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What distance to use Boattail?

Excellent to hear your success with the speers. I understand why you are asking the question, but please don’t misunderstand my original question. My original question was regarding flat base vs boattail performance not killing an animal - The 1200 yard shot is a truing exercise to verify actual BC for actual barrel length and rifling.
The answer may be in the data:
180 Nosler Partition/300WM
1200 Yards (100 yard zero)
10 MPH cross wind
2980 FPS
49 MOA Elevation
14 MOA windage
393 Ftlbs energy
180 Nosler Ballistic Tip (boat tail)
1200 Yards (100 yard zero)
10 MPH cross wind
2980 FPS
37 MOA Elevation
9 MOA Windage
647 FTLBS energy
In any match situation I never chose a FB over a BT.
In any hunting situation, even though there are some very good ones, I seldom choose FB over BT.
The numbers are significant enough in favor of the boat tail as close in as 300 yards to want to have the boat tail advantage.
 
Why would some one not want to take an advantage from the instant to bullet leaves the barrel until it hits it's intended target regardless of the distance being shot...?
The argument goes like this, "Imperfections in the bullet base have a significant effect on accuracy. A flat base bullet can be manufactured with fewer imperfections to the base than the boat tail bullet". Bench rest shooters that shoot 100 and 200 yards normally use flat base bullets.
 
What distance would a boat tail spitzer profile out perform a flat base profile? (300 win mag nosler partition category) from muzzle to 1200 yards.
Two same weight Spitzer pointed bullets (not a round nose) of the same profile, but one a boattail....they will be pretty close in energy and trajectory out to 300 yards at the same velocity. The flat base might be slightly more accurate inside those ranges. Used flat base bullets in the old days to kill tons of game and varmints, before the popularity of the boatails. I have no problem using them today, on game and do. Most of my hunting rounds don't have boattails and I don't plan on shots over 300 yards, at big game, and many varmints are close range shots.
 
The argument goes like this, "Imperfections in the bullet base have a significant effect on accuracy. A flat base bullet can be manufactured with fewer imperfections to the base than the boat tail bullet". Bench rest shooters that shoot 100 and 200 yards normally use flat base bullets.
Been using bt bullets at 100&200 for at least 15yrs now. I dont know anybody in short range br shooting flat base bullets anymore
 
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Only testing with both will tell you the answer to what your rifle likes at what distance , plus you get to go shoot... Pretty much a win win... I use BT because there's no telling what distance I will be shooting at any time and it's one less thing I have to stock pile....
 
Thankfully none. I have had one animal in the last 40 years of hunting that had to be tracked. A Speer BTSP blew up in a nice whitetail buck. The same style bullets had served me well for many years in both 7 and 30 calibers so shooting them in a 25-06 made perfect sense to me. It was (still is) the only time I didn't get my desired energy dump and exit wound that I have long felt I needed.
But your original question makes me wonder just what animal you feel the urge to try and kill at 1200 yards.
That's a good question! I've shot a couple whitetails in basically cleared farm fields 400 or under. They either dropped on the spot or went a few steps so no issues as you could see for a long distance.

I did two elk, 1 at around 400 yards textbook broadside heart lung, he took a few trots and dropped, a few trots was 40 yards, I glassed him until he dropped. Up and down hills it was probably more than 1/2 mile trek to get to him in cover.

The other was at 600+ and he dropped on the spot from a near shoulder hit. Again the job of getting to him was significant.

Significant work both times getting the game out and I thought how lucky I had been not to lose either animal. I wasn't very smart when I was younger, today I wouldn't hunt game at those ranges in those conditions.

Getting a whitetail out is 9ne thing, an elk is another.
 
Most of the guy's that I shoot against are still using flat base bullets between 1-300 yards and meters. In fact when I first started back in 2013 none of the big names in bullets were offering a 30 caliber bullet for short range with a boattail and I don't recall seeing one offered anywhere to this day.
 
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Most of the guy's that I shoot against are still using flat base bullets between 1-300 yards and meters. In fact when I first started back in 2013 none of the big names in bullets were offering a 30 caliber bullet for short range with a boattail and I don't recall seeing one offered anywhere to this day.
Good info, thanks.
 
I think one day we will have 2 bc numbers on a box of bullets. Currently we have one that describes the front of the bullet and it does a great job of predicting drop. In my experiance it does not do the best job of describing the wind drift. When the bc of 2 bullets is relatively close you wont know which one shoots in the wind better until you shoot them side by side in the wind.
 
I think one day we will have 2 bc numbers on a box of bullets. Currently we have one that describes the front of the bullet and it does a great job of predicting drop. In my experiance it does not do the best job of describing the wind drift. When the bc of 2 bullets is relatively close you wont know which one shoots in the wind better until you shoot them side by side in the wind.
If two projectiles have the exact same bc (and I mean exact match at all velocity ranges) and have the same gyro spin how much can their windage change?

I understand if you're just using average bc and you're comparing a 140 nos rdf 6.5 that starts high and ends lower vs a 142 sierra that's more flat in its bc decay with lower velocity that there can be significant difference in wind hold down range.
 
Boatails need to be bonded or all copper, as the cup and core boatails experienced lead core and jacket separation, causing bullet fragmentation and a potential loss of penetration....like some popular brands. The flat base has a tendency to stay together better as the angle in the boattail tends to eject its lead core and fragment. So under 300 yards a flat base of conventional design would be better over the boatails. Boatails would have an advantage in ballistics past 300 yards and may have slowed enough to stop core separation. Boatails are a relatively new bullet technology for shooters, except in the military. Millions of Buffalo and most big game on the lower 48 were killed and almost all wiped out...with round nose lead bullets...and some at long range... an Indian chief shot off his horse at 1500 yds, by a Buffalo hunter. The winchester 44-40, 45-70, 45 Colt, and the 30-30 all round nose, did the job on everthing that walks in the lower 48. I saw an old Win. Octagon 26" 30-30 that killed more elk than any hunter with boattail bullets. But these old calibers wouldn't be my first choice...usually but there is something about blue steel, walnut, and old calibers...and open sights. No range finders or scopes. Eskimos used the 30-30 and .222 Rem in the old days to kill everything.
Used the. 222 on Polar bears, run the bear hard when it gets tired put two .222 bullets 1in each of the lungs and wait for it to bleed to death. Subsistence hunting for meat and furs, isn't about Sportsmanship, or sport, it's about killing in the cheapest most expedient way possible...no magnums, no boatails, no copper bullets, no scopes. Just a gun, some cartridges, and a knife you're ready. A reminder of simpler times, when hunting was required to eat..more of a skill then a person with the latest new super max cartridge and 2 mile rifle, backed by the latest ballistics programs and electronic equipment, and cell phones. Are we hunting or is it just an electronic shooting a game?
 
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