I'm not 100% sure its entirety air friction. I dug bullets out of backstops a couple minutes after firing and they've been blistering hot. And I have very heat insensitive hands. I'm sure a lot of the heat is from firing. Regardless, it's hard to prove either way.
Well, I meant in the plastic tip. The rest of the bullet can obviously handle a lot of heat.
There is the tremendous friction on the bearing surface...engraving force measures in the hundreds of pounds, sliding down the barrel at 3000+ fps, has to be a lot of barrel frictional heat there in the bearing surface. In any case, if they are measuring 100 fps velocity loss compared to the new bullet, the new bullet is better ballistically speaking. If it groups as well as the amax, it will be a winner, especially if it has better terminal performance.
I wonder if they will they put the new tip on the amax, or just discontinue them?