New Bullet Design

[fariswm]

As a 14 year old boy in 1960 living on the prairies of Alberta I purchased my first high powered rifle through the mail for the steep price of $9.95. It was a .303 British. I was so delighted. I took it out of the box, took mineral spirits and quickly cleaned off the cosmoline. It didn't take me long with a saw and a piece of glass and some sand paper to have it sporterized. I was delighted. I could purchase ammo for next to nothing including tracers. I spent many great afternoons shooting gophers, rocks, cans etc. and many interesting evenings shooting tracers into hillsides. I shot my first deer with it in the coolies of the Milk River Ridge. What an experience.

Since then I have always loved to shoot, hunting from Alaska to Texas, and while I haven't killed a big game animal in over 20 years, I still shoot hundreds of rounds a year at targets, bottles of water, and rocks- mostly with my kids and their kids.

I have made my life as a successful entrepreneurial inventor in chemistry applications in the tire industry and fly fishing, as well as the golf industry.

Now I have decided to develop a better bullet. Not to change design, but structure. My objective, by example, is to give us all a .284 bullet with the profile of a Sierra 162 gr. Matchking, but with a weight of over 180 grains- maybe even 200 grains.

I have a staff of engineers and chemists in my business that I already have working on this. I expect to make the first bullet within 4 months.

While I won't be discussing the proprietary development of the bullet, I would like to ask all who would like to provide input to do so. What would you like to see? If you were developing a new bullet, what would you change?

I will keep everyone posted as we progress if there is a dialogue generated.

Thank you.

 

[Varminator 911]

What I'd like

On this forum BC is king. Need a BC of at least 0.9, over 1.0 better. You cann't have the profile of a 162 SMK and meet this goal.

Must expand reliably over a wide range of velocity, idealy 1200 to 4000fps, yet retain at least 70% of mass for penetration.

Must be highly accurate and easy to develope an accurate load.

To me these are the big three but I'm sure others will have more ideas.

 

[fariswm]

I appreciate your input.

Where do I go for input on how to design the BC to .9 +?

 

[James Jones]

Having a bullet with a profile of the 168gr SMK and a 180+gr weight is going to lower the BC and it will not be able to be pushed nearly as fast further increasing its problems.

I would like to see a bullet with the profile of a 180gr Berger but only weigh 150-160grs !! this would give you a BC near .700 and the ability to drive it faster and still use a conventional barrel with a 1-9 twist. I think that the only way this would be doable is with a large aluminum or poly tip like the A-max bullets , the poly tip would also enhance the ability for this realy long bullet to expand at lower speeds

also a bullet desgine like the barnes Tripple shock that has several bands that engage the rifling would help to cut down on the surface area contact in the barrel "drag".

so basicaly a Barnes tripple shock bullet (solid copper alloy) with the same experior profile of the 180gr Berger and a slightly larger polymer or aluminum insert than a 162gr Hornady A-max.
I'm thinking that this bullet should weigh around 165grs have a very high BC , be able to withstand the warp speeds that rounds like the Allen mags produce without ripping apart and have little interior barrel drag due to the bands in the bullet shank

 

[ss7mm]

Sounds interesting although I'll have to remain skeptical until I see proven results.

Until then I'll just keep shooting the 200 grain ULD RBBT 7mm bullets that I've been shooting for several years. They work great, have the profile I want, the BC most dream about and long range performance that causes adverse reactions to an animal's longevity.

Keep us posted as you develop these newly designed projectiles from Idaho.

 

[fariswm]

Having a bullet with a profile of the 168gr SMK and a 180+gr weight is going to lower the BC and it will not be able to be pushed nearly as fast further increasing its problems.

I would like to see a bullet with the profile of a 180gr Berger but only weigh 150-160grs !! this would give you a BC near .700 and the ability to drive it faster and still use a conventional barrel with a 1-9 twist. I think that the only way this would be doable is with a large aluminum or poly tip like the A-max bullets , the poly tip would also enhance the ability for this realy long bullet to expand at lower speeds

also a bullet desgine like the barnes Tripple shock that has several bands that engage the rifling would help to cut down on the surface area contact in the barrel "drag".



so basicaly a Barnes tripple shock bullet (solid copper alloy) with the same experior profile of the 180gr Berger and a slightly larger polymer or aluminum insert than a 162gr Hornady A-max.
I'm thinking that this bullet should weigh around 165grs have a very high BC , be able to withstand the warp speeds that rounds like the Allen mags produce without ripping apart and have little interior barrel drag due to the bands in the bullet shank

I appreciate this input. Looks like there may be a couple of bullets we need to do. Being new to this game, I will get some Berger bullets and see the magic with my own eyes they seem to have.

