heavy bullets more accurate?

[Renton83]

I've been shooting all my life but recently become interested in bench rest shooting and may want to compete one day. I have a Tikka T3 heavy barrel in 243win. I've been loading my own with 70g bullets and have got decent accuracy. I notice almost all the competive shooters use far heavier bullets though like 105-115gr boat tail. What's the benefit of loading these heavier bullets? I would need a customs barrel to even shoot them since they need a fast rifling.

 

[farmerboy78]

In most cases you will get 2 advantages. 1; the heavy=longer bullets will give you a higher bc and 2; the heavier bullet will resist the wind better and carry better at a distance!

 

[Renton83]

I guess it wouldn't make a dramatic difference? I know in competitive shooting a small improvement is all you need sometimes

 

[hdwhit]

As soon as a bullet emerges from the barrel, gravity begins to pull it towards the ground. This is why a bullet drops as it proceeds towards the target.

The faster a bullet travels to the target the less time gravity has to act upon it and the less it drops. Also, the faster a bullet travels to the target, the less time there is for environmental factors, such as cross-winds, airborne particles, and the like to act upon it.

A heavier bullet generally must be fired at a slower speed than a lighter bullet in the same cartridge, so the drop is greater, but the heavier bullet is less influenced (the technical term is "perturbed") by the environment, so you will need to experiment a little bit to find the best combination of speed and bullet weight to get the accuracy you want under the conditions you shoot.

 

[Jim Watson]

Your Tikka has a 10" twist meant for up to a 100 grain flatbase spitzer.
If you want a boattail, you would have to settle for 85-87 gr.

The key factor in shooting beyond about 300 yards is wind drift.
You could enter the ballistic coefficient and velocity into a ballistics program and see which bullet was the least affected.

A benchrest shooter will likely shoot a 68 gr flatbase 6mm because it will group the tightest at the ranges he sees. And hope the wind is calm or at least steady.

 

[Reloadron]

While I am not a bench rest shooter I do my outdoor range shooting at Kelblys Range home to the annual bench rest Super Shoot. The serious bench rest guys are enjoyable to be around and for the most part are using the VihtaVuori powders and shooting the 6mm PPC cartridge. Most of the actions are the Stolle designs, Panda Actions. Typical base rifles, less the glass are in the $4,000 to $8,000 range. Most of the shooters out there that I chat with are shooting 6PPC with Berger 68 grain flat base hollow points. I have attended a few super shoots and they shoot no more than 200 yards with groups resembling a single hole. It gets interesting when there is a wind and tattle tails every 25 or 33 yards go nuts. Super Shoot 2016 will run May 25th through May 28th. For anyone curious about serious bench rest competition if in Ohio it's worth a look. I enjoy it because like any matches some great vendors are onsite.

The Bench Rest Super Shoot Competition.

Ron