Ok I am not a physicist or any kind of mathematician but am I to believe that the 375 270gr XLC has an actual BC of .503? Come on now! I know... longer length of copper bullet and all, but I still do not buy it!
Anyone know what their actual bc's are from actual drop tests? or how in the heck Barnes figures their bullets' BC's from?

Pop,

There is a topic where the actual Ci's of Barnes X bullets were tested in some magazine.

You can measure a Ci yourself using the Ingalls charts. They work really well.

The length of the bullet is not that big a factor but the meplat is.

Search here first and then use boardreader.com

They may not meet their published BC, but neither do the Sierras, etc. I'm sure they drop a bunch after being battered in the magazine and the tips flattened. In reality, it doesn't matter much if they're BC .400 or .500 if they work as designed on game. The extra length of an all-copper bullet will make up some difference.

I made a stop at Barnes factory this summer while in Utah. There are one or two full time employees and a vault full of rifles with pressure test barrels devoted to load development and bullet testing. They have a 200 (or was it 300?) yard underground range that they use for test firing with a Oehler setup to determine BC.

They also fire bullets at different velocities into a tank of water to determine expansion.

I was impressed, but that ain't hard.

Rick

POP,

Since I mentioned that magazine article where the X's coefficients were tested I have been looking for it. I think it was on HA yesterday where it has been deleted.

They were much lower than what Barnes had published.

Holy jeeze--are those bullets in that picture or some sort of beer drinking vessel. I'm thinking the mug on the left is filled with "bock" beer and the one onthe right some sort of "amber" beer????