My supply should be here early next week.
Having seen these pics of the new bullets, I will admit, I am a bit disappointed but not suprised, appears all Nosler did was lengthen the bullet body to make a 300 gr bullet.
I was hoping they would redesign the Ogive design and give us a modern bullet design but sadly not the case.
Not saying these new bullets will not be great for big game hunting, even at longer ranges by any means but had they went with a bullet profile similiar to the SMK, they could have easily broken the .8 BC level. AND in spite of what most of the Nosler brains believe, it would easily stabilize in a 1-10 twist standard barrel.
Instead we got another chunky, blunt ogive, heavy bullet that is nothing more then a stretched 250 gr Accubond. Which is exactly what they did when they made the 250 gr Accubond, simply added 25 grains of bullet to the same design by just lengthing the bullet body and as a result, BC improvement was very, VERY limited. In most applications, the velocity advantge of the 225 gr bullet overshadowed the very slight increase in BC value of the new 250 gr bullet.
I am sad to say that I believe it may be the same case here, only to a larger extent because of the 50 grains heavier bullet weight.
Looking at the bullet, I would estimate this bullet to be hard pressed to break .65 in BC. The Barnes 265 gr LXR bullet is a longer, sleeker bullet design with more aggressive ogive design and it only musters a BC of .620 from my drop testing. I do not believe it will be anywhere near the .72 they are advertising but I really hope I am wrong.
Back to the comment about the very long baring surface, that is a real problem in velocity production. That with the very heavy jacket design will cause a significant velocity issue. I believe velocity potential will be slightly less then that of the SMK in same capacity chamberings.
Time will tell, these opinions are simply from these pics, bullets will be in hand soon and then we will instantly know how they perform compared to the standards we already have. If they make upper .6 BC levels and can be driven to the same speed as the SMK I will be happy with the increased terminal consistancy, if they fall below this BC level and have a velocity limit because of the long body design, I feel they will not be the barn burner we were all hoping for.
I know, tough words, maybe to tough and I truely hope I am proven wrong but do not expect to be......
Time will tell.
