bullet shape question

[obilly]

I have had this question since training day 3 Norfolk VA. but never wanted to ask it because it seems like a dumb question. That said I have used a number of surreptitious means to answer the question with no successes. So screw it, say what you will I'm damn curious…

Why does everyone stop at a boat tail for high end VLD rounds why don’t we repeat the secant ogive on the back side of the bearing surface? It seems like the smaller the base and bearing surface the higher the BC so why not go to a point or very close?

It can’t possibly be because the gasses need something flat to push on (I sincerely hope)

My only guess is to leave space for powder but that seem like an easy thing to get around. It seems like the maker would need to drastically reduce the length of the baring surface to maintain a similar bullet weight which would mean one might to change seating depth to compensate but not by much and the COAL shouldn’t change much.

I'm thinking the round wouldn’t ever be popular in already over mag rounds like the 300 RUM where a 240 match king is already shoehorned in. However a lot of shooters actually find better accuracy in a 6.5-284 Norma after cooling off their loads and end up with piles of room left over for longer bullets.

I know the numbers would all change but would the round be more efficient? Better? worse? Why?
Thanks for your time.
External ballistics, internal ballistics, projectile, VLD, boat tail,

 

[DanGuy48]

Somebody else probably knows who I mean but I can't remember or find his name right now. There was someone who designed something like that, and worked it all out on paper with the physics of the air flow, etc. but when it came right down to it, I'm pretty sure no one ever got decent results with it when it came to use in the real world.

 

[BramC]

A boat tail is actually a compromise between reduced drag and bullet stability. Boat tails reduce base drag but make a bullet less stable so overdoing a boat tail is not good.
The ideal BT length is 0.8 times the calibre of the bullet at an angle of max 8 degrees. If the BT is longer, than the bullet wont be sufficiently dynamically stable.

I dont think its a dumb question. Ballistics is not all intuitive and common sense.

I hope this helps.