MAXHEAT: I appreciate the military very much, especially since I am a veteran of 26 years of service! Check this out:
Dimpled Bullet Spoof Continues to Fool Web Readers « Daily Bulletin
I meant no disrespect - please accept my sincere apology.
But to me it does appear obvious that someone spent more time on designing that textured surface with those progressively-variable-sized-diamond-dimples than I think one would need to, in fabricating a hoax. But if it's the military itself that did the "fabricating", it WOULD make perfect sense. At any rate, something still doesn't "smell" right. I can't help but suspect that "something" IS going on, as far as the surface texturing of bullets is concerned. If my mental "picture" of how they operate is on-the-money, the top tier mil boys DO indeed have them, or are at least VERY close. And the texture that is being shown in that link IS ACTUALLY WHAT THE HAOX IS, in order to throw everybody off of what the REAL texture is! OK, I am starting to get uncomfortable now in discussing this. If my intution DOES happen to be on-the-money, I don't want to be accused of "revealing" anything. But who knows? I could just be some "wacko", with too much time on my hands (or even a governemt agent - practiced at the art of deception).
The difference in velocity between a golf ball and a bullet IS something I failed to give any thought to, so the bad IS on me for that. I can say from experience that the difference between say 200, and 500 knots, can make all the difference in the world (here we go). One time (long ago), when I was on an airliner returning from europe, I was seated in a window seat over the right side wing, and noticed something that was making me slightly uncomefortable. There was a piece of flexible material [which I'll jokingly refer to as 600mph duct tape] sticking up out a few inches between the wing itself and the inner wing flap. As we started our takeoff roll, it began to exhibit a flapping motion, which continued for several minutes as we climbed out. But then there was a point at which it simply "froze" in position and did not move at all at higher speeds. After summoning the captain and pointing it out to him, expressing my displeasure at seeing what I was seeing, he saw to it that someone would take care of it during our scheduled fuel stop in iceland.
But do I think there is room for improvement, over the current smooth texture of [supersonic] bullets? Asolutely! But that doesn't mean that I have even the slightest idea what the most ideal texture would be. But for all intents and purposes, let's assume that it IS the progressive diamond-dimple pattern that works. Read what is next and see how far projectile technology COULD go!
If it were possible and practical to shoot non-smooth surface small arms projectiles, you could always use sabots to negate any interior ballistic issues due to rifling. This would also deal with any overbore problems, since a .375" bore and h&h case could be used to accellerate a 140gr berger Vld for example.
YOU READ MY MIND!
But my mind has since taken it to the NEXT HIGHER level beyond that. The only thing left now is waiting for the reality of it to actually happen. I currently shoot 139SSTs that are 7mm (7.21 actual). But I would "like" to shoot something with a higher BC, without having to go heavier, which resullts in a "loss of heat" penalty.
The 140gr 6.5mm low-drag round has a BC of .585. That is a full .100 over the 7mm 140. Now throw in the claimed .040 that the diamond texture is supposed to add. That brings us up to .625 - the SAME BC that the 7mm 162A-MAX has - without the extra weight. That in itself seems incredible. But we aren't even done yet! The next one is going to be the kicker, or "bombshell" may even be an understatement - IF it CAN be made to work.
First, enter the sabot. It will enable the 6.5 round to be fired out of 7mm [and larger] bores. That means much more inital heat can be put on to the VLD round. And not having to imprint rifling grooves into the copper [or whatever other metal] will mean less friction, and even MORE heat on the round. The textured round also eliminates the possibility that it won't be fully spun by the rifling due to slippage inside of the sabot. NOW, combing that textured round with the sabot would allow something that wouldn't otherwise be possible with rounds fired out of barrel bores. And the following is the REAL kicker!
Enter the free-from-needing-to-have-ANY-contilure (is that the proper word?) round! Manufacturing the round with an integrated sabot eliminates the need for any length of the round to have to conform to the bore it is being sent through. I'm not even sure if "I" understand the full ramifications of this. Picture a stretched-out water droplet, if you will - a bullet that is 100% pure curves! Now we are talking, when it comes to being able to jack up that BC to levels that we would have never thought possible. I'm speculating, that adding this factor in to that 140gr textured VLD round [which would now have a "max" diameter of 6.5mm - at only 1 single point along it's length], aside from being able to rename it as an SLD/SC (super-low-drag/sub-caliber) round, that it's actual BC might even be over .700, but that IS only a guess.
This all sounds completely outragous, doesn't it? I suppose the question now becomes, is this pure genius, or pure insanity? I only wish that my body was as active as my imagination is! I gotta go now, so I'll close out with this thought:
Whenever something this far ahead of "normal" thinking was made to happen, it was only because someone believed that it COULD be made to happen.
