LEAD-FREE

The future of our hunting bullets.

Limiting our impact on natural environments is a major objective at Solognac, both in our hunting practices and during product design.

DESIGNING OUR EXERGY BLUE LEAD-FREE HUNTING BULLET

In order to support changes in legislation regarding the use of lead and single-use plastic, our teams are working on designing hunting ammunition using lead substitutes. They have developed a copper projectile that reduces our environmental impact while better preserving game meat.

LEGISLATION REMINDER

For several years, the environmental impact of lead has been at the center of concerns. In light of the ecological transition, the use of this material is naturally decreasing, driven by legislation as well as hunters' responsibility. This evolution reflects our shared commitment to protecting our territories and limiting impact on our biotopes.

Regarding this topic, a major milestone was reached with the implementation of regulations in wetlands. It prohibits the use of lead ammunition inside and within 100 metres of these areas (the buffer zone). This rule also requires hunters to be able to prove they are not using lead ammunition when traversing these zones.

Beyond aquatic environments, Europe is gradually moving towards a global transition. With upcoming European deadlines, lead-free alternatives (such as steel or copper) will likely gain momentum across all our hunting territories in the coming years. Anticipating this change ensures the future of our passion.

Technical details of the Exergy Blue projectile

PROJECTILE COMPOSITION

Here we dive into the technical side so you can better understand our material choices and the full complexity surrounding hunting bullet development.

Choosing a material for a projectile is complex: it requires a high density to carry a large amount of energy, but must also be relatively soft to deform inside the barrel and engage the rifling. The ductility₁ of the projectile is also key at impact to release more energy into tissue. Lead does this brilliantly, but its health impacts outweigh its ballistic qualities. So, which material can replace lead? Gold, silver, and copper are the densest elements soft enough to deform in rifling. For obvious economic reasons, copper was chosen.

Like all metals, copper has its pros and cons, but it has proven itself in rifle bullets for over 50 years.

₁The property of a material deforming easily.

Technical details of the Exergy Blue architecture

PROJECTILE ARCHITECTURE

To minimize safety risks, we opted for a bullet that expands into petals without fragmenting. As a reminder, there are 3 types of ammunition:

• fragmenting bullets: the front of the projectile separates into several fragments while the rear remains intact; this type has high lethality but causes debate over safety concerns.
• mushrooming bullets: the projectile forms a dome during penetration, like a mushroom cap. In other words, the maximum diameter can almost double, with non-sharp edges.
• petalling bullets: they form a flower shape with a defined number of petals (4, 5, 6...). These petals are razor-sharp; as the projectile spins, these petals inflict significant tissue damage.

The Exergy Blue bullet belongs to the petalling category. We selected a 5-petal configuration. The main difficulty with this design lies in the internal geometry, which must ensure expansion 100% of the time without losing any petals. In addition to geometry, a heat treatment is applied to make the front of the projectile softer than the rear. This heat treatment facilitates expansion and prevents material detachment by making the copper less brittle.

Why are driving bands present on the bullet? The projectile deforms when travelling through the barrel: this deformation can cause material displacement, which is collected by the grooves to avoid copper build-up in the rifling. The second benefit is reducing friction during travel, smoothing out the pressure peak to optimize propellant loads.

Replacing lead with another material is no simple task! Each material has specific properties used to build a unique projectile. Here, weight raised several challenges. As copper is less dense than lead, a copper projectile of equal weight will automatically be longer. Being longer, it risks instability. We decided to reduce projectile weight to maintain a length equivalent to conventional bullets, ensuring optimal stability. Eliminating lead is one thing, but for Solognac, the main objective is delivering equal performance without lead's drawbacks.

Solognac copper ballistic research and development

WHY "BLUE"? AND WHAT ABOUT PERFORMANCE?

Blue is simply the color of the polymer tip. Its role is to improve the aerodynamic profile of the projectile to maintain higher energy downrange. Moreover, it is easily spotable in game meat. Note that the polymer tip is the only part (1%) lost upon soft tissue impact. However, on bone impact, losing one or more petals remains possible. The absence of fragmentation prevents potential lead migration in meat. In the vast majority of scenarios, these copper bullets perform better than traditional Soft Point (SP) projectiles.

To evaluate our bullet's efficiency, we conducted several ballistic gel tests. Want to understand how these tests work? Here is the breakdown!

During these tests, our teams measure kinetic energy. Kinetic energy represents the energy carried by the projectile. To measure it, we calculate velocity and mass before entry into the block. Afterwards, we weigh the exited projectile and record its exit velocity. By calculating the difference in energy between entry and exit, we obtain deformation energy, physically reflecting projectile lethality.

For the following test, we compared two projectiles in gel shots: the .300 SPCE bullet and the EXERGY .300 WIN LEAD-FREE bullet. Note: the .300 SPCE is a lead-containing projectile. Results: across all shots, every EXERGY BLUE reference dissipated over 95% of its kinetic energy within a 40 cm block of ballistic gel (20% density). The .300 SPCE bullet dissipated 94% of its energy. We achieve similar performance without the harmful effects of lead fragmentation. Surprised? Performance remains a primary target for Solognac. Lead or lead-free, you won't feel the performance difference.

So where is the difference? Unlike conventional lead bullets that lose mass during penetration (due to fragmentation), EXERGY BLUE bullets retain almost all mass (losing only the polymer tip).