In the book Precision Shooting at 1000yds it says " The bullet leaves the barrel pointing high and retains that attitude in the air all the way to the target"

The Vihtavourie reloading manual shows a diagram of this and describes it as an over stabalized bullet.

Who is correct? I would have thought a correctly stabalized bullet would follow its trajectory.

Regards

Ray

Ray,

Most bullets are over-stabilized. They will travel nose high at extreme ranges as depicted. The nose-high attitude can cause a little bit of lift, but basically the bullet follows the expected trajectory.

Hatcher did an experiment of firing the 30-06 straight up into the air. The bullets usually landed base down and still spinning -in just they same attitude as they left the barrel.

Don

Hi Don

Thanks for the prompt reply.

Can I assume that a correctly stabalized bullet will follow the trajectory. I would have thought this would be beneficial drag wise.

I think the shooting bullets verticaly bit is a red hering as under, over and correctly stabalized bullets will all fall tail first. No disrespect intended.

Regards

Ray

I've found this site to be quite helpful with this question

http://www.povn.com/~4n6/index.htm#Contents

Vibe - Excellent technical site. Thanks for posting this. I think many shooters believe that bullets follow an arc like a football to the target. As the �How Do Bullets Fly� web site demonstrates, bullets don�t follow a true arc and there are many factors that effect trajectory dynamics.

I shoot a little bit on the 1,000 yard range. Key-holing (static stability) is a common situation. Bullets maintain a nose high attitude throughout their flight to the target. The key is addressing twist, bullet mass, and velocity to ensure adequate stability without over stabilizing the bullet. It can be a frustrating process of hide-and-seek.