Hello everyone!

We are excited about the launch of this particular bullet designed to maximize performance in a 1:10" twist barrel! At only 166gr but with a measured G7 of .293 (@ 2900-3000 fps), this bullet surpasses the BC for almost all 175gr - 205gr competitors' bullets designed for this twist. Like our flagship Afterburner hunting bullet, this target bullet has our patent pending geometry providing improved accuracy potential and reduced barrel friction, heating, and fouling. This proves even more critical in competition where shot count can climb quite high in a short amount of time. With the lighter weight and lower bore friction allowing extremely high muzzle velocities, time to target is significantly reduced and supersonic flight maintained at greater distances.

We now have plenty of these in stock! Come and check them out at the link below!

https://www.apex-outdoors.com/product-page/target-308-166-gr

Well that sumbitch is pretty!

In all seriousness, how much testing have you done on this bullet. It seems like a really short bearing surface, which is great, maybe. With great dies and a great barrel this could be a breakthrough. I would be afraid much run-out and it would never stabilize.

Talk to me about this.

wp75169,

Thanks for the kind words, lol. While we haven't had much time with this particular bullet, our patent pending bearing surface is characteristic of all Apex Outdoors bullets and has proven very successful so far. Every rifle that has shot groups with our Afterburner preproduction bullets or the Haymaker (our bullet released last month for the 300 AAC) that rifle has either shot the best groups it ever has or at least tied for the best groups. Rifle count is around a dozen or so, both custom and factory. Usually, that is with very little time for load work up.

For example, a six-shot string was fired out of a 7lb mountain rifle (total weight with scope, no brake) 300 Win Mag to get an average BC for the above target bullet. If I could shoot better, lol, the six-shot group would have been better than the .9" it was. The last three went into .4" after I started doing my job a bit better. All of that was with a random low-pressure charge of Re-23 and new Norma brass. Absolutely no work up whatsoever, and new brass to boot. I basically followed my own loading procedures. Set the projection length accordingly by design, and crimp with a Lee Factory Crimp die. My jump to the lands is around .150" or so for that setup. All Apex Outdoors bullets work very well with a long jump, and actually that's part of our patent pending design. The longer jump desensitizes variation caused by other variables, and the geometry is designed to handle that jump effectively. This results in a much broader operating window significantly improving forgiveness.

Having said all that, the lands have a longer and more positive control on the alignment of the bullet than may be perceived by the picture above. The entire center section rides on the tips of the lands. No friction from engraving, but positively controlled by the lands, nonetheless. A case alignment boss exists at the front, just behind the crimp groove, and at the rear to allow positive case alignment, with the center section nestled between the two bosses. In the bullet above, that is maximized for the shortest neck of all, the 300 WM.

One more thing pertaining to stability. Forgot to make mention there, and you asked. Even with our target bullets, we optimize for certain twists based on a gyroscopic stability factor of 1.5. This bullet is for a 1:10" twist at a minimum muzzle velocity of 2800 fps. We do this for several reasons even though target bullets can get away with a lower stability factor.

One, if a rifle is listed as 1:10", but in reality, is more like 1:10.15" for example, it will still function, whereas if we were to allow our recommended stability factor to be as low as 1.3, that may not be the case.

Two, bullets settle down quicker when twist rate is optimized improving BC and accuracy.

Three, gusting, turbulent winds can and will throw off a marginally stabilized bullet far more than a fully stabilized one adding to scatter and unpredictability at range.