ballistic tip vs hollow point with different bs's

[brokenbastard]

OK, so my question is I have been reading that shooting a ballistic tip bullet is less desirable than a hollow point target bullet because of the process of putting the tip in the bullet is not always perfect. Would it then be desirable then to shoot a hollow point bullet even if the bc is lower.
I shoot long range only on the pdog field. Otherwise its 300 and under. I am shooting a 204 ruger and last year I shot a pdog at 590 yards and my brother shot one at 785 using hornady vmax 40 gr. The bc on them is .275 g1 and they are a ballistic tip. The Berger’s I was looking at are a 40gr hollow point with a bc of .225 g1. The bullet selection in a 20 cal is really lacking in my opinion. It’s a great caliber and with the 20br, 204 ruger, and the 20 practial I would think some new bullets would be made available. Anyway, would the drop in bc be acceptable because the meplat and ojive would be more constant or is the bc important enough to make up for all but huge constancy issues?

 

[CatShooter]

I shoot long range only on the pdog field. Otherwise its 300 and under. I am shooting a 204 ruger and last year I shot a pdog at 590 yards and my brother shot one at 785 using hornady vmax 40 gr. The bc on them is .275 g1 and they are a ballistic tip. The Berger’s I was looking at are a 40gr hollow point with a bc of .225 g1. The bullet selection in a 20 cal is really lacking in my opinion. It’s a great caliber and with the 20br, 204 ruger, and the 20 practial I would think some new bullets would be made available. Anyway, would the drop in bc be acceptable because the meplat and ojive would be more constant or is the bc important enough to make up for all but huge constancy issues?

Many match bullets are poly (ballistic) tipped - it is a myth that they are less accurate.

If you are shooting at long range, you will pay a high price for the loss of BC.

 

[dmoran]

Many match bullets are poly (ballistic) tipped - it is a myth that they are less accurate.

If you are shooting at long range, you will pay a high price for the loss of BC.

Actually very few Match bullets have plastic tips.....
The only Match bullets that I can think of with plastic-tips is the Hornady A-Max bullets and the new TMK's by Sierra.
While there are several plastic tipped bullets made by several mfgs, not many at all that are known as "Match" bullets.
In all my years of competing in SR-BR, LR-BR, LR-HP, and FClass, the only plastic tipped bullets I seen being used were the Hornady AMax's and for a few months time back in 2007, a 117-DTAC.
Donovan

 

[Bryan Litz Ballistics]

For long range match bullets with small meplat's (under 0.075"), there's very little BC advantage in plastic points vs. consistent open tips. In fact there are many weights and calibers which the open tip has a higher BC.

Precision certainly favors the open tip bullets. Although some bullets are sold with plastic tips as 'match' bullets, you don't see very many of them shot at actual matches, and none of them are winning (Long Range BR, F-class, sling, FULLBORE). Competitive shooters tend to gravitate to what works best, regardless of marketing.

Now, for varmint bullets, there is a substantially higher BC for plastic tips as compared to the wide open tip bullets. In this case, even though the open tipped bullet may be more precise, you might hit more critters with the plastic tipped varmint bullets due to their substantially higher BC and resulting trajectory performance (wind and drop).

-Bryan

 

[brokenbastard]

ok, so if open tip bullets have a higher bc, (when dealing with larger calibers?) why do the open tip smaller caliber bullets have a lower bc? does it have to do with the size of the opening when compared to the size of the bullet?

 

[brokenbastard]

ok, thanks guys!

 

[Bryan Litz Ballistics]

ok, so if open tip bullets have a higher bc, (when dealing with larger calibers?) why do the open tip smaller caliber bullets have a lower bc? does it have to do with the size of the opening when compared to the size of the bullet?

varmint bullets have wide open tips to achieve explosive expansion on impact. Putting a plastic tip over the metal opening doesn't really affect expansion, but does improve BC a lot compared to leaving the metal point open to 1/2 the caliber or more.

-Bryan

 

[brokenbastard]

ok I think i understand now. thank you for helping me.

 

[Jefferson]

there are some bullet makers using a MACHINED tip i.e. a insert like a plastic tip but machines into a very long nose with a very very small closed tip on it,

any comments bryan i will try to get womeone to post a picture,
.
Jefferson

 

[dalej]

 

[hothead]

Carl Bernoski tells me the Hornady A Max shoot real well @ 600. Just saying.

Ken Livengood

 

[Hollywood]

Brian,

Done any tests with the new sierra tmk's. There advertised BC increase is enormous. Just for a plastic tip or have they done somthing else with the design?

 

[ChristCross]

What kind of bullet do you have their and who the maker

 

[Keith Glasscock]

Brian,

Done any tests with the new sierra tmk's. There advertised BC increase is enormous. Just for a plastic tip or have they done somthing else with the design?

I spoke with a Mark Walker from Sierra. The TMK is a totally new design. New ogive and boattail.
They do, to the best of my knowledge, do live fire testing for BC.

 

[Hollywood]

Thanks for the info. I took a look at the pics on the sierra site and it looks like there a little longer, similar to a vld.

"Due to the ballistic advantage that the tip provides, the 168 Tipped MatchKing (TMK) will stay supersonic at 1,000 yards at normal .308 Winchester velocities, unlike its untipped counterpart"

They made it sound like they slapped a tip on it and boom BC galore. Your info makes way more sense.

 

[Bryan Litz Ballistics]

They do look like full new designs (the TMK's). I'm eager to test some and will report asap.

-Bryan