First, welcome to TGT, and thanks for joining/posting to this forum. We all can't help but benefit from accurate technical expertise freely offered. Your association as a technical support specialist at Applied Ballistics certainly qualifies you, so again, thanks.This is an article that covers bullet pointing, and the risks/rewards associated with it. Enjoy, and if you have any questions as always feel free to ask.
So this is a bit of a multi faceted problem. The first thing is to address that a lot of shooters will both point and trim. Pointing improves our BC and slightly uniformity. Trimming improves uniformity and reduces your BC/Performance. So keeping that in mind, because it comes up in questions I get regularly.First, welcome to TGT, and thanks for joining/posting to this forum. We all can't help but benefit from accurate technical expertise freely offered. Your association as a technical support specialist at Applied Ballistics certainly qualifies you, so again, thanks.
Then, I'l contextualize my questions in two ways. First, this post appears in the "Beginner Articles" section of TGT, and second, I'm an avid F-Class shooter. To the first point, I struggle with bullet pointing being a beginner topic, but there is probably no better place to post this so all's good.
Per your article, the benefit of bullet pointing (assuming it is done properly) is improvement in BC. This benefit will be essentially undetectable at short ranges (as you suggest, the 1-200yd range). How much benefit will be seen by improving BC by 1-5% at even longer ranges (like those typically shot for F-Class - 300-1000 yds)? By improvement, I'm interested in the effect seen on paper. As BC values change with velocity, is the % improvement you mention in your article the maximal improvement at a peak velocity, or is it averaged over the range of BCs measured over the flight of the bullet? Is bullet pointing only (practically) "worth while" if one is maximizing velocity in match loads that often well exceed published "max" load data, or, does it also proportionally improve slower "standard" loads?
I'm not asking for simple yes or no answers, but rather more of a narrative from your knowledge. Perhaps it would be easier for you to respond to a premise. I believe that everything one does to "perfect" their hand-loads has a benefit to precision on target. But, I also believe that the various techniques/details yield proportional benefits. For example, I've observed that consistent powder charges and consistent, optimized seating depths have greater "on-target" effects than uniforming primer pockets. I've further observed that shooter technique is often FAR more important in this regard than almost anything "extra" done in the loading room. I'd also go so far as to opine that wind-reading outweighs almost anything else during "breezy" conditions (grin). So, in this context, where does bullet pointing fall in the spectrum of all of the things that affect precision/accuracy at ranges over 500 yds?
Thanks in advance for your response!!
That is correct, especially in terms of order. Shooters need to start at the bottom, and the save the more complex processes for last. Especially ones that could cause problems (over pointing) they may not recognize through the fog of other issues.Thanks. So, am I understanding your thoughts in that bullet pointing is almost the last procedure one should consider in improving match performance at mid to long ranges? Correct shooting fundamentals come first. Then, mechanical optimization of the rifle. Then, precision load development (brass prep, bullet selection, powder selection, primer selection, charge optimization, seating depth optimization). Then bullet sorting. Then pointing?
The objective of all of this would be minimization of velocity deviations (minimized SD) which should translate, at a minimum, to narrow vertical dispersal. In the setting of longer range accuracy competition (such as F-Class or ELR) the value of pointing would be proportional to increasing distance to target, and inversely proportional to the starting BC of the bullet (you wrote that the improvement of BC SD was lower on really well made bullets).
So, pressure-testing my understanding, if the shooter/rifle/ammunition starting point is producing 20 round strings with 1/4 MOA vertical dispersal at 500 yds, and measured velocity SD <10 FPS (both at the muzzle and at the target), the effect of pointing those bullets might not even be measurable in the noise. Conversely, pointing would become more and more relevant to accuracy (hit rate or score) as distance increases to 1,000 yds, 1 mile and beyond. At ranges between 300 and 500 yds, pointing is probably not relevant (?), and at distances under 300 yds, precision/accuracy are probably better pursued with lighter bullets/shorter bullets/flat base bullets, and slow barrel twist rates.
Am I tracking? Please correct my understanding if I've strayed off the path. I look forward to your article on sorting. Thanks again!!
From the interwebs: The meplat is a term used in ballistics to refer to the flat or open tip on the nose of a bullet or projectile. The shape and size of the meplat have a significant effect on the ballistic coefficient of a bullet. Most traditional Open Tip Match (OTM) style bullets have a small opening at the very end of the meplat, which allows for air to gather in flight and create an air pocket that fills in the missing point in a perfect geometric shape, increasing the BC of the bullet.Wuts a meplat?
And here I thought it was my hand tremors...Another big thing new shooters have to learn. Is to let go of flyers in a match. If you shoot 3 rounds and they are performing like you expect, you are walking on target. Then you shoot one round that goes holy crap off in left field. Look at your conditions, look at what just happened, and does it make sense. If it doesn't... let it go. But that goes back to fundamentals. And when you are working through each of these steps, from easiest to complex. You need to learn when to let something go that was a misnomer in the data.
Only if you can see your heart rhythm in your scope.And here I thought it was my hand tremors...
Can I let go of 50% of my shots?
But then you won't have any reason to be on the internet. Sorry, but I must validate this excuse which had a point of validating your excuses.Stop validating my excuses...