Badlands Precision Bullets thread - From BC to terminal ballistics

[Pdvdh]

What's the LOT # dates on your boxes of bullets Ed AO?

 

[codyadams]

So if I order some 70 gr's, will I be getting the new copper or will they be trying to unload the older ones?

To my understanding, they are no longer using any of the previous material, only the new stuff

 

[Northkill]

Ok, I got a chance to talk to George, had a good long conversation with him about many things related to the business. I am employed in the Justice system, and will preface this with a reminder of how our justice system functions, all people are innocent unless proven guilty.

First things first, nothing major is going to change with the business, regardless of what happens with Jason's situation. His title for the company is a machinist, as well as a bullet tester. He has been a large and important portion of the company without a doubt. Jason he has been cooperative and doing a good job in training a newly hired machinist to take over in the possibility of his absence.

Next, to address the issues some have been seeing with having a hard time getting good accuracy. George was seeing the same issues in one of his rifles, went through many things checking his rifle, and narrowed it down to a problem with the bullets, he was seeing a large amount of runout. First, they checked the machine, went through everything including replacing bearings on a relatively new machine, to no avail. He then sent some bullets off to a metallurgist, and the composition of the copper was consistent. Through process of elimination, they came to the conclusion it was stress in the copper itself.

Starting around the time of covid was when the manufacturing of the copper started to go down hill. They were finding stress in the copper that was releasing upon machining, leading to extreme run out, at times in larger bullets up to .010". Another problem they were seeing with the copper was the poor transportation for delivery, even having some copper unusable due to being broken. After a large amount of testing different copper, they have recently resolved this issue and changed copper suppliers, and now have a supply of good copper that should likely last a couple years. Newly produced bullets are back to having great consistency, and should resolve the previously seen issues.

I hope this clears some things up. George is a great guy, very open and honest, and does a great job communicating. I personally feel completely comfortable continuing to run his projectiles. Thanks everyone.

Brother, I sure appreciate you digging into this and reporting back. Means a lot.

 

[Ed AO]

What's the LOT # dates on your boxes of bullets Ed AO?

I talked to George. My first lot of 195s were in there. I also have 100gr 243 that I believe I had issues with. Have .264 135s too. Haven't shot them but George said he'd take care of it if they don't. 195 lot # was 062821-1

 

[Pdvdh]

I'd think bullets made 06-28-21 would be good.

Bad copper bullets could have been Lot numbers dated from December 2020 thru May 2021, based on my own experience. But best to talk and confirm it with George.

 

[codyadams]

I'd think bullets made 06-28-21 would be good.

Bad copper bullets could have been Lot numbers dated from December 2020 thru May 2021, based on my own experience. But best to talk and confirm it with George.

I believe George may have mentioned up until July of this year, but that is just off of memory from our conversation. Either way, current production bullets should be sorted out

 

[akmtnhnt]

Has anyone shot the 125gr BD2 in .264? In a 1-8 twist I'm showing a 1.27 stability factor at sea level on a standard day. Kinda low and there's nothing a little lighter that is well stabilized in the .264 cal.
Anyone shot that bullet out past say 600 and checked stability? Performance on game with that low SG?

 

[highdrum]

I picked up 150x 125s(edit) and 150x 195s. I tried shooting the 135s in my long throat prc which shoots everything well. Tried 56-59gr of H1000 and N565 shooting pairs seated 30k off lands. If I recall I only had 2 pairs that shot sub moa. I was not impressed at all. Usually I'll get 2 or 3 pairs that touching indicating speed nodes. My bullets were from the second lot of 135 productions, late 2020 I think? I have not bad mouthed the guys cuz I thought maybe it was the powder or my barrel didn't like the bullets. Possibly I got a bad lot of copper but who knows. Yet to try the .308 195s.

 

[Pdvdh]

I believe George may have mentioned up until July of this year, but that is just off of memory from our conversation. Either way, current production bullets should be sorted out

That would be about right. I received some replacement bullets dated either the end of June or early July, 2021. I'm at a winter residence right now so I can't go check my boxes of bullets.
End of June, beginning of July, 2021, I think they were making bullets with their new supply of copper.

 

[akmtnhnt]

I picked up 150x 135s and 150x 195s. I tried shooting the 135s in my long throat prc which shoots everything well. Tried 56-59gr of H1000 and N565 shooting pairs seated 30k off lands. If I recall I only had 2 pairs that shot sub moa. I was not impressed at all. Usually I'll get 2 or 3 pairs that touching indicating speed nodes. My bullets were from the second lot of 135 productions, late 2020 I think? I have not bad mouthed the guys cuz I thought maybe it was the powder or my barrel didn't like the bullets. Possibly I got a bad lot of copper but who knows. Yet to try the .308 195s.

What's the twist of that rifle? The 135's need at least a 1 in 7, ideally 1 in 6 from my calculations.

 

[codyadams]

Has anyone shot the 125gr BD2 in .264? In a 1-8 twist I'm showing a 1.27 stability factor at sea level on a standard day. Kinda low and there's nothing a little lighter that is well stabilized in the .264 cal.
Anyone shot that bullet out past say 600 and checked stability? Performance on game with that low SG?

Sounds like that is going off of the Berger calculator? To my understanding monos are somewhat different. They say minimum twist required is an 8 twist, so if your that or tighter, I would try them myself. However, I have not yet tried them personally.

 

[akmtnhnt]

Sounds like that is going off of the Berger calculator? To my understanding monos are somewhat different. They say minimum twist required is an 8 twist, so if your that or tighter, I would try them myself. However, I have not yet tried them personally.

It is, but also from everything I've read and seen, it's very helpful to over twist monos for terminal in game performance. I bet they shoot paper fine, but terminal is a whole other thing.

I ordered some for testing. We'll see if the BC degrades like you would expect from under twist as it reaches out past 500. If they shoot well enough the first hunt with that rifle wouldn't be until next fall.

 

[Ed AO]

I was talking to George about the 135s and we think I can get away with a 1:7.5". That's going off the jbm calculator.

 

[FEENIX]

Has anyone shot the 125gr BD2 in .264? In a 1-8 twist I'm showing a 1.27 stability factor at sea level on a standard day. Kinda low and there's nothing a little lighter that is well stabilized in the .264 cal.
Anyone shot that bullet out past say 600 and checked stability? Performance on game with that low SG?

I have 125s and 135s but have not have a chance to try them yet. At my altitude of 3300', I'll need 3300 FPS to get SG of 1.5 with 1:8." At sea level, you'll need a ridiculous velocity, i.e., 4900 FPS for an SG of 1.5. I was using Berger's twist calculator.

Have you considered 122 Cayuga? https://patriotvalleyarms.com/flm-6-5mm-122gr-cayuga-hunting-bullets-50ct/. It is meant for 1:8" twist. Good luck!