RPM/engraving vs. Terminal Ballistics

[sscoyote]

What's the collective opinion here? Would overstabilizing or overengraving a match bullets jacket effect its ability to come apart on impact, in effect creating a match bullet with varmint bullet characteristics??

[meichele]

Over stabilizing a bullet will surely make it tear apart more upon impact. The exception might be a solid copper bullet. The faster you spin a bullet, the more it will explode.

[MAX]

Over-stabilizing, I think not. Over-engraving, maybe...a little. All just my opinion but rpm contributes little to bullet expansion or tissue damage. Even very high twist rates will result in only 1-2 rotations in a deer on a broadside shot. The engraving thing, I'm not real sure about. Match jackets tend to be thin so if you have very deep grooves, perhaps this would contribute to frangibility, but it would be difficult to quantify. If I was going to worry about adverse effects from high twist rates my first choice would be inflight blow-up, the second, jacket slippage. Both would be evident on the target board.

Boyd Heaton has posted several photos of exit wounds from the SMK's. They make a big hole anyway.

[sscoyote]

Had a buddy of mine that was shooting a Savage .223 with a 1:9 twist, and I was vey impressed with the explosive effect his gun had on pr. dogs with the 50 Nosler. Most of the time it would blow parts of the dog to the right on impact. I now have an AR 1:9 twist, and was just theorizing if i could get better terminal ballistics at longer ranges from the VLD's with a 1:7 on a coyote with a deeper groove diameter. I think it'd be hard to quantify the difference, but theorizing's fun sometimes.

[meichele]

Allow me to rephrase, it is a scientifec fact that the faster the bullet spins, the more explosive it will be.

It is no coincidence that the 7mm Mag is so much more explosive than a 300 or 338. Unless the latter have very tight twists.

[sscoyote]

So theoretically assuming identical veocity the faster twist should be more explosive. I guess this is part of the problem with the .17 cal 37 gr. VLD. A lot of guys were experiencing bullet blowup on barrel exit.

[Tim Behle]

sscoyote,

Are you planning on building a new rifle to shoot those 37 grain pills?