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Sleep deprivation or good idea?

PostPosted: Thu Jul 07, 2011 9:49 pm
by Stealthshooter
I was just starring at a pic of the solid brass bullets and I had a thought. I know the reason some don't want a BT bullet is because of the case space it takes up. My thought was to make a a bullet with a slight BT but have the BT hollowed out a bit so it doesn't take up as much powder space. What do you guys think? It may be a good way to get a lighter bullet with a good BC?

Re: Sleep deprivation or good idea?

PostPosted: Fri Jul 08, 2011 5:35 am
by Jim in Houston
Another consideration with a hollow boat tail would be the aerodynamics of the turbulence around the base of the bullet as it traveled to the target. Would the hollow create a low pressure area and additional drag on the bullet, and if it was "off center" would that turbulence cause the bullet to tumble.

Re: Sleep deprivation or good idea?

PostPosted: Fri Jul 08, 2011 8:01 am
by pitted bore
Stealthshooter-

I'm unclear how much the boat tail contributes to ballistic performance. At the velocities that can be obtained with the smaller 45 cases, the few thousandths the boat tail may add to a BC value will make little practical difference in trajectory or remaining velocity. If the bullets were stuffed into the 460 Wby case, the boat tail might make a measurable difference.

Barnes' own pointed original 458 bullet #45701 300 Grain Semi-Spitzer with a Flat Base has a BC of 0.291, which is higher than their two Boat Tailed bullets.

(I wrote the above in a thread here last Oct, but it still applies.)

--Bob

Re: Sleep deprivation or good idea?

PostPosted: Fri Jul 08, 2011 10:23 am
by Stealthshooter
I've been running number after number and BC makes a huge difference! This is the reason I've decided to go try the 400 grain bullets over the 300 grain bullets. The loss in speed is more than overcome by the gain in BC! It's evident even at 300 yards! Here are some examples I think if I push them hard I can get better numbers but these will do.

http://www.hornady.com/cgi-bin/ball10.c ... =Calculate

http://www.hornady.com/cgi-bin/ball10.c ... =Calculate