Over the years myself and the team at Short Action Customs have been working on some behind the scenes projects.
Specifically, we have been trying to understand bullet jump and how it affects the bullets vertical impacts at distance in “Tactical” rifles. Our work was not dealing with bullet jump in “Bench Rest” shooting competition or rifles.
We used a 20 consecutive shot “Ladder Test” where the only variable was the bullet jump increased in .005″ increments ranging from .000″ jump to .095″ jump. We shot them at ranges at 400, 600 and 860 yards for these test. We were able to see how the bullets naturally grouped together despite the only change in the test was the bullets incremental increase in bullet jump.
Over the years we have shot dozens of rifles in all kinds of configurations for each bullet tested. We tried different shooters, charge weights, order of the test being fired and despite all of those variables, the test results were extremely consistent, showing virtually identical results, test after test, condition after condition.
We determined that most popular bullets that we tested actually held tighter vertical at distance when they jumped beyond .050″. We tested bullets like the extremely popular Berger 105 Hybrid and proved that it holds the tightest vertical at distance when jumping in the .060″ to .090″ range, specifically around .080″ jump. We also tested other bullets like David Tubb’s 115 DTACS and Hornady’s 147 ELD’M, also finding that they perform best when jumping beyond .070″.
I also reached out to some shooters who are very well respected in their discipline to see if they had experienced similar results and if not, would they be willing to test and try jumping much farther to the lands. Scott Satterlee was one of the shooters he was wanting to explore some of our bullet jump findings. Scott is one of those shooters who has probably forgotten more about long range shooting than I currently know, so it was great to hear that he has had extremely consistent and exceptional results jumping .080″ and farther to the
lands. I also reached out to Aaron Hipp and Keith Baker to start exploring extended bullet jump. Aaron was a bit skeptical at first and was instrumental in making sure our testing procedures was “bomb proof” and could not produce false results. Now Aaron has tested extended bullet jump enough on his own that he embraces it and agrees with our findings.
Keith Baker had also been testing bullet jump on his own and has ultimately come to the same conclusion that the Berger 105 Hybrids will consistently perform better when jumping past .060″ jump.
Next I started looking for some professional help in reviewing, analyzing, and processing the data, I was fortunate enough to work with a gentleman named Walter Meyer who analyzed all of our raw data and concluded that it was statistically sound and that our findings showed a “strong statistical improvement in the bullets ability to hold tight vertical at distance”.
After Walter finished his analysis of our data and concluded that it was sound, I reached out Cal Zant at “Precision Rifle Blog” to help relay this work to the public. I have always been a fan of the work Cal has done with the Precision Rifle Blog and I was honored that he wanted to publish our data. Cal has worked tirelessly on processing our data into an easy to digest format and I cannot thank him enough.
So check out our work at Precision Rifle Blog and let us know what you think. Cal has also posted a few blogs proceeding our work which are important and worth checking out.
Lastly, big thank you to everyone who helped with this extensive project, Alan Smith with all the reloading help, the team at Short Action Customs and my wife and family for supporting all of my work.
Finally publishing some of our exciting bullet jump testing.
Cal Zant at Precision Rifle Blog did what he does best, process raw data and present it in an easy to digest and appealing package. Great work Cal!! So check it out, let us know what you think about our results and let us know your thoughts!!