HappyHellfire
Silver $$ Contributor
Hi, I'm Dr. John Stutz and I teach ballistics to engineers and scientists. I also have a new bullet design (AerospikeBullets.com).
The boattail bullet design was by all accounts an accident. At the turn of the 20th century, the mass production of bullets began. Spitzer bullets were the first to put a chamfer on the base of the bullet to make it easier for a machine to put the bullet into the case around 1901. During WW1, the accuracy of the boattail became apparent during the sniper battles across the trenches.
There have been multiple studies using computer simulations and live fire testing to find the optimal angle and length of a good boattail. The results depend upon the muzzle velocity and the shape of the nose or ogive of the bullet. This subject became important to me while I was developing the Aerospike base to replace the boattail. One thing my studies never dug up was the name. Why is it called a boattail?
The boattail bullet design was by all accounts an accident. At the turn of the 20th century, the mass production of bullets began. Spitzer bullets were the first to put a chamfer on the base of the bullet to make it easier for a machine to put the bullet into the case around 1901. During WW1, the accuracy of the boattail became apparent during the sniper battles across the trenches.
There have been multiple studies using computer simulations and live fire testing to find the optimal angle and length of a good boattail. The results depend upon the muzzle velocity and the shape of the nose or ogive of the bullet. This subject became important to me while I was developing the Aerospike base to replace the boattail. One thing my studies never dug up was the name. Why is it called a boattail?