Hi all,

After reading the articles in the recent ASSRA Journal base the late Harvey Donaldson I started digging around for other articles he had written. I came across this one from Handloader magazine and had a question regarding Mr. Donaldson's opinion on bullet shape. 

The article starts with

"July 14, 1966
I have read the very comprehensive article by Ken Waters on handloading for the 30-30 case. Ken has done a fine job in preparing his material. I believe my old friend Townsend Whelen would have enjoyed reading this article.

I feel certain that there are many of the old-timers in this shooting game who will agree with what Ken has written. I fully believe if he had tried the Lyman gas-check bullet No. 31141 cast one to fifteen, and sized down to .311 inch, he might have made tighter groups. My own experience in shooting several rifles in .308 caliber recently has led me to believe that this particular 175-grain 31141 bullet will give far better accuracy than any other bullet in this caliber that have tried. If shooters will go to the trouble to check over bullets No. 311291 in round point and No. 311375 in spitzer point, I believe they will agree that the bullet that I am using (No. 31141) is a lot better balanced. You might check with the No. 43 Edition of the Lyman Handbook.

You may note that this flat-nose bullet is much like the 32-40 bullet No. 319247 that we used in the old target rifles back around 1900. If anything, No. 31141 is even a better balanced bullet. With the advantage of the gas check, it can show a velocity of from 1,600 to 1,800 feet per second. In my experience, I always got far better results in regard to accuracy at 100 yards where the velocity was under 2,000 fps, by shooting a flat-nose bullet. If Harry Pope were around today, he would tell you the same thing.

There was nothing to prevent Pope from having any bullet shape he wanted, but he found the flat-nose bullet gave the best results. So ... who are we to argue with that old-timer..."

The article goes on. So my questions are:

1) Does anyone know what he means by a 'better balanced' bullet? I looked up these cast bullets in Lyman's handbook and took a picture (sorry for not the best quality). Looking at them I don't quite follow if he's referring to the ratio of bore rider to bands or something else. All are around 170 grains.

2) Does anyone know why the flat nose in Donaldson's and Pope's opinion was a better choice? 

Thank you!
-Dave

I'd postulate;

#1 high balance = large load window... pressure and velocity tolerance 

#2 the shape/form role in combating slump... Eagan moulds come to mind on the distinct angled nose vs rounded ogive

Thanks all so far. 

Reading up on the flat-nose topic I note in Randy Wright's book Traditional American Schuetzen Rifles on page 105 he mentions that spitzer bullets are more finicky regarding finding a good load and that they do their best work so long as you keep the velocity in the supersonic region their whole flight. 

Spitzers do a better job of 'bucking the wind' because they have a higher ballistic coefficient than the round-nose or flat-nose but I'm not sure why they wouldn't perform as well once their speed drops towards the sound speed. I'm thinking there must be some dynamic instability forming, but I haven't found anything in the literature on the topic.

Barry Darr, in some of his writings, said the flat nose bullet was superior in some instances, I have a problem with this but, I’ll leave it to the experts, I wonder if NASA makes a flat nose spaceship. Ledball