Long range bullet minimal expansion

[rick523]

I need to make a correction on a post I made yesterday concerning the Berger. I got looking at my notes and thought that I had made a major mistake so I did the test over today. It turns out that the Bergers take quite a bit more velocity to open than what I originally posted. Part of the problem was, I was also testing some bullets with drilled out tips and confused some of the data. Below is a pic of todays test. I have also determined that the tips that are drilled out will expand down to at least 1900' (maybe farther). I hope to test this further when I get a chance. By the way, this is in no way a knock on the Bergers because as far as I know, they are not advertised as hunting bullets anyway. Also, it doesn't mean that they won't work as hunting bullets within some parameters....RichView attachment 12884

Note the pic of the tip! This is a recurring result with the tip not expanding from the meplat, but rather rupturing, or breaking off, at the end of the hollow cavity where the lead begins. This is around .4" from the meplat which explains the high b.c. of the Berger without needing excessive twist for this long of bullet (i.e. not much weight forward) You can also see that the bullet fired at 1900' was starting to rupture at that point. It appears to me that the pressure entering the hollow point takes a path of lesser resistance which happens to be at the junction of the core and ruptures there rather than expand at the tip?

Just curious is the berger a vld which is supposed to be a hunting bullet. At least that is what I have been lead to believe.
Thanks, Rick

 

[elkaholic]

Just curious is the berger a vld which is supposed to be a hunting bullet. At least that is what I have been lead to believe.
Thanks, Rick

This is listed as a "target bullet" by Berger! That is why I am qualifying my results. It is a hybrid which has a tangent ogive starting out and goes immediately to a tangent ogive (VLD). It is an ingenious design that shoots VERY well! Hats off to Berger..........Rich

 

[trebark]

This is listed as a "target bullet" by Berger! That is why I am qualifying my results. It is a hybrid which has a tangent ogive starting out and goes immediately to a tangent ogive (VLD). It is an ingenious design that shoots VERY well! Hats off to Berger..........Rich

uuuhhh...think you mean starts out as secant and goes to tangent.

 

[bigngreen]

Very interesting! I wonder if on meat they would rupture like that?

 

[elkaholic]

uuuhhh...think you mean starts out as secant and goes to tangent.

They start as a tangent at the body/ogive and go to a secant to the tip.....Rich

 

[elkaholic]

Very interesting! I wonder if on meat they would rupture like that?

I'm thinking meat would be more difficult to expand in than water! Water will force itself into the tip easier. Not sure what meat might do but it could be that the external pressure would just break off the tip allowing the remaining bullet to expand? Don't know? Find some meatRich

 

[trebark]

They start as a tangent at the body/ogive and go to a secant to the tip.....Rich

Both of us are right. I was describing the bullet from tip to body.

My post was a correction of your earlier post where you said the bullet went from tangent to tangent.

 

[elkaholic]

Both of us are right. I was describing the bullet from tip to body.

My post was a correction of your earlier post where you said the bullet went from tangent to tangent.

Yikes! did I say that? That IS pretty ingenious to go from tangent to tangent