I'm about to order a new mould.  This for a .38-72.  Perhaps not a perfect schuetzen caliber but that's what it is.  I'm happy to order a custom mould for this rifle and use it for a bunch of things, including silhouette and who knows, even 1000 yds perhaps. 

But, if I was only going to shoot it at 200 yds matches what would be the optimal bullet shape roughly.

Right now, the silhouette and Creedmoor shooters are using very long noses on their bullets - noses that are 1/2 of the bullet's overall length.  They need super aerodynamics to hold enough energy out to 500 meters to knock off a ram, and they need all the ballistic coefficient they can get for minimizing wind at 1000 yds.   

But what about 200 yds?  The emphases on power and BC are really not so important.  Would a shorter nose be best?  What shape?  A postell type of shape, or something else?

This rifle has a 14 twist and shoots only black powder at about 1300 fps or a bit more depending on the bullet of course.  So, a bit different than the average smokeless rifle running at least 100 fps faster and easier on the bump up.   

It seems that bullet design gets little attention on this board and perhaps a good discussion of it is in order.   

Any suggestions?   

Brent

Craig, 
This is what I have in mind.  It will be paper patched for a 14 twist barrel with a 0.368" land diameter.  Probably in 16:1 or 20:1

It is darn close to Dan's designs

I think it will do fine for silhouette, but not so sure about 200 yds Schuetzen where the long nose may cause more problems than it solves.  Note that Dan's designs and the Long Range bullets of Sharps and similar have noses that are about 1/2 the total length of the bullet - or more (60% for the Sharps LR bullet).  These may have issues with slumping that overwhelm their advantages in the wind, while the reverse might be true at longer range.

The Darr bullet that I've seen is no pretty thing, but I have seen it do very well in smokeless loads.  Not too hot in bp loads.  It's nose is quite a bit shorter.  


I see that the diameter did not come through for some reason.  It is 0.361" as drawn.
Brent

Craig, I wish I had the answer.  I am sure that they are out there somewhere, though maybe not in the Schuetzen literature.   

FWIW, with my .45s, I use swaged bullets that I can make any length.  I often shoot 475 or 500 grs bullets that have a slight semi-wadcutter like ogive on them.  They make beautiful round holes and they fly very well out to 200 yds.  Their noses are short, sometimes flat nosed even, and I don't worry much about aerodynamics over such as short distance.  However, maybe I should.   

True the wind does not have as long to act on them, but if they get blown half an MOA off course, I probably just lost at least a point on the target, just as I might for the same 1/2 MOA at 1000 yds.  So, I'm not sure protection from wind drift is really all that much MORE important at 1000 than at 200.  A point is a point and can easily be the difference between first place and first looser, to quote HST.   

But one thing might happen more with poorly aerodynamic bullets. They may become much less stable as they slow down. I don't know this - I'm guessing.  So, if the short nosed bullet starts out more stable by virtue of a better balanced nose, it may loose that advantage relative to a longer nosed, more aerodynamic bullets that starts out a smidgeon less stable but looses additional stability more slowly along the way.   

In an extreme case, a bullet that might be okay out to 200 might be tumbling terribly at 1000.  In fact, I have had something that might be like this with my bullets in loads I developed for my last Creedmoor match.  There, I had good accuracy at 200 yds with nary a sign of anything like a flier.  But a week later the same loads were putting 1 in ten bullets in the dirt 200 yds or more in front of the target.  Something wasn't right.  I think it was not the bullet per se but the patch.   

Anyway, short vs long range will probably require different bullets and different compromises.  I just don't know anything about them.

I sure would like to hear how the Darr Borton bullet shape came to be, but that may be a trade secret I suppose.   

Brent