Boat-tail benefit only @ sub-sonic ?
Sounds odd to me, but that is what came out of the shop at lunch yesterday.
Tiny says 'he read' where boat-tail bullets are only beneficial during sub-sonic flight, and are no better than a flat base during super-sonic portions of the flight.
An INDEPENDENT EXPERT is the only thing that will settle this.
Tiny says 'he read' where boat-tail bullets are only beneficial during sub-sonic flight, and are no better than a flat base during super-sonic portions of the flight.
An INDEPENDENT EXPERT is the only thing that will settle this.
0
-
Id say thats incorrect. My Sierra reloading manual shows that when Sierra boattail bullets are launched at the same velocites as same caliber and shape Sierra flatbase bullets, that the boatails end up retaining more velocity and flying flatter supersonic. 0 -
Make Tiny stand in the corner at break. To about 300 yards not a lot difference on minute of whitetail. A good loading book with trajectory tables will furnish proof. 0 -
The boat tail helps reduce base drag. The bullets nose creates most of the drag at high speed. The nose drag has the greatest effect at high supersonic speeds with both bullets, but there is just a very slight edge BECAUSE of the lower base drag of the BT bullet. However, when going slowly the base drag has a higher percentage of impact on the projectiles flight. That is when the boat tail becomes more efficient and surpasses the flat based bullet. 0 -
The boattail advantage may be slight but it is worth having.
Long Range shooters universally load boattail bullets and make darned sure they are still supersonic at 1000 yards. If you are shooting so far that you cannot keep the bullet supersonic, you must choose very carefully and a boattail is not all you need.0 -
Most long range shooters will go a step further and try to keep their velocity above trans-sonic at 1000 yards. Some bullets go wobbly at trans-sonic velocities while others may not. Some bullets, even flat base, will stay stable until they fall to the earth from lack of velocity. So, there is no hard and fast rules except those that Mother Nature enforces.
Ray0 -
I would say that it says it all. quote:Originally posted by forgemonkey
,,,,maybe this will help,,,[;)]
http://www.appliedballisticsllc.com/index_files/BulletDesign.htm0 -
With all due respect to Bryan, he needs to go to a couple of Benchrest matches. What he says about Benchrest bullets was true 10 years ago but not any more. Many winning shooters do use boattailed bullets at short range. And, I'm talking about world-class shooters at big tournaments, not your average Joe Blow at the local match.
And, winning Benchrest shooters also use flat based bullets at many of the mid-range (600 yard) Benchrest matches.
Most Benchrest shooters still use the long boattailed bullets at one thousand yards, primarily because of the reduced wind deflection resulting from the higher BC. And, VLD bullets do not necessarily give up any accuracy compared with the non-VLD types. It takes extra effort to develop accurate loads for the VLDs and they are more sensitive to twist and seating depth. Therefore, many shooters do not use them which gives the mistaken impression that they are not as good as the conventional bullets.
Ray0 -
Thank you ALL for your replies...GREAT...as usual.
forgemonkey, thanks for the url ! It was excellent for this task and a good educational read for these Red Blooded Americans.
I slipped a copy through Tiny's thermos handle when I punched in. He was very quiet at lunch.
(I had copied the replies and the url , they went through the xerox machine several times.)0 -
quote:Originally posted by Cheechako
It takes extra effort to develop accurate loads for the VLDs and they are more sensitive to twist and seating depth. Therefore, many shooters do not use them which gives the mistaken impression that they are not as good as the conventional bullets.
Ray
Ray,
I heard the same thing. However, I am loading 165 and 175 VLDs from Matrix in my .270AI without any depth seating issue as I did with Bergers.
I also know guys loading them below the recommended twist rate with success.
Ed0
Please sign in to leave a comment.
Comments
9 comments