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Flat based vrs. boat tailed bullets
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Something I never thought about came to mind the other day as I was buying bullets. For bullets that come in both a flat base design and a boat tail design of the same weight. The Hornaday 150 grain .308 bullet comes to mind. I was wondering about the flat base having more bearing surface on the rifling. Has anyone noticed one to be inherently more accurate?


Don Nelson
Sw. PA.
 
Posts: 622 | Location: PA. U.S.A. | Registered: 12 May 2002Reply With Quote
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Bech rest shooters use flat base bullets, at least most do.
I've read some where that boat tail bullets are not needed for 95% of the time. As I remember from the article, until you reach out to 500 to 600 yards there's very little difference.
With my 243 I used 70 and 80 grain BTHPs for groundhogs because they were the most accurate. In my 25-06 I used Speer 100 hollow points, flat base. In 308 I use a 168 grain BTHP in one rifle. In the other 308 rifle I use 150 grain flat base bullets.
Jim


"Whensoever the General Government assumes undelegated powers, its acts are unauthoritative, void, and of no force." --Thomas Jefferson

 
Posts: 6173 | Location: Richmond, Virginia | Registered: 17 September 2000Reply With Quote
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+1 on what Arky said. I have 2 .223's. One prefers the 52gr Sierra BTHP and the other likes the 53gr HP with the flat base. Usually, when I'm starting out with a new rifle, I start out with flat based bullets.
 
Posts: 1287 | Registered: 11 January 2007Reply With Quote
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quote:
Originally posted by Jacobite:
... Has anyone noticed one to be inherently more accurate?
Hey Don, Yes.

The problem is that some rifles just prefer one Style over the other when distance is short.

As the distance increases, there is a whole bunch of other variables that come in to play and a Boat Tail "normally" shoots more accurate way out yonder.
---

If you are shooting to see who buys the BBQ, then it is VERY important up close to have the "most accurate" one. Normally shooting at Game and Varmints inside 400-500yds there isn't enough difference to get concerned over.

But, that Boat Tail does make getting the Bullets into small cases a bit easier for those of us with large hands.

Good Hunting and clean 1-shot Kills.
 
Posts: 9920 | Location: Carolinas, USA | Registered: 22 April 2001Reply With Quote
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But wouldn't it be hypocritical for someone with the handle "Hot Core" to use a boat tail bullet?? Wink
 
Posts: 1416 | Location: Texas | Registered: 02 May 2003Reply With Quote
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three points here
1. Boat tails have better aerodynamics and shoot flatter but it's not noticeable until about 300 yards

2. I have never noticed one more accurate than the other

3. Boat tails tend to shed their core more easily than flat based bullets for big game hunting.

There are two special types of boat tail bullets.....the ones where the lead extends into the actual boat tail geometry and ones where the lead is contained ahead of the boat tail geometry. I avoid the former ones but the latter make fine hunting bullets.

I won't hunt with this type bullet:


But this type is a very good design:


The latter BTW is a Nosler solid base bullet and a superbly good cup and core bullet and ranks with the best of them for big game up to about 400 pounds.


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Posts: 28849 | Location: western Nebraska | Registered: 27 May 2003Reply With Quote
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quote:
Originally posted by olarmy:
But wouldn't it be hypocritical for someone with the handle "Hot Core" to use a boat tail bullet?? Wink
Big Grin Hey olarmy, Then I'm "guilty"! Big Grin

Huuummm, I do use both. Does that make me only half guilty? Wink
---

Heck, I even do some Hunting with Bullets that are built EXACTLY like the ones Vapo won't use. They do create a problem though - dragging Deer out is tough on us old folks! rotflmo
 
Posts: 9920 | Location: Carolinas, USA | Registered: 22 April 2001Reply With Quote
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quote:
Originally posted by Hot Core:
Heck, I even do some Hunting with Bullets that are built EXACTLY like the ones Vapo won't use. They do create a problem though - dragging Deer out is tough on us old folks! rotflmo

Roger uses them too....
animal


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Posts: 28849 | Location: western Nebraska | Registered: 27 May 2003Reply With Quote
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Are those not sierra bullets?


