Coloring bullets

[Clovero]

This is a lesson what not to do.
I've had some issues lately with the occasional flyer during a 600 yard match.
So in my efforts to find the problem I was recording all my shots with a Garmin and colored the bullets different colors so I can tell which one was what speed. I only colored 4 of the 5 shots for the record RDS. Finally get to see my results on paper. Ugly, the first 4 shots on paper were all low the fifth was next to the X the speeds for the sighters were pretty consistent until I got to the colored bullets some speeds dropped up to 65 fps.
Then the 5th shot was back to normal speed.
The point to my story is if you're going to color your bullets with a marker, don't color any of the bearing surface. Carl

 

[Wild Willy]

Here is an image of one of the targets
Unmarked sighters were-
2910
2914
2913
2914
2913
2920
2911
Record rounds on paper
2858
2868
2871
2888
2923 unmarked

 

[Wild Willy]

The next two

 

[RegionRat]

I feel for you.

One of the biggest benefits to having a personal ShotMarker is to solve all these problems with load development and debugging. No more asking folks to pull pits, no more colored markers, no more TV cameras, etc.

 

[6.5 forever]

This is a lesson what not to do.
I've had some issues lately with the occasional flyer during a 600 yard match.
So in my efforts to find the problem I was recording all my shots with a Garmin and colored the bullets different colors so I can tell which one was what speed. I only colored 4 of the 5 shots for the record RDS. Finally get to see my results on paper. Ugly, the first 4 shots on paper were all low the fifth was next to the X the speeds for the sighters were pretty consistent until I got to the colored bullets some speeds dropped up to 65 fps.
Then the 5th shot was back to normal speed.
The point to my story is if you're going to color your bullets with a marker, don't color any of the bearing surface. Carl

Thanks for posting your results. Very interesting indeed.

 

[chop house]

Unmarked sighters were-
2910
2914
2913
2914
2913
2920
2911

wow. nice.

 

[jelenko]

I don't know if he includes the bearing surface, but another member here does color his bullets for shooting groups at 1000 yards. I don't remember him noticing any issues.

 

[Krogen]

I feel for you.

One of the biggest benefits to having a personal ShotMarker is to solve all these problems with load development and debugging. No more asking folks to pull pits, no more colored markers, no more TV cameras, etc.

Darn it! I think you just "nudged" me in that direction. I've toyed with buying a personal Shot Marker. We use them at the club for organized shoots, but it would sure be nice to have my own. More data, more stuff to cart around . . . . What's not to like????

 

[Big_Daddy]

Darn it! I think you just "nudged" me in that direction. I've toyed with buying a personal Shot Marker. We use them at the club for organized shoots, but it would sure be nice to have my own. More data, more stuff to cart around . . . . What's not to like????

Come over to the "dark side" my friend.
Fish on!!

 

[JFrank]

This is a lesson what not to do.
I've had some issues lately with the occasional flyer during a 600 yard match.
So in my efforts to find the problem I was recording all my shots with a Garmin and colored the bullets different colors so I can tell which one was what speed. I only colored 4 of the 5 shots for the record RDS. Finally get to see my results on paper. Ugly, the first 4 shots on paper were all low the fifth was next to the X the speeds for the sighters were pretty consistent until I got to the colored bullets some speeds dropped up to 65 fps.
Then the 5th shot was back to normal speed.
The point to my story is if you're going to color your bullets with a marker, don't color any of the bearing surface. Carl

I color bullets all the time but I’ve never been able to correlate fliers to sharpie colors. This may be a thing or maybe VooDoo, regardless I’ll take note to only color the tips.
Thx
Jim

 

[ridgeway]

All you need to color is just a 3/16" of the tip to show up. I take a large sharpie and drill a hole in the felt and no need to wast time coloring all the way around. Sharpie on the bearing surface can't be good. Haha

 

[coldboreshot]

I color the complete surface of my bullets with moly, never had a problem.

 

[Clovero]

I feel for you.

One of the biggest benefits to having a personal ShotMarker is to solve all these problems with load development and debugging. No more asking folks to pull pits, no more colored markers, no more TV cameras, etc.

I have a shotmarker, this occured at a local match.

 

[memilanuk]

Usually the red ones go faster... ;p

 

[RegionRat]

Darn it! I think you just "nudged" me in that direction. I've toyed with buying a personal Shot Marker. We use them at the club for organized shoots, but it would sure be nice to have my own. More data, more stuff to cart around . . . . What's not to like????

Life is too short to fuss with colored markers or spotters once the ShotMarker came around. You will kick yourself for waiting, if you can do it I highly recommend it.

 

[Dave Way]

Life is too short to fuss with colored markers or spotters once the ShotMarker came around. You will kick yourself for waiting, if you can do it I highly recommend it.

Never had a colored bullet that failed to register. Can’t say that about a shot marker, not to mention the fact that you have an actual target to study.

ShotMarker Dave.

 

[Northridge]

Now to add, I experienced this early on if your coloring the bearing surface of a bullet those shots can and are affected in flight… “affects BC for sure increased drag I suspect shots typically low… but I did learn something about the front of the bullet in regards to reliable “traction” in flight while using sharpies.,,, not all sharpies are created equal either out of my camp… to each there own…. Good luck in your pursuit

Shawn Williams

 

[tom]

I always avoided coloring bearing surfaces, admittedly out of assumption. And then there's Glenn who doesn't follow any of the rules and still beats us fairly regularly lol.

Tom

 

[GlennK]

25 cal. like purple

 

[Dimner]

Interesting. So a bare bullet flies different than something with sharpie on the bearing surface. So now I can start drawing on my bullets as a method to fine tune my loads and shrink my groups! Or maybe sharpie can help positive compensation!