Given a bullet with the same length and weight, would the twist have any effect on the bullets stability or drift in the wind?

Absolutely due to several factors but I will just bring up two of those for now.
1. The bullet could be under stabilized.
2. The bullet could be over stabilized.
With both examples being on the ragged edge of stability a puff of wind could / would push them over that ragged edge.

J.Louis

Doc T there is so much about the bullets flight it becomes mind boggling, Dr Mann has pretty shown that to us. Little things like the locations of center of gravity and center of pressure being move just a tad one way or the other and it's a whole new ball game again. Having slightly nose up or nose down attitudes during flight with the bullet yawing around its center of mass along with some of the other little things also taken place prior to and post the bullet going to sleep makes one wonder, it does me anyway how it becomes possible to continue to get it into that 1 1 1/2 ring time after time in calm conditions. Then add the wind to the whole picture either blowing over the top of it as its spinning towards the target or under it and that self wonder is greatly magnified.

J.Louis

I also have to add that if you have not had the opportunity to sit behind a competitor at his bench and watched his bullet fly down range to the 200yd. target you are missing a unique experience. That bullet make a great big cork screw rotation and then drops into the target. It by no means is even close to taking a straight flight path to the target and it is a real amazing and eye opening site to behold.

J.Louis

Dr Tom you will learn more than you could ever have dreamed of, not by reading books but by spending countless hours behind your rifle. If you are like me you will never leave the range without having something to try before you even get off of the property. This has held true for me going on 14 years now. You will be amazed at what will find when thinking, trying and doing things out of the box. There are still a tremendous amount of unknowns and things out there yet to be tried and definitely more than one could ever accomplish in one lifetime. At times it seems as if when those experimenters, innovators and great competitors passed on time came to a sudden stand still. They lead the way with new means and methods to improve accuracy and no has picked up where they left off to carry on. Instead they do as they did and nothing improves. It has been my passion to keep going where those greats left off in hopes of being able give yet more to bring others to a higher level with a new ability for them to improve their scores.

J.Louis

Irascible wrote on Oct 28^th, 2012 at 2:05pm:

Let velocity, caliber and bullet length remain constant
Bullet stability is not affected by the wind.
Therefore, bullet stability is not affected by the wind at any twist.
Wind drift is not affected by twist.
(Magnus forces etc. affect stability, hence rifled bores.The object of rifling is to get and keep the center of pressure behind the center of gravity.)
joe b.

"Let velocity, caliber and bullet length remain constant Bullet stability is not affected by the wind."

That is hard to grasp. I don't know how many have been headed down the highway at 70 miles an hour in a vehicle say 10ft long, 5ft. wide with a moderate to stiff wind coming out of 3 o'clock that did not experience instability. To look at it yet in another aspect, spin a top and apply a moderate to stiff wind from 3 o'clock and then watch to see if it starts to loose it's stability.

J.Louis

"Analogies… and certainly I could be wrong." 

That certainly holds true for me as well and a very interesting conversation none the less. If the car was heading into a strong head wind and the top was also doing the same, spinning into a strong head wind would anything change in regards to altering the stability.

J.Louis