I was wrong, the name of the exploding bullet was "Devastator". Loaded by a small company, and advertised heavily in Shotgun News at the time.
Wrongway, with all due respect, you might talk to your marketing guys, and your R&D guys. Frangible bullets are designed primarly for safe range use, the bullet disintigrates and there is minimal danger of ricochet or lead backsplash. Black Talons were simply a good JHP design that was a victim of Winchester's own marketing campaign.The original BTs haven't been on the open market for several years. All hype and anti-gun BS. BTs wouldn't do any more than any other well designed JHP.

Rambo had some exploding arrow points, but not bullets.

Instead of Rambo jokes, why don't you do a search on Dogpile or Google for Devastator Bullets. You will find all the news stories about Hinckley's use of them during the assasination attempt. I don't really care if some don't believe what I have posted. Look for yourselves. I could have cut and pasted about a dozen urls, look them up.

As has been said, the media knows squat!

they were probably trying to examplify a hollow-point or expanding type of bullet.

I have to agree with the media misinterpreting fragmenting bullets as exploding. Actually, they get more ratings that way. My cxp2's work in this manner. With the nossler partition the back half of the bullet will hit the front of the bullet causing it to fragment on impact. I have never had a pass through but have found numerous bullet fragments upon butchering. Personally I think it is a far more humane way to kill large game. They die alot faster and run much shorter distances. In fact I shot a 415 lb bear with my 270 and he didn't even take a step or make a sound. I just wish the media wouldn't make gun owners look like complete a$$holes just so they can make a buck.

Here`s the ones I found in a mag.

Hi Charley,

I believe you. Devastator bullets were marketed for awhile.....they didn't work very reliably (if memory serves me corretly), and they got way to much bad press. Which really lead to a short "commercial" lifespan. I don't remember all the details, (and short of looking them up), if I do remember correctly...they had something inserted in the head of the bullet. Either it was a primer....or something similar to that...(ie. a small detonator). But if I also remember reports on them conducted independently....most failed to explode!

But they did exist...and you are correct. They were the bullets used in the attempt on the President's life. And the bullets got a "huge" amount of bad PR as a result.

It would be very easy to log onto the government's site....but I still believe that exploding bullets have some extreme limitations, restrictions, placed on them for civilian ownership.

Dave

Reagan was shot with a 22LR CCI Stinger,they were labled as an exploding bullet back then. I believe you can still get these. All they do is fragmentate.

I should know enough to let sleeping Bubbas lay, but here goes. Zrexpilot, you kinda loose credibility when you speak of an event of twenty years ago, but don't know what ammunition is currently on the market. Yes, CCI's Stingers are an expanding bullet. No, they are not explosive. Yes, they are still currently on the market.


I realize that this feller don't have no qualifications, except as the head of Forensics Department at a major university, but try reading his letter anyway. The writer outlines the differences between expanding, pre-fragmented, and explosive bullets rather neatly. He is a Brit, so some of his terminology is a bit different. Go to: http://jcp.bmjjournals.com/cgi/eletters/56/4/254

My cousin was sitting in a port-o-potty in Iraq & a RPG exploded 100 yards away. It scared him sh*tless... literally.