I'm glad you guys brought up meplat. How much is too much? For a while I experimented with an LBT Ogival Wadcutter and it was difficult to get acceptable 25 yd. accuracy with it.

Lar45 mentions the 70% meplat shooting better than larger ones. Will a 50% meplat shoot better yet? Better than a roundnose?

This calls to remembrance something I read on blackpowder cartridge rifles. It was determined that the Postell design (also basically the Sharps paper patch design) was the most aerodynamic shape at relatively low velocities. In the same article it mentioned that a great deal of work had gone into the design of .22 LR ammunition for target shooting. The standard .22 bullet is a little Postell, in this case I think I remember it was due to accuracy and not bullet drop.

So is a small meplat better than a roundnose? How?

Valdez,
My experience with a 230 gr. 44 ogival wadcutter was similar to yours -- that sucker would not stabilize at any speed. So I was surprised when the 90% metplat shot fine in Lar45's 454. But that was a longer and heavier bullet, about 340 - 350 grains if memory serves. It's length may have given it better aerodynamics.

The same 44 doesn't like Keith's either, but shoots fine with ogival noses providing the metplat is not overly large. I think the ogive may help to guide the bullet into the barrel. But if you have a gun with good barrel/cylinder alignment and a gentle forcing cone angle, then a Keith should shoot just as well.

IMHO the story about Keiths being better at long distance is just another myth that Keith fans invented to avoid admitting that the Keith's design advantages were just a figment of Elmer's imagination. Look at the wheelgun bullets that the top IMHSA shooters are using on 200 meter rams -- ogival flat points with moderate metplats, in both cast and jacketed flavors. If the Keith bullet had a long range advantage, don't you think the IHMSA guys would be using it?

By the way, when Elmer was still around, and when 44 wheelguns still ruled the roost at IHMSA matches(before the short rifles took over and ruined the game), one of the Idaho IHMSA clubs invited Elmer to come to their matches and demonstrate some of that long range handgun shooting that he liked to brag about. He never showed up.