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2,214 Posts
Changeling,
I reread this article last night (back when the article came out I read it but didn't have a revolver, thus no point of reference!) to see just what he said. I have a good deal of respect for Brian Pearce's writing, partly because he's a fellow Idahoan, and mostly because he seems to write what he observes rather than what he has heard.
He specifically singles out WFN bullets of 250-275 grains, stating that 260gr WFN GC bullets begin tumbling at 50 yds when fired at 800-1000 fps. In other parts of the article he mentions heavy bullets at these velocities, but using different shapes (Keith 255's etc). I am pretty sure that he has had this occur or he wouldn't have written it (naive, I know!) but WHY it happened I couldn't say. I also couldn't say if this applied to all WFN's, or if perhaps he had a specific problem with one bullet. The only thing that comes to mind is that wadcutters are sometimes cited as being unstable at longer range, and maybe this is related.
In terms of gyroscopic stability, the shorter WFN (relative to other bullet shapes) at a given rotation SHOULD be more stable. The only thing that could create instabilty in this scenario would be air resistance. I have no personal experience in this yet, but since I happen to have some 265 gr WFN GC bullets I intend to test them myself, as soon as I finish lapping my revolver! See ya, ID
I reread this article last night (back when the article came out I read it but didn't have a revolver, thus no point of reference!) to see just what he said. I have a good deal of respect for Brian Pearce's writing, partly because he's a fellow Idahoan, and mostly because he seems to write what he observes rather than what he has heard.
He specifically singles out WFN bullets of 250-275 grains, stating that 260gr WFN GC bullets begin tumbling at 50 yds when fired at 800-1000 fps. In other parts of the article he mentions heavy bullets at these velocities, but using different shapes (Keith 255's etc). I am pretty sure that he has had this occur or he wouldn't have written it (naive, I know!) but WHY it happened I couldn't say. I also couldn't say if this applied to all WFN's, or if perhaps he had a specific problem with one bullet. The only thing that comes to mind is that wadcutters are sometimes cited as being unstable at longer range, and maybe this is related.
In terms of gyroscopic stability, the shorter WFN (relative to other bullet shapes) at a given rotation SHOULD be more stable. The only thing that could create instabilty in this scenario would be air resistance. I have no personal experience in this yet, but since I happen to have some 265 gr WFN GC bullets I intend to test them myself, as soon as I finish lapping my revolver! See ya, ID
