Hey all, I was just wondering what the difference between boat-tail and non boattail bullets are. I know that the boattails give you better down range accuracy and stuff but do they hurt penetration at short range??? Or are there any adverse affects of the boattail? It just seems wierd to me that if the boattail was that much better, that's what they would make the bullets. The reason I'm asking is that I'm thinkin about having my fiancee's dad start loading some ammo for me (7mm-08 and 30-06) and I'd like to stick with softpoint "bonded" bullets such as the corelock or hornady SP interlock. (I'm not paying for interbond or scciro and don't like ballistic tips). It just seems wierd to me that if BT's were so much better maybe remington would make them or hornady would only offer them, not the flat based bullets. THanks

Boattails do not really perform any different on game than flat based bullets.Bullet construction is far more of a factor than the shape of the base.For the ultimate in penetration and weight retensionit would be hard to beat the barnes tsx boattail.The bonded bullets like the accubond,interbond and scirocco also retain weight well and expand fairly rapidly.The corelokt and interlock are not bonded bullets.If you want bonded bullets you will have to spend more.

I realize they are not actual bonded bullets, that's why I put the quotation marks around it...but I used it for lack of a better word because that's how I thought Remington explained them (now I realize they were talking about the Premier series corelocks)....so let me rephrase that to "controled-expansion"

"I know that the boattails give you better down range accuracy and stuff but do they hurt penetration at short range??? "

Boattail bullets have a slight ranging advantage over flatbase bullets, but this is totally insignificant for ranges under 700 to 800 yards - in other words, the difference is meaningless inall but the most specialized applications, such as 1,000 yard target shooting. Very few hunters would ever need this added capability. Whethera bullet shoots accurately from your rifle is not necessarily affected by whether or not it has a boattail.

As for giving better accuracy, they don't. As a matter of fact, it is often the case that a flat-base bullet will give better grouping than a boattail, particularly if the twist of the rifling in a specific rifle is marginal for the length of the bullet in use, since the boat-tail makes a bullet longer,necessitatinga faster twist to stabilize it.

In some boattail designs, the tapered inside of the rear of the jacket does make a non-bondedcore more prone to separate on impact. This does not apply to bullets like the Nosler BT since the heel is solid and the rear portion of the core is falt, not tapered into the boattail. Naturally,the Barnes bullets made of one metal can't lose theircores!

If you want a goodbullet with a nonslipping core, useAccubonds or something else made the same way. But for hunting, don't be too concerned whether your bullet has a boatail or not.

They definatly give you more fps downrange. EJ

Boattails do increase the ballistic co-efficient of the bullet which results in a flatter trajectory and the wind having less effect on them.The advantages of the boattail are not noticeable until you approach 400 yards.

The ballistic advantage of a bullet with a very pointed nose is considerably greater than a bullet with a boat tail - at least at velocities above the speed of sound. I like the boat tails because they start easier when seating - and they do offer a slightly higherballistic coefficient.

The folks at Sierra also claim that their flat base line of bullets (Pro Hunter) have less expansion and greater penetration than their boat tail bullets (Gameking).