strut

Alot of people say that a smaller lighter bullet will be affected alot more by the wind than a heavier bullet, IMO once the bullet leaves the muzzle it is on its own, a heavy bullet will not drop any more than a light one as long as they are going the same speed so a light weight bullet will not be blown off any more than a heavy one by the wind. It all depends on how long it takes the bullet to reach its target. A 300 gr bullet traveling at 3000 FPS should' nt drop anymore than a 75gr bullet traveling at the same speed so why should the 75 gr. be blowed off more than the 300 gr?

dvdegeorge

I think the shape and aerodynamics of the bullet has a lot to do with it.

Vapodog

from personal experience I can assure you that the heavier bullets are less effected by wind. The reason is inertia. Among the big factors in trajectory is inertia. The heavier bullets don' t deaccelerate as fast as the light bullets ...all of which suffer serious air resistance to their frontal path. Deflection due to wind is also related to inertia and heavier bullets are less deflected.......remember this all happens in less than a second. Inertia is resistance to change and the heavier bullets are better at it than light ones. I' ve witnessed this on many prairie dog towns!!!

Extreme example....the 16" guns of Naval gun boats shot about 2,200 feet/sec as I recall...yet they shot 22 miles inland with superb accuracy. Will a .30-30 do that?

8mm/06

OK
Think of it in football terms and I' ll make it extreme for illustration purposes....

295 pound running back blowing by you at 8 mph and you push him to the side
145 pound running back blowing by you at 8 mph and you give him the identical push to the side...

Who' s gonna be pushed off their path more, the 295 pounder or the 145 pounder?

stubblejumper

Wind drift is determined by the shape of the bullet not by a bullets weight.From the sierra second edition loading manual;
.308" -165gr spitzer boattail 2800fps muzzlevelocity-30mph wind-
100 yards-2.09" 200yards-8.64"
.308" -180gr round nose 2800fps muzzlevelocity-30mph wind-
100yards-3.83" 200yards-16.39"

8mm/06

Stubblejumper,
What would happen to 2 equal shaped bullets of different weights?

Say, 2 boat-tail spitzers....one at 150 grains and 1 at 200 grains?

strut

Vapo, I' m not talking about the winds ability to slow the bullet I' m talking about windage, when a bullet leaves the muzzle it is free floating, if being big and heavy makes a difference then why do jet liners allow for cross winds when in flight. If you had 2 planes, one a commercial jet the other a small lear jet both traveling the same speed, same route in the same wind would the smaller one be blowed off course more than the big one? I still think a 300 grain bullet traveling at 3000 FPS when it hits the target will be affected by the wind as much as a 75grain bullet traveling the same.

8mm/06

Maybe this will help...

I was only stating that weight does have a decided advantage in Ballistic Coefficient, and Ballistic Coefficient has a definite effect on wind drift. It is enough to effect a bullets point of impact. Whether it is enough to make or break a big game kill shot is dependent on many factors. But weight matters, all other things being equal. The info below illustrates my point.

.224" (.22) 52 grain Match, BC .253
.284" (7mm) 145 grain Match, BC .465
.308 (.30) 168 grain Match, BC .480
.308 (.30) 190 grain Match, BC .540

“Note that in the .308 pair, the heavier bullet (which has the greatest sectional density) has the better BC. The extremely poor SD of the .224" bullet lowers its BC, even though its shape is similar to the others.”
From: The Ballistic Coefficient of Rifle Bullets
By Chuck Hawks

stubblejumper

Now you are starting to make things difficult.To do a fair comparison you must take into account that the lighter bullet can be driven at higher velocity than the heavier bullet using the same gun.The best that I can do with this manual is a comparison of the .308" -180gr matchking vs the .308" -220gr match king.According to this manual the same gun(300 win mag) provided 2700fps for the 220 gr bullet and 3000fps for the 180gr bullet.bullet drift for the same 30mph wind was as follows
180gr match king-100 yards-1.58" 200yards-6.53"
220gr matchking-100yards-1.58" 200yards-6.48"
Even though both bullets were match kings they are not exactly the same shape as the 220gr bullet is longer and therefore has a higher ballistic co-efficient.
To really complicate things I will throw in the data for a 168gr matchking fired out of a 7mmremmag at 3000fps and the same 30mph wind
7mm-168gr matchking-100yards-1.39" 200yards-5.71"
In this case the 168gr -7mm bullet is the lightest of the three and is the same basic shape as the other two yet it is the least affected by wind drift.
The 7mm bullet is also being fired out a cartridge of smaller case capacity than the two .308" bullets.
Once again heavier weight does not result in less wind drift.

8mm/06

I' m referring to " all other things being equal"
So if the 2 308 bullets of similar shape but different weights were driven at the same fps wouldn' t the heavier bullet drift less than the lighter bullet?

In your comparison of the 2 308' s the heavier bullet drifted less.....very little difference agreed...but it was measured
If you were to compare 2 284 bullets of similar shape but different weights would you not find the heavier bullet drifting less.
Probably not enough to make a difference in the field, but able to be measured.