bullet bases

rimfire72

Flat base or boattail,which is more accurate? I seem to get a little better accuracy out of the boattails (Nosler Ballistic Tip),but not by much. I've noticed that a lot of "target" bullets are flat based. Does the base really make that much of a difference?

8yellowfintuna

I haven't really noticed any differance between the two, but I do prefer boattails. All my guns shoot a group you can cover with a quarter at a hundred yards...

"Beam me up Scottie"

bsally

Someone that knows alot more than me may tell us otherwise, but here is what I have always thought. The boattail reduces drag. That in-turn flattens the trajectory. Does nothing for accuracy. The bullet drop may be more with a flat base, but the accuracy potential is the same. The quality of the construction, ie. consistancy, bullet to bullet would seem to do more in the accuracy dept.

SALLY
Committee member-Ducks Unlimited

mrbruce

As a rule flat base bullets are more accurate inside of 300 yards than the boattails are. The boattail starts to really shine after 300 yards and out.
No bench guys I know of use boattails in the bench matches at 100 and 200 yards.
The Nosler BT is a very well made bullet that shoots extremely well at any range.

Gun control is hitting what your aiming at.

vytis

Boatail bullets came into widespread use during WWI for the purpose of long range machine gun barrages. While they are ballisticaly superior to flat base bullets, they don't really offer that much of an advantage till velocity falls below the speed of sound. (1120 fps or there abouts if memory serves correctly) Therefore unless you are shooting modern hipowered stuff at extreme ranges there isn't much of an advatage to boatails. There are some potential issues about greater bore erosin than with flat bases and core retention in some hunting bullets ( not Nosler), but these concerns may be more theorectical than practical. It's a free country (sort of) so take your choice. If they give tighter groups out of your guns go for it!

JustC

I agree with mrbruce,..after 300yds the boattail is the king.

why chase the game when the bullet can get em from here?....
Got Balistics?

bpost

Flat vs. boattail, nose drag excceds base drag above supersonic, base drag exceeds nose drag below supersonic. There is a huge difference in the below supersonic max ranges due to the base drag.

I like the boat tails since they are more self alinging in the case neck while seating. I don't have BR seating dies to cradle the bullet while going into the case.

Pinhead

This subject used to be standard fodder for the gun magazines of the 50' and 60's--less so now-a-days. I have seen a lot of opinions by a lot of "experts" about which is best but I have only seen one or two that were based on scientific test data and those were by the U.S. Army after WWII. They could detect little or no real difference in boattail verses flat base bullets as far as accuracy was concerned except in 2 groove barrels, which leaned ever so slightly in favor of flat based bullets. Boattails tended to shoot slighly flatter at longer ranges which made them a little easier for the average rifleman to hit with at say 600 yards or more--but not in itself an indication of better bullet accuracy. Highly trained marksmen usually shot the flat based bullet with the same degree of accuracy as the boattails. The erosion of the barrels were measured and the rifles shot with boatttail bullets showed a slightly accellerated erosion(not greater erosion) rate compared to the flat base.