Hydrostatically Stabilised Bullets

Woodleigh Bullets has been built on evolving and changing and, to meet this demand, Woodleigh have begun marketing a range of Hydrostatically Stabilised bullets.

Hydrostatic stabilization is a technique that has been used in the brass extrusion industry for many years. It is a method of producing pierced hollow bars to very precise concentricity by using tool design to harness hydrostatic forces to centralise mandrels when punching through brass billets.

Woodleigh Hydrostatically Stabilised Bullet - For the first time this concept has been used in bullet design to harness the same forces to produce a bullet that resists deflection and achieves deep straight-line penetration.

The task was to design a bullet that would bridge the gap between traditional expanding bullets and modern solids. These new generation hydrostatically stabilized bullets deliver tremendous shock transfer with deep penetration and extremely reliable straight line performance.

The depressed nose at the leading edge of the bullet 'cores' the medium (flesh) through which it is travelling which then creates a 'pressure ring'. The coring and pressure ring balance each other out to stabilise the bullet in the direction of travel. If the bullet hits hard bone the flesh core dissipates but immediately reforms and the balance between it and the pressure ring restabilises to redirect the bullet in the original direction of travel.

Additional benefits of this design are that the pressure ring creates a devastating wound channel and massive hydraulic shock transfer. The bullet actually travels in a low pressure cavitation bubble which aids in bullet stabilisation and greatly increases penetration due to significant reductions in frictional forces acting on the bullet (ref Fig. 1).

Figure 2

Figure 2

Monometal Expanding

Hydrostatic

Full Metal Jacket

This homogenous bullet is made from a specially formulated copper alloy. Only the purest raw materials are used in its manufacture. The result is a bullet that has better toughness than modern homogenous bullets but creates breach pressures similar to standard gilding metal jacketed soft nose projectiles. This combination of materials and design allows for good regulation in most types of nitro double rifles, as well as good accuracy in magazine rifles.

In line with good practise when using this type of bullet in magazine rifles we strongly recommend that all ammunition is cycled through the magazine to ensure that feeding is reliable prior to going on a hunt.

Another desirable feature is the shallow driving bands and full diameter body. The driving bands combined with the materials used keep pressures low and minimise stresses on barrels. The full diameter body (land diameter) has two beneficial effects. The first is that the bullet is more stable as it travels through the barrel because it is fully supported which in turn results in more reliable accuracy performance.

As this bullet does not rely on expansion for its killing effect, it side steps the problem of erratic expansion suffered by some other types of expanding monometal bullets.

The second is that the weight of the bullet is more evenly distributed from front to back which also helps to prevent bullets tumbling within game animals. This combination of engineering and metallurgical principles combined with cutting edge CNC technology has taken bullet design to the next level.

With this bullet, the age old problem of 'Do I use a soft point or a solid?' can be put to bed, whilst at the same time side-stepping problems of unreliable expansion or petal separation experienced by some homogenous expanding bullets.

Designed to be totally reliable whether you are hunting thin skinned game in heavy cover, elephant in the Africa jesse, or everything in between. Now available with caps.

Woodleigh Hydrostatically Stabilised bullets feature the following characteristics:

Non toxic, environmentally sensitive.
Unequalled straight line performance.
Deep penetration, totally reliable wound channel.
Clean entry wounds to assist bleeding that will not close over.
Can be used in most nitro double, and magazine rifles.

Stainless Steel tipped Hydrostatically Stabilised Bullets are currently under development.