Great Falls Shooting Demo

July 7, 2022

Outreach Coordinator, Hannah, traveled to “The Electric City” and co-hosted a shooting demonstration with Venery MT.

Participants spent the afternoon at the Great Falls Shooting Sports Complex to learn about the performance of lead and lead-free ammunition. We shot into water tanks and clear ballistics gels to compare fragmentation, penetration, expansion, and wound channel characteristics.

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“I’ve been curious about going lead-free for years but my husband develops all of our loads and he has been hesitant to switch,” said Katie Vivian, Co-Director of the Missouri River Shooters Association. “I came to the demo to learn as much as I could and bring the facts back to my husband. I’m excited to go home and tell him what I learned!”

“Well that’s pretty cool. Pretty impressive.” said Joe Leggett, Missouri River Shooters Association, Shooting Instructor. “I’ve been shooting this stuff for years and I had no idea it fragmented like this.”

Check out some images from the day below! If you’re interested in scheduling a shooting demo for your group or organization, please contact us!

Shooting demo setup

Hannah places jugs full of water into the shooting tanks to slow the bullet and collect its fragments.

Participants try to guess which bullet is lead and which is copper. Can you tell?

Top and middle pieces are from the lead bullet which separated upon impact. Bottom bullet is a copper bullet which remained intact.

Copper bullet after it went through several water jugs.

Sky lines up her shot at the barrels.

Participants check out the fragments from the lead bullet.