Don Nelson
Sw. PA.
 
Posts: 622 | Location: PA. U.S.A. | Registered: 12 May 2002Reply With Quote
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Shoot the one that works best in your gun. There are many new boattails out there with bonded cores, interlocks, etc. so all the old rules get thrown out.


Frank



"I don't know what there is about buffalo that frightens me so.....He looks like he hates you personally. He looks like you owe him money."
- Robert Ruark, Horn of the Hunter, 1953

NRA Life, SAF Life, CRPA Life, DRSS lite

 
Posts: 12740 | Location: Kentucky, USA | Registered: 30 December 2002Reply With Quote
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quote:
Originally posted by Jacobite:
Are those not sierra bullets?

Yes they are!


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Posts: 28849 | Location: western Nebraska | Registered: 27 May 2003Reply With Quote
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Actually my main deer bullet is the Nosler Ballistic Tip.


Don Nelson
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Posts: 622 | Location: PA. U.S.A. | Registered: 12 May 2002Reply With Quote
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I think every rifle bbl. is diff. but it's easier to get flat base bullets to shoot better. That nice full bore flat base leaves the bbl. just a bit straighter. I don't think there is much benefit to a BT until well after 300yds. Then the extra BC helps w/ both wind & drop.


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Posts: 7752 | Location: kalif.,usa | Registered: 08 March 2001Reply With Quote
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heh... boattails load in the case during reloading easier!!

the rest is choice


opinions vary band of bubbas and STC hunting Club

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Posts: 39936 | Location: Conroe, TX | Registered: 01 June 2002Reply With Quote
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Gents
It's wonder that our fore fathers could bring down any game with a firearm prior to the boattailed bullet.
The whitetail in Virginia die very nicely at 100 to 125 yards using a store bought corelokt or silver tip.
The only use for 'premimum' bullet, that I have, is the Sierra HPBT for groundhogs in my 243 and I'm shooting them way out there. The 25-06 likes Speer 100 flat base HPs for the same purpose.
I'm a bit cynical as to the actual use of the 'premimum bullets' outside of the occasional elephant, rhino, buffalo, wooly mammouth, mastadon, etc.
I don't believe that the big game on this continent have gotten any tougher nor the average shooter has gotten to be any better marksman.
Jim


"Whensoever the General Government assumes undelegated powers, its acts are unauthoritative, void, and of no force." --Thomas Jefferson

 
Posts: 6173 | Location: Richmond, Virginia | Registered: 17 September 2000Reply With Quote
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quote:
Originally posted by arkypete:
...I'm a bit cynical as to the actual use of the 'premimum bullets' outside of the occasional elephant, rhino, buffalo, wooly mammouth, mastadon, etc. ...
Hey Jim, I've been giving it a bit of thought and can't remember a time that I had a problem using regular old Standard Grade Bullets on a Wooly Mammoth or a Mastodon. Big Grin

Good Hunting and clean 1-shot Kills.
 
Posts: 9920 | Location: Carolinas, USA | Registered: 22 April 2001Reply With Quote
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quote:
Originally posted by Hot Core:
quote:
Originally posted by arkypete:
...I'm a bit cynical as to the actual use of the 'premimum bullets' outside of the occasional elephant, rhino, buffalo, wooly mammouth, mastadon, etc. ...
Hey Jim, I've been giving it a bit of thought and can't remember a time that I had a problem using regular old Standard Grade Bullets on a Wooly Mammoth or a Mastodon. Big Grin

Good Hunting and clean 1-shot Kills.


Back when I was a kid we hunted wooly mammoths a lot and we used to take the bullets apart and put pine pitch between the core and cups and reassembled them to attain an additional amout of "bonding" as we often incurred separations of same on the mammoths. Had we known about tin to make solder we'd have invented bonded bullets way back then!!!!

