Well, using the belt sander in the first place made this much quicker. Here's a '83 vintage LC M193 bullet I modified:



And just for grins, here's the same bullet with the Silver Bear for comparison:



As you can see, the M193 has a slightly thinner jacket, but not by much. The Silver Bear does have a steel jacket though.

I still believe the Silver Bear will fragment. Yes, it's a steel jacket, but at almosst 3000fps, 0.025" don't mean much. I've got some ideas on how to experiment. It may not be a Brouhaha/Tatjana-quality experiment, but it's the thought that counts...

Those are neat, thanks for sharing the pics.

Good work ZHUKOV, good information. We need more experimenters here! Let us know the results of your next project.

Great post Zhukov, put I'm gonna disagree with your statement about fragmentation.

Steel is significantly stronger than brass and the additional .005" thickness only provides additional strength to resist fragmentation. In addition, and probably more important is the lack of a significant cannular indentation on the Silver Bear. From what I've heard and read, the cannular contributes greatly to the fragmentation of the round.

You can clearly see how the cannular is pinched into the lead, distorting the jacket and crimping the lead. There is no similar indentation on the Silver Bear.

If you take a look at any of Tat's or Brou's postings on Ballistic Gel testing and fragmentation results, pinned at the top of the forum, you'll see that much of the fragmentation  occurs at the cannular.

I could be wrong, but this is my feeling.

Other than that, great post!

There's no doubt that the cannelure contributes greatly to the fragmentation of the FMJ M193 round. But it's almost like most of you are neglecting the HP aspect of the Silver Bear. It may not fragment, but I would expect it to expand into a mushroom. Not the same thing as fragmentation, but I think it ought to perform better than a FMJ version of the same round at least.

Anyway - it's all conjecture until I prove otherwise. I have about 10 or so articles published by Dr. Fackler - even corresponded with him in person on two occasions. This was back when you youngsters were still thinking Glaser Safety Slugs were awesome. Sheesh.

I was just referring to your statement regarding your feelings on fragmentation of the Silver Bear.

As far as the mushrooming, that is something completely different as you stated. My 'guess' is that the mushroom effect may be valuable at ranges above 200 yds. I don't have the ballistic table handy, but I believe fragmentation is limited to 50-200 yds limited by velocity. Once below a specific volocity, fragmentation does not occur reliably. This wouldn't seem to be an issue with the Silver Bear, as I assume that that the mushroom effect would still be occuring at ranges considerably beyond 200 yds.

It definately would be interesting to either verify or disprove our theories.