HP's less accurate?

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john917v

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I am under the assumption that hollow points are less accurate than a given roundnose bullet of the same weight. This is due to the instability that the partial perforation on the front imparts on the bullet. What do you all think?
 
I don't think there is any data to back that up. It seems to me that the other forces involved would override any minor instability caused by the hollowed out portion. Heck it might even improve stability.

Look at pickup trucks. They actually get better gas milage because of the big open bed.
 
The theory is totally wrong. JHP's tend to be the most accurate bullets in pistols and rifles.
 
Sierra MatchKing.... seem to be doing pretty well for hollow points. Or, maybe technically open point bullets.

I've never used them and don't have a lot of familiarity with ultra precision shooting, it's just my first thought.
 
The bullet nose, in comparison to other factors, has little to do with accuracy. If you've ever shot "long" plastic tipped bullets, you'll note that the tips (of the bullets in the magazine) get torn up over the course of firing quite often... but with little effect on accuracy.

It's all about the base of the bullet!

FMJs tend to be less uniform along the base than HPs... therefore, less accuracy. The HP may not be necessary for the accuracy, but it is there as an artifact of most HP rifle bullet creation processes.
 
there are a tremendous amount of hp match bullets on the market that perform extremely well. Why would a cavity affect accuracy?
 
A list of open point target bullets would be pretty long.

A list of pointed target bullets would be pretty short.
 
One reason why hollow-point bullets are so accurate is that the base is the critical part of the bullet. By making the base of the cup the base of the bullet, and leaving a hollowpoint at the nose, the bullet has a better base.
 
+1
Hollow-point match bullets are the most accurate bullets being made today, or any other time in history.

The plastic tips, like the Hornady V-Max and A-Max follow in a close second place.

Third down is JSP, followed in last place by FMJ.

rcmodel
 
The accuracy issue with HP's is not the base or cup etc so much as the HP'ing moves the center of gravity of the round further from the tip of the round which increases stability and therefore accuracy,
 
I've also heard that the shockwaves off of the edges of the opening of a HP also create a virtual spire point to form that is much more precise then anything that can be machined. Can anyone shed some light/truth on this?
 
I think John is trying to say that the surface interruptions that the expansion grooves (or whatever they're called) would make a HP less accurate than a smooth FMJ. Since a bullet is uniform around its center axis, all the turbulence on one side of the bullet would be equal it its mirror side. The better you balance drag forces along it's axis of travel, the straighter the object will travel. A bullet that is heavy in the rear is more accurate because that part of the bullet is being pulled and the lighter portion is being pushed (think of a plastic weight stick in a pool, the end with the lead in it will always sink first). A hollow point is the easiest way to make a bullet base heavy.
 
Ever notice how the point of a soft-point bullet will deform a bit in the magazine as the rounds above it get shot? I got curious, one time, after reading some commentary about accuracy and bullet tips and such.

I did some '06ing and wound up with five rounds which had each had the tips battered from the recoil of five other rounds. And off to the benchrest I went. I got a five-shot group that was within a quarter-MOA of any other group I'd ever shot, rougly 3/4-MOA average with that '06. So, like the gunzine commentary offered, tip shape makes little difference in group size. I vaguely recall another experiment, using a pocket knife to cut the exposed lead off the tips, out of curiosity. As I recall, it made little or no difference, either. So, I quit worrying about such trivia. :)

Uniformity in the optimum shape--i.e., boat-tail--and concentricity of the mass seem to be the controlling factors.
 
I've also heard that the shockwaves off of the edges of the opening of a HP also create a virtual spire point to form that is much more precise then anything that can be machined. Can anyone shed some light/truth on this?
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I read that somewhere a long time ago too. I remember it was a low pressure in front of the hollow point bullet that makes a perfect point more uniform than anything man made. I think I read that in a loading manual years ago.
 
Art, your experiment reminds me of listening to all the muzzleloader hunters who come in looking for special loading devices, "So I don't mash the tips of my bullets..." I sort of chuckle and show them the little screw-on jags.

As said, the base of the bullet is the most important. Concentricity is key. Tip shape is way down the list of important factors to accuracy. But don't Ballistic Tips and SSTs sure look pretty all lined up, nice and uniform in those boxes!

Now that I think about it, I once tumbled a bunch of .223 match HPs loaded on a progressive press. I was in the process of picking the media out and thought, "Duh! How much can this stuff really hurt?" So up to the range for a 300-yard prone shoot. The results? Can't see any difference at that range. Next question... :cool:
 
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Sneaky here: This optimum shape thing ie: boat tail is a little puzzling for don't most of the bench-rest shooters use flat bases out to 300?? The concentricity thing IS very important but how close?? +/- 0.002>0.004 THX--S/P
 
Sneaky here: This optimum shape thing ie: boat tail is a little puzzling for don't most of the bench-rest shooters use flat bases out to 300?? The concentricity thing IS very important but how close?? +/- 0.002>0.004 THX--S/P
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From a pure accuracy standpoint a flat base bullet is better.

Your observation that BR shooters only use them out to about 300 yards has to do with the flat base bullets losing out ballistically at the longer distances to the boat tails in their ability to buck wind.

Flat base bullets can still shoot phenomenal groups at long distances..... but only under ideal calm conditions. They generally do not hold a candle to the boat tails when any wind at all is running.

Best,
Swampy
 
The reason a JHP tends to be more accurate is that with a bullet of equal weight, it has more mass further from the axis of rotation so the bullet has more gyroscopic stability. The closer to the axis that any mass is, the less it is contributing to stability.
 
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