Disintegrator: the gallery bullet is alive and well at Remington

American Handgunner, Nov-Dec, 2003 by Charles E. Petty

In the early days of World War II, the U.S. Army Air Corps wanted ammunition that trained aircraft gunners by enabling them to fire live ammunition at target aircraft without shooting them down. Lots of research was done and the result was what the Army designated as "Ball, Frangible, Caliber, .30 T-44." The bullet was a mottled gray color and was identified by green and white bands. They're often seen in cartridge collections and at gun shows.

The bullet was composed of 50 percent powdered lead and 50 percent bakelite. It weighed 107 grains and was loaded to a velocity of 1,360 fps. Huge quantities of this ammunition were loaded during and after the war.

Ever since that time there has been a use for a training bullet that allows live-fire with reduced risk to the target and shooter alike. Today's training environment is very different, but the need still exists. Many agencies use "shoot houses" where firing can be done at near-contact ranges. Couple this with the popularity and usefulness of steel targets and a frangible bullet becomes even more desirable.

If you shoot at steel targets, the chances are good you've been stung by a bullet fragment, even when you were 10 or 15 yards from the target. It happens, and I've got the scar to prove it.

In the recent past, frangible bullets have been made according to two general formulas using mixtures of elements in either powdered or solid forms. For example, one type uses a mix of copper and tin in powder form combined with a binding substance to shape and form a bullet.

Another variation uses a solid, such as tungsten or zinc. usually with a thin jacket. The other concern, since much of this ammo is fired indoors, is that it is tree of lead and other toxic metals.

Reliable lead-free primers are a reality now, but not being able to use lead in the bullet almost always results in a projectile that is lighter, sometimes considerably, than conventional bullets. This can contribute to discrepancies in point-of-aim, point-of-impact, and also, possibly, functional difficulties for semi- or fully-automatic weapons.

Hi-Octane Unleaded

It's too bad we can't use lead. It wouldn't be too hard to form a lead powder into a bullet that would be very close to the standard weight yet break up on impact. Unfortunately, the easy path isn't available, so ammunition companies have focused on alternative metals. Several of the alternatives have come close to lead. The one we're looking at today is Remington's Disintegrator.

Disintegrator is a new spin on an old idea. When I was a kid, going to the county fair was a big deal and every one of them had a shooting gallery. They took lots of my quarters. There were even stand-alone storefront galleries that operated much like today's indoor ranges. The old mechanical contraptions with moving ducks and spinning targets were really fun--I wish we had them still--but the close ranges made the use of frangible bullets essential. The old time gallery loads often used powdered lead or iron. They would satisfactorily bust a clay pipe or knock over a duck without the risk of ricochet.

Disintegrator is a very high-tech gallery bullet. It's made of iron and when it contacts steel is reduced to little more than dust. The patented bullet (U.S. Patent #5917143) is made by a mechanical process in which a mixture of iron powder with particles of different, but specific, sizes are cold compacted under pressures of 100,000 psi or more.

The bullets are made on specially adapted, high speed compaction tooling and then electroplated with copper to form a jacket that is thick enough to prevent the rifling from cutting through to the iron. About five thousandths of an inch will do. The finished product looks just like a typical full metal jacket bullet except for a little flat on the nose that gives away the molded construction.

The Disintegrator is available in a 105 gr. 9ram Luger; 145 gr..40 S&W; and 175 gr. .45 ACR Velocities are just a tad faster to compensate for the slightly lighter bullets. The 9mm is 1,220 fps, 1,135 fps for the .40 S&W, and 1,020 fps for the .45 ACP. All use a lead-free primer identifiable by the tiny letters "LF" stamped on the cup.

During my testing there was no significant difference in point-of-aim, point-of-impact and, at the relatively close ranges for which this ammo is intended, these are non-issues anyway.

We've said that one goal of CQB training is to fire at near-contact distances. Remington's data shows that 64.5 percent of the particles have hit the floor within five feet and 97.2 percent within 10 feet. When the bullet hits steel, it is reduced to dust with little bits of plated jacket. I have not seen a piece of either iron or copper that would pose a significant risk to a shooter wearing normal clothing and eye protection at any reasonable distance away from the target.

But no presently available projectile is suitable for use at very close ranges. One source suggested that if the training scenario required shooting at distances closer than 10 or 15 feet, that risk could be reduced or eliminated by placing the targets on a support of wallboard or the like placed 5 to 10 feet in front of the steel backstop. Remington reports that Disintegrator bullets behave much like ball ammunition until they contact a hard target.