As the Mammoth went by the wayside there was little use for the "pitched" bullets and we just used the standard cup and core since! Big Grin


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Posts: 28849 | Location: western Nebraska | Registered: 27 May 2003Reply With Quote
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I too, was distressed with the jacket and core separation, so I got rid of the jacket and and shot cast bullets.
Wingo, bango problem solved.
The simplest solution is usually the best.
Jim


"Whensoever the General Government assumes undelegated powers, its acts are unauthoritative, void, and of no force." --Thomas Jefferson

 
Posts: 6173 | Location: Richmond, Virginia | Registered: 17 September 2000Reply With Quote
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Jim,
Apparantly you drove your Mammoths over a cliff and then shot them at close range with those cast lead bullets....here on the plains we had to shoot them at longer range and the jacket bullets were necessary to achieve the velocities needed to kill them at longer distances. Cool


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Posts: 28849 | Location: western Nebraska | Registered: 27 May 2003Reply With Quote
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I read somewhere (probably on this forum) that the ridge(?) where the boat tail starts to taper down is hard to keep perfect so that the bullet leaves the crown square. I did have one nosler ballistic tip that you could see this defect on. I shot it in a marked case with a load that is proven to group well and it was a flier. maybe some truth to it.
 
Posts: 168 | Location: Thomaston GA, USA | Registered: 11 January 2005Reply With Quote
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quote:
Originally posted by vapodog:
Jim,
Apparantly you drove your Mammoths over a cliff and then shot them at close range with those cast lead bullets....here on the plains we had to shoot them at longer range and the jacket bullets were necessary to achieve the velocities needed to kill them at longer distances. Cool


Nahh
You flat landers are just impatient. Want to get the shooting and kill over with quickly. Where I like to take my shot, light a smoke, stand up and watch the bullet get there.
It takes confidence to do that.
You on the other hand need to shoot, see it happen and be ready for the second shot.
Jim


"Whensoever the General Government assumes undelegated powers, its acts are unauthoritative, void, and of no force." --Thomas Jefferson

 
Posts: 6173 | Location: Richmond, Virginia | Registered: 17 September 2000Reply With Quote
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quote:
Originally posted by arkypete:
quote:
Originally posted by vapodog:
Jim,
Apparantly you drove your Mammoths over a cliff and then shot them at close range with those cast lead bullets....here on the plains we had to shoot them at longer range and the jacket bullets were necessary to achieve the velocities needed to kill them at longer distances. Cool


Nahh
You flat landers are just impatient. Want to get the shooting and kill over with quickly. Where I like to take my shot, light a smoke, stand up and watch the bullet get there.
It takes confidence to do that.
You on the other hand need to shoot, see it happen and be ready for the second shot.
Jim


clap beer thumb


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"Socialism is a philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy, its inherent virtue is the equal sharing of misery."
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Posts: 28849 | Location: western Nebraska | Registered: 27 May 2003Reply With Quote
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quote:
Originally posted by vapodog:
quote:
Originally posted by Hot Core:
Heck, I even do some Hunting with Bullets that are built EXACTLY like the ones Vapo won't use. They do create a problem though - dragging Deer out is tough on us old folks! rotflmo



Roger uses them too....
animal


Hey!! clapI almost missed this one.

When I was bringing up six kids in Colorado, venison, elk, trout other wild game and home raised cattle were were our main diet along with a couple neighboor's chickens.

I go out amoung the deer every week now, but haven't had to drag one out in 13 years . My kids are in their 40s and 50s and I have to sacrafice myself now by eating prime rib, choice Porterhouse, and occasionally a tender Boston butt roast. Once in a while a kind young buck will drop off some antelope steaks or an elk tenderloin. boohoo

VD is right though I do use them and they all go through paper or splatter on steel plate. One bullet did dispatch a 125 lb. Halibut in Alaska a couple of years back.

Lately, because of a great buy, I've been using a number of HP FB Berger bullets. Let me tell you those things could spoil an ole hand.

BOOM mgun roger


Old age is a high price to pay for maturity!!! Some never pay and some pay and never reap the reward. Wisdom comes with age! Sometimes age comes alone..
 
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