leadball, my little mental foray into the world of Schuetzen seems to have come to the same conclusion that BP target shooters in the 1800s did, namely that 1500 fps or so is about as good as it gets (with BP). You mentioned the BR shooters striving for higher velocity. It was a question I put on a BR forum that led me to the information that wind drift declines at higher Mach numbers. The typical Schuetzen fps is worst for wind drift, but the advantage in tolerance to fps changes seems to fully compensate for this (when compared to subsonic). Were jacketed bullets allowed in Schuetzen, the game would quickly home in on the solutions BR shooters now use, namely long pointy boat-tailed bullets at high speeds. There'd be no point in calling it Schuetzen any more, and there'd be no comparing modern scores to the old ones. One might argue jacketed bullets should be acceptable if the fps is limited to traditional Schuetzen fps, and there might be advantages in accuracy to be gained from this. In looking at a few sites for custom bullets makers for BR, it seems even jacketed boat-tails can have problems with erosion on the boattail as the bullet peeks out of the muzzle, with this in turn affecting accuracy. Erosion may explain why lead boat-tail bullets aren't made (or at least not common). Long pointy boat-tail bullets would reduce wind drift even at Schuetzen speeds, and I must wonder if the "rebated" boat-tails some BR shooters are using would be feasible in lead bullets for Schuetzen. Wads might be a problem, though. So, it seems I've convinced myself that the solution found in the 1800s--flat base bullets at 1500 fps--was the best possible for the technology of the day, which was BP and lead. The only way forward at BP velocities might be paper-patched, hard metal bullets. These were played with in the 1800s, but I don't think the theory of the day pointed them to the streamlined shapes we know of now. If you could get the jacket to shed neatly and get the wad to deal with the small bullet base, there might be some improvements to be had in drift dispersion in Schuetzen. A quick test would be to try the all-copper moly coated bullets from GS Custom. If the accuracy warranted it, plain sided versions for paper patching could then be made and tried. Thanks for all the comments everyone, Karl
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