[gunnerjohn]

Hey Gene and Hollis,
I agree with the premise that the Greenhill formula is a good basis to weeding out bullets that will or won't work in a given rifle. I have found this definately true when developing loads for customers rifles that are shipped to me. Most of my customers that I load for are heading overseas to hunt either plains game or dangerous game. Most of the bullets are the higher end.(Barnes, Scirroco, Woodleigh and Norma Oryx) With the Barnes and Scirroco I have found that the extreme length of these bullets will play hell with some rifles. Bullet seating and powder charge have nothing to do with the problem... It is the twist to bullet length ratio that creates the problem. Taking existing good loads out with a new rifle and finding that the bullets dive deep, spin off or go sideways through the target frame causes much frustration. Thanks to these "errors" my test bullet selection is pretty large and allows me to set up developmental test batches to go to the range with. The only time I have issue with excessive range testing on a customer's rifle is when the cost to body damage ratio is too excessive. Remember I mention dangerous game rifles. Big nitro express rifles are neat, beautiful rifles, but the cost of large diameter bullets and lots of powder with excessive recoil makes development interesting. Barnes triple shock bullets have been a dream to the plains hunter. The velocities that one can attain with these bullets with the accuracy make them a great choice for anyone wanting a long range hunting rifle they can rely on. They do like a longer twist barrel because of the length of the all copper bullet. Barnes' new MRX bullet should give the fast twist shooter a chance to use the performance of the triple shock. This bullet will be basically a triple shock bullet with a tungsten core. This allows for the same weight with about 20% shorter OAL.
Barnes is supposed to have their new loading manual out in 2 months and they are addressing the bullet length issue with the greenhill formula involved.