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this post was submitted on 15 Oct 2026
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Why is lead used for bullets?
It's heavy and soft
Don't forget cheap.
Ok guys, can we leave OP's mom out of this for even one thread? This is serious.
So is a ton of feathers. Lead is dense.
And heavier is better because it does more damage?
It maintains more momentum.
Throw a ping pong ball and a golf ball, see which goes farther.
Also, it's easier to throw a golf ball accurately than it is to throw a ping pong ball.
Also golf ball hurts hell of a lot more.
Also, golf balls have cute little dimples.
Lead being a soft material is a part of it too.
A lead bullet deforms on impact, getting wider, which causes more damage as it passes through flesh.
It also deforms in the barrel, allowing the grooves to impart a spin, improving accuracy
That's a property of the copper jacket, not the lead core.
Nope. The core is the strength of the bullet. If it were steel, you can bet your ass that thin copper jacket is not going to magically allow the bullet to squish through the barrel.
Well, both really. As long as the metal is sufficiently softer than the steel of the barrel.
also easy to DIY lead bullets for cost and prepper types.
Kinetic energy = (mass * velocity²)/2. It's not as important as velocity, but yeah it's important. The real key is that it is soft. Meaning it will deform more readily when it impacts a target. When it deforms it spreads out, creates a larger wound channel, and more effectively dumps its energy into the object it hit target than just cleanly passing through.
That said, these days there is a big push to move to all copper bullets for hunting. They're more expensive, they don't deform quite as well, but they do consistently pedal now, they don't shed mass, and they're basically inert to our bodies. I practice with cheaper lead core bullets, but I have the more expensive copper stuff to hunt with.
Because it is very dense. A heavier bullet carries more momentum, will travel further for a given speed and be less prone to drift from wind, thus more accurate. Lead is just the cheapest densest stuff available. Bismuth is becoming the popular non-toxic alternative, but it is a fair bit more pricey than lead.
It's dense, cheap, and has a low melting point making it easy to cast.
The study points out that it is twice as cheap as alternatives.