SWC), which can be jacketed, and are designed to feed better. The main use case of wadcutters is target shooting, but they are also used for self defense in revolvers with shorter barrels where feeding is not an issue.
Truncated Cones
The line between semi-wad cutters and truncated cones is a bit blurred. If you made a bullet a perfect cone, and then chopped off the top third of it, you get a truncated cone. These bullets are going to provide a lot of the benefits of wadcutters, like large energy transfers and large wound channels when used for self defense. Since you will still get about the same muzzle velocity from jacketed truncated cones as you do FMJs, I would not venture to say that most users would see a huge difference in performance between FMJs and truncated cones.
Flat Nose
If you took an FMJ to a saw and cut off its tip, you would get a flat nose bullet. The bullet structure is rounded like an FMJ, but once you get to the tip, it is flattened. This flat face is going to create a higher energy transfer when the bullet hits the target. It will also rip and tear tissue more than an FMJ. You will still get more penetration from a flat nose bullet than you would from something like a hollow point though. All these reasons are why flat nose bullets are often used for self defense against animals while hunting.
General Rifle Bullet Shapes
Now that the pistols are out of the way, we can look at the long range ballistics of rifle bullets. There are not as many designs for rifle bullets as there are for pistols, although the lines between which bullet is optimal in a given scenario is more clear. Let’s start with the most basic rifle bullet and work our way up.
Round Nose Flat Based
Round nose rifle bullets are an old design that you will not find on shelves very often nowadays. These were more or less replaced before World War 1, but I wanted to bring them up to show how far we have come. If you took a modern pistol FMJ, and elongated it, you get a round nose flat based rifle bullet.
Although the high speeds of rifle cartridges cause these bullets to not retain their velocity through the air especially well. If you shave a bit of the top off and make this round more pointed, you get the ever famous Spitzer (German for point bullet) flat based bullet that we are all much more familiar with. These Spitzer bullets were also much better at feeding through a rifle, accelerating their popularity.
You can still find some cartridges that have a rounded nose like the 30-30 or the 30-06, but these cartridges are not known for their long range capability. Still, they can be very effective within a couple hundred yards, and the chunkier bullet gives the cartridge a lot of concentrated weight to hit the target with.
Spitzer Flat Based & Boat Tails
The bread and butter of rifle bullets is the spitzer. This is by far the most common bullet shape nowadays, and it does its job well. This bullet is known for being aerodynamic; its pointed shape makes it cut through the air much better than a round nose bullet. This gives the bullet a high ballistic coefficient, which is a measure of how much drag it has through the air. The higher the ballistic coefficient, the lower the effects of drag are on the bullet.
If you are trying to squeeze every bit of performance you can out of your rifle, there is no doubt that you will be using a spitzer bullet. Although the best shape of bullet to use is likely the spitzer boat tail. Unlike the flat based spitzer, the boat tail has a taper on the bottom of the bullet. This makes it even more aerodynamic and raises its ballistic coefficient. What you end up with is a bullet that flies straighter, flatter, and goes farther.
The actual difference between the flight paths of the flat base and the boat tail is a lot smaller than some people think. A boat tail will drop one or two inches less than a flat based bullet out to 500 yards, at most. For many cartridges, these two bullets stay very close together. Although the boat tail usually always comes out on top. The difference is more dramatic when you are shooting out to ranges of 1000 yards, but those details are irrelevant to most shooters.
Rifle Bullet Impact Ballistics
The shape of a cartridge has a major effect on its terminal ballistics, or how it flies in the air. However, the inner construction of the bullet and the structure of its tip can have a large effect on its impact ballistics. If you are a hunter, impact ballistics are often more important than terminal ballistics, especially if you are not shooting farther than a few hundred yards. Let’s look at some of the most common bullets with distinct impact ballistic features, starting with one of my favorites, soft points.
Soft Points
Soft point bullets are usually spitzer flat based bullets, but they don’t have to be. You will notice a “soft” lead point on these bullets, which is connected to its lead core. This point squishes back into the core on impact, forcing the bullet to expand. This creates a nice mushroom shape that sheds energy quickly.
Although the nonuniformities and the semi bluntness of the tip increase drag along the bullet as it flies through the air toward its target. These bullets have a simple design, and that makes them simple to manufacture. While it may not feel this way at the cash register, this simple design makes these bullets more affordable than other designs. Combine that with its great performance on big game, and you get a very popular bullet design.
Polymer / Ballistic Tipped
Polymer-tipped bullets are some of the most advanced designs on the market today. These bullets are crafted to maximize both terminal and impact ballistics. At their core, they resemble hollow points or soft points, but their most defining feature is a pointed polymer tip that enhances their aerodynamics. This sleek, plastic tip reduces drag during flight, significantly improving ballistic coefficient. The result is a bullet that maintains higher velocities over long distances, providing flatter trajectories and greater accuracy.
However, the real magic happens upon impact. The polymer tip is designed to drive back into the bullet, initiating rapid expansion. This controlled expansion creates devastating wound channels, making these bullets perfect for both long-range shooting and hunting large game. The ability to maintain a streamlined flight path while delivering maximum energy transfer upon impact has made polymer-tipped bullets pretty popular among hunters, especially for game like deer or elk.
Open Tipped
Open-tipped bullets, often mistaken for hollow points due to the visible cavity at the tip, are primarily designed for accuracy rather than expansion. These bullets are sometimes called Open Tip Match (OTM) or hollow-point boat tail (HPBT) bullets and are widely used in competitive shooting and long-range precision. The open tip isn’t there for expansion, but rather it’s a byproduct of the manufacturing process. During construction, lead is inserted into the bullet jacket from the front, leaving the tip open. This process creates a more consistent, evenly balanced bullet, resulting in enhanced accuracy.
Open-tipped bullets are favored by military snipers and competition shooters because they offer excellent flight stability, even over extreme distances. Unlike hollow points, they don’t expand significantly on impact, making them less ideal for hunting but perfect for achieving tight groups on paper or steel targets.
The world of bullet shapes and designs is vast, with each type serving a specific purpose. Whether you’re hunting big game, defending your home, or competing in a shooting match, understanding the characteristics of different bullet shapes can help you make informed decisions that optimize your firearms performance.
