73 gr Hornady ELD

[Kaldor]

Anyone notice the bearing surface being extremely short? Like shorter than a 68 or 69?

Obviously not a great photo, but measuring the bearing surface of the 73, a 68 Hornady BTHP, and a 69 Sierra TMK shows the the 73 is shorter than the other 2.

Now Im wondering if these bullets will handle higher pressures, as in more powder, just as well, or possible better than the others?

Thoughts?

 

[LoonWulf]

While not a direct correlation, well kinda, I once conversed with Walt Berger via email, about using 95grn vlds in my 6x47. During the course of the conversation i mentioned that i was loading the 95s over the same charge of 748 that i was using with 70 grn balistic tips, a charge about 2 grains higher than the 95 grn balistic tips would comfortably handle. He wasnt surprised and said pretty much the same thing you figgured out, realy aerodynamic bullets (specifically speaking of the Berger VLD at the time) tend to have very short bearing surfaces for their weight, and offten will take a bit more powder than some of the shorter blunter bullets of the same weight.

As always a careful handloader will work up a load with each specific bullet they use. You probably wont gain alot of velocity with a vld type over a regular bullet, but you may find u need a bit more powder to get there.

 

[Varminterror]

Longer boattail, longer ogive, why wouldn't the bearing surface be shorter?

 

[LoonWulf]

well.....cause.....
Ill admit once i noticed it, it made sense, but untill Mr. Berger actually said something I never even thought about it.

 

[Kaldor]

well.....cause.....
Ill admit once i noticed it, it made sense, but untill Mr. Berger actually said something I never even thought about it.

Same here. I was able to run the 73s as high as 24gr of 8208, with no pressure issues with CCI 400s. I might try a couple at 24.2 and 24.4 for grins.