The high SD bullets will find their way into my hunting loads.

 

[fariswm]

Sounds interesting although I'll have to remain skeptical until I see proven results.

Until then I'll just keep shooting the 200 grain ULD RBBT 7mm bullets that I've been shooting for several years. They work great, have the profile I want, the BC most dream about and long range performance that causes adverse reactions to an animal's longevity.

Keep us posted as you develop these newly designed projectiles from Idaho.

Please tell me who makes these ULD RBBT bullets so I can get some and study them.

 

[jwp475]

Ther are numerous short to medium range hunting bullets on the market. This is a long range hunting site, hence the use of high BC bullets. Long and Lean is the name of the game

 

[ss7mm]

Please tell me who makes these ULD RBBT bullets so I can get some and study them.

I know you're fairly new here, but recently there was a thread that got pretty involved and it concerned what I, and many others, thought to be slightlyimproper ways to treat someone that had developed a cartridge.

I feel the same way about bullets. I know anyone can buy any bullet available and do what they want with them, but my way of dealing with friends that are in the business of making bullets dictates that I'd not supply any bullets to anyone that wants to see, copy, glean ideas for possible manufacturing of competetive bullets. Nothing personal and I know you can get them from other sources but I'll just keep mine and shoot them thank you.

 

[fariswm]

I know you're fairly new here, but recently there was a thread that got pretty involved and it concerned what I, and many others, thought to be slightlyimproper ways to treat someone that had developed a cartridge.

I feel the same way about bullets. I know anyone can buy any bullet available and do what they want with them, but my way of dealing with friends that are in the business of making bullets dictates that I'd not supply any bullets to anyone that wants to see, copy, glean ideas for possible manufacturing of competetive bullets. Nothing personal and I know you can get them from other sources but I'll just keep mine and shoot them thank you.

I appreciate your position on the information I requested. The focus of my attention is going to be in the development of new alloys for the core of the bullet, and not the entire bullet. We have experience in the extrusion business and our intent would be to become a supplier of core material to all of the existing bullet manufacturers in the industry. But I certainly respect your loyalty to your friends. Thanks again for your candor.

 

[adam]

Corbin Bullet Swage Technology

The web site above has some of the best information on bullet construction that I have ever run across. Just enough technical, yet easy to understand.

I want to see bullets with rebated boat tails. (look under topics section)

I also want to see a 90 -100 gr .270 caliber bullet with a high BC for use in 6.8 spc. Ideally this would be a nice expanding bullet for hunting, but I would be just as happy with a varmint bullet.

edited to add: 6.8 spc needs light bullets due to magazine restrictions that push 130's deep into the case taking up too much case volume. Most people would crap bricks if you could get into the .400 range. You would sell scads of them.

 

[Tyler Kemp]

I think a poly-tip on the 180 grain Berger profile would be nice. Definite expansion and high BC, with lower weight. .7 BC with a 150 grainer would be amazing. 3400 fps+ from STWs and RUMs, and real fast with an Allen Mag.

 

[fariswm]

Corbin Bullet Swage Technology

The web site above has some of the best information on bullet construction that I have ever run across. Just enough technical, yet easy to understand.

I want to see bullets with rebated boat tails. (look under topics section)

I also want to see a 90 -100 gr .270 caliber bullet with a high BC for use in 6.8 spc. Ideally this would be a nice expanding bullet for hunting, but I would be just as happy with a varmint bullet.

edited to add: 6.8 spc needs light bullets due to magazine restrictions that push 130's deep into the case taking up too much case volume. Most people would crap bricks if you could get into the .400 range. You would sell scads of them.

Thank you so much for the input. It seems that there is a great deal of interest in bullets with high BC's and less weight. We will be looking at it.

 

[fariswm]

I think a poly-tip on the 180 grain Berger profile would be nice. Definite expansion and high BC, with lower weight. .7 BC with a 150 grainer would be amazing. 3400 fps+ from STWs and RUMs, and real fast with an Allen Mag.

Poly Tips are probably not in the cards for what we are doing, but the concept of the high BC and lower weight is certainly something we will address.

Thanks for your input.