I am interested to hear how people test bullets for ballistic flight performance.
Its always hard to do a scientific comparison test when we are all just enthusiasts without access to a formal scientific lab. But with some care you can get usable results
I do a lot of comparison testing and thought I would share my method of testing. I would be keen to hear of the methods that other people are using.
What I find easiest to do, is to use two bullets that are of the same weight and of similar shape for the comparison.
One bullet is used as the standard and the other is the bullet being tested. The standard bullet is usually a bullet that has a well known and accepted BC in the industry. I then do some velocity mapping using a range of powder charges with both projectiles.
A batch of each projectile is then loaded, using the powder charge that gives an identical velocity with both projectiles.
I then zero check both loads at short range. Any slight difference in zero is noted and taken into account later.
Finally both batches are shot at long range under the same conditions on a good day when wind conditions are mild. Groups are shot, alternating between batches. Usually I shoot the close distance at 100 yards. I then shoot at two long range distances. One about 800 yards distance and one in the 1100 to 1200 yard distance range.
A final test when conditions permit is to get to the range on a day when we have a strong cross wind blowing. I shoot groups at 300 to 600 yards. Its always interesting to see which bullet drifts most and by how much.
This is a direct comparison method. It simply matches one bullet against another for ballistic performance. The exact BC data derived may not be perfect, but it's quite easy to see which bullet performs better than the other using this method.
Its always hard to do a scientific comparison test when we are all just enthusiasts without access to a formal scientific lab. But with some care you can get usable results
I do a lot of comparison testing and thought I would share my method of testing. I would be keen to hear of the methods that other people are using.
What I find easiest to do, is to use two bullets that are of the same weight and of similar shape for the comparison.
One bullet is used as the standard and the other is the bullet being tested. The standard bullet is usually a bullet that has a well known and accepted BC in the industry. I then do some velocity mapping using a range of powder charges with both projectiles.
A batch of each projectile is then loaded, using the powder charge that gives an identical velocity with both projectiles.
I then zero check both loads at short range. Any slight difference in zero is noted and taken into account later.
Finally both batches are shot at long range under the same conditions on a good day when wind conditions are mild. Groups are shot, alternating between batches. Usually I shoot the close distance at 100 yards. I then shoot at two long range distances. One about 800 yards distance and one in the 1100 to 1200 yard distance range.
A final test when conditions permit is to get to the range on a day when we have a strong cross wind blowing. I shoot groups at 300 to 600 yards. Its always interesting to see which bullet drifts most and by how much.
This is a direct comparison method. It simply matches one bullet against another for ballistic performance. The exact BC data derived may not be perfect, but it's quite easy to see which bullet performs better than the other using this method.
