GFP Commision Proposes Addition of Copper Fluted Bullets for Hunting

If you read the headline and see "copper fluted bullets" and are trying to figure out what that is, don't feel stupid. You've probably seen them before, you just haven't heard them called a "copper fluted bullet."

The South Dakota Department of Game, Fish and Parks announced that the GFP Commission has proposed adding this particular type of projectile to those allowed for big game hunting. This proposal comes after it was brought to the Commission by Jeremy Silko of Rapid City.

In the submission which was published by the GFP, Silko says that bullet technology has advanced enough to allow for another type of solid, or monolithic, copper bullet. As it happens this unique type of bullet is manufactured in Rapid City by Pennsylvania based Lehigh Defense.

Expanding solid copper bullets are allowed as all bullets used for big game hunting are required to be of an expanding nature. The bullets themselves, which you may have seen in stores featured in self-defense ammunition, are non-toxic and completely free of lead. However they do not expand. Instead, according to Lehigh's website, the bullets create "a permanent wound cavity diameter exceeding that of most expanding bullets."

These bullets are primarily for handgun calibers and a small number of slower or straight wall rifle cartridges.

Would they actually work and be effective? I have no reason to doubt the technology. I wouldn't want to get shot by one. And I'm all for going non-toxic if it is effective. The only real barrier I would see to widespread adoption is the general lack big game hunters who use handguns or the slow rifle cartridges. I'll be interested to see what the studies by the commission show.