What type of bullet is most accurate?
 

I have never found boat tail bullets as accurate as flat based bullets in my rifles. What is your experiences?

I haven't found that to be true in my rifles. My most accurate loads use boattailed bullets.

I’ve never found this to be the case.

Only with hornady interlocks. I find the FB to more accurate than the BT. My extensive testing covers one rifle in one bullet weight so I wouldnt take this as conclusive evidence. On a side note all of my rifles loads both hunting and target except for the 30-30 and 45-70 are BT design bullets......I guess I find them more accurate overall

Wait I lied my hunting load for the 243 uses a partition which is not exactly a BT design...my first statement holds true for the rest of them though

I have seen the comment that FB bullets are likely to be more accurate than BT bullets in 303 Br rifles, especially milsurps.
I don't have the personal experience to verify that.

I think its too generic to compare flat base to boattail. You have to look at the consistency bullet to bullet and the concentricity. Quality bullets will be more accurate on average compared to run of the mill hunting bullets.

At long range, no doubt the boattails are more accurate? or they allow the shooter to have better performance because its the bc that make them more forgiving if you misjudge the wind!

bullets
 

I have only found one rifle of mine that shot fb as good as boat tails, and that was out of a bunch of long range and benchrest rifles and only out to 300m. But rifles like what they like and if you are prepared to test a dozen samples of each bullet, then you will get your results. As the range extends, the bt drifts less and tends to hold groups better. I have never met a benchrest shooter or long range shooter/hunter who has shot a fb bullet out of performance rifles.

Flat based bullets work well at shorter ranges, however I cannot ever recall seeing a flat based bullet that was a competition contender past 300 meters.
Cat

My question would be how were these results found. Was serious load work up done or was a load out a manual picked and their seating depth used. As stated earlier all rifles lke different loads. I can not remember the last time I reloaded a FB bullet. Wait that is a lie I just worked up a load for a friend and it took a bit of fiddling to get those FB to shoot.

I have always found that BT bullets are more accurate, but the reality is I really haven't shot a FB bullet in years so maybe they are better now than they used to be but I can't speak to that, I just know they have a lower BC

I do know a few guys that are into the long range competition and not 1 of them shoot a FB bullet, for the most part they shoot long heavy for caliber bullets with high a BC and there is a reason, accuracy and trajectory :)

Berger bullets are IMHO generally the most accurate bullets you can buy.

I still use some flat base cup and core bullets for hunting loads in the 30 cals and the large 45 calibre stuff. In addition, most bullets of 22 calibre or less are flat base and I use lots of them on gophers. The rest of the ones I load are BT. Unless you are shooting 400+ yards there is essentially no difference in most hunting type guns. A lot of guys shoot BTs because a lot of hunting bullets come as Boat Tails. For long range and target, definitely the BTs rule the roost.

it seems to me that a more accurate answer would be possible if the question were more specific.

If the question is which is more accurate there are too many variables for one answer that fits all. Although I believe cat came as close as is possible.

If the question were which is more likely to be accurate, it would be much easier to answer.

And that may have been what the OP meant, but without knowing one can only answer the question as it was asked.

No I wanted your experiences, not opinions. But thanks anyways.

My experience is that as soon as the rules were changed myself and every shooter I knew went from supplied ammo to Mexican match ammo using boat tailed bullets for long range fullbore competition shooting - every one.
in SBR flat based bullets still rule hiowever.
Cat

Sucks to be you.

Boat tail, flat base, it doesn’t seem to matter.

In my rifles.

That qualifies as pretty darn rude. Don't expect too much more help with that attitude.

Those are my experiences.

I reload, I have seem the same bullet preform very differently in different rifles made for the same cartridge.

I have seen boattail bullets preform well in mid velocity 6.5 and high velocity 6.5s. Namely a 6.5x55 and a 6.5 Rem Mag my brother owns. And I have seen the same bullet not preform well when the load was altered. I reload for my brother as well as myself.

Well this one only took 14 posts to turn into a pi.....g match, wow so much for a healthy discussion :thinking-006:

According to Brian Litz, one of the guys that has been very influential in recent bullet design... flat base bullets are more accurate. They are easier to manufacture.

Now we have to talk about the goals of the bullet, benchrest accuracy standards or remington cup and core lokt cheap flatbase hunting bullets.

Flat base benchrest bullets are as accurate and consistent and as concentrical as the come.

At longer ranges though, boattail bullets become more forgiving. They maintain their speed longer, hit the target faster, and get pushed by the wind less. So... they appear to be more accurate when really they are simply just a lot more forgiving to wind and range judgement errors.

That's my $0.02

Good summation.

I shoot mostly BT bullets and really never saw any difference in hunting rifles.

The guy's who are serious about short range (300 or less) bench rest etc. almost all shoot flat base bullets. But flat base bullets "in theory" are not as hard on the throat of your rifle, so I think that explains why most of the guys who pound through thousands of rounds a year in that discipline lean that way.

The folks who shoot past those ranges 300 + are willing to sacrifice a bit of barrel life for a more slippery bullet and better ballistics down range. A 1/4" of wind drift at 100 yards turns into a lot more at a 1000 yds.

This has been the accepted norm for a very, very long time!
The bottom line for many shooters of course, is not why the boat tails work better at longer ranges and the flat based bullets at shorter ranges , but that they do in fact work better!:)
Cat

But when it comes down to the average shooter, the theory is not what counts, it comes down to the shooter finding a load that works in his/her rifle, and their shooting ability. The average shooter will never notice a difference of 1/8moa, let alone the differences that decide a benchrest match. The average hunter won't even notice a difference of 1/4moa.