Вы находитесь на странице: 1из 5

AccurateShooter.

com Bulletin
April 1, 2009

Choose A Topic
Articles (157) Videos (222) Bullets, Brass, Ammo (226) Competition (421) Gear Review (269) Gunsmithing (164) Hot Deals (291) Hunting/Varminting (89) New Product (250) News (1037) Optics (174) Reloading (225) Shooting Skills (16) Sponsors (2) Tech Tip (195)

U.S. Army Team Tests Radical New Dimpled Bullet


Filed under: News Tags: Army, BC, bullet, Sniper Editor @ 12 am

At the U.S. Armys Aberdeen Proving Ground, a team of ballistics technicians, supported by some of the U.S. Armys top sniper instructors, has been quietly developing a radical new dimpled bullet. The exterior of the bullet resembles the dimpled surface of a golf ball. The function of the special dimpled skin is to reduce projectile drag, providing a flatter long-range trajectory, and greater retained energy at the target.

.338 Projectile with MIM Exo-Jacket (3D-CAD Artists Rendering)

In their pursuit of a lower-drag bullet, the Army tried a variety of designs, including bullets with circumferential drive bands, dual-radius ogives, and rebated boat-tails. The dimpled golf-ball design was considered a long shot according to the design team, but it has performed beyond all expectations. The nominal drag coefficient (Cd) has improved by about +.040, while cartridge muzzle velocity has increased by nearly 80+ fps because the bullets dimpled skin reduces in-barrel friction. Whats more the terminal performance of the dimpled bullet has been spectacular. The Aberdeen team set out to produce a slightly more slippery bullet for U.S. Army snipers. What they ended up with is a bullet with dramatically enhanced long-range ballistics and superior killing power on soft targets. Lt. Col. Ben Eldrick, Long-Range Projectile Project (LRPP) team leader, told

April 2009 M 6 T 7 W 1 8 T 2 F 3 S 4 S 5

9 10 11 12

13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 Mar May

Older Posts By Month

Featured Advertisers

AccurateShooter.com how the radical bullet was conceived: During our initial design work, we wanted the benefits of a high-BC, pointed bullet, but in a design that could be mass-produced and could work as a tracer. We consulted some of the top civilian bullet experts, including ballistician Bryan Litz of Berger Bullets. Mr. Litz really got the ball rolling. He suggested that the next big step in bullet design would involve the turbulent boundary layer over the body of the bullet. Litz told us that pointing bullet tips will take you only so far think about optimizing the airflow over the entire bullet. That made a lot of sense to us. When you design a race car to be aerodynamic, you sculpt the whole body, not just the front bumper. Lt. Col. Eldrick continued: It turns out Litz was right on the money. By employing a golf-ball type dimpled surface, we were able to optimize the turbulent boundary layer on the bullet body. This reduced the low-pressure wake zone behind the bullet significantly, resulting in reduced base drag. As a result the bullet experiences much less overall drag, effectively raising the BC. The Army team had discovered that what works for golf balls also works for bullets. After testing a series of prototypes, the Aberdeen bullet design team settled on a copper-jacketed bullet with dimples about 0.5 mm in diameter. The firstgeneration bullets were formed in special binary impact swages that press-form the dimples after the bullets were pointed up in conventional dies. Future production bullets will be made with an advanced metal-injection-molding (MIM) process that forms the dimples directly into the surface of the bullets. Rather than simply wrap the core material (which is classified), the MIM is molecularly bonded to the core. The Aberdeen LRPP team calls this Exo-Jacket construction, as in Exo-Skeleton. Higher Velocities Achieved There was a surprise benefit of the dimpled bullet design higher muzzle velocities. Given the same powder charge, dimpled bullets exit the muzzle faster because

Sponsors
Cabelas Grafs.com Midsouth Shooters MidwayUSA Precision Reloading

Recent Comments
Chris On Build A Simple, Portable PVC Target Stand Ian Stacker On John Loh Front Rest Now Offered By Sinclair Intl Rod Taylor On How Cartridge Brass Is Made Rod Taylor On How Cartridge Brass Is Made Kurt On Remington To Sell Civilian ACR Rifle In Early 2010 Hogan On SAKO Launches New A7 Hunting Rifle With Bells And Whistles Web Site

they produce less in-barrel friction than do conventional bullets. This is because the recessed dimples effectively reduce the metalon-metal bearing surface. Lt. Col. Eldrick revealed: the added velocity was an unexpected bonus. With equal-pressure loads, dimpled .308 bullets will fly about 80 fps faster than normal .308 bullets. With the large .338-caliber projectiles, the difference is even greater we can pick up nearly 150 fps. Given the observed velocity gains achieved with dimpled bullets, Aberdeen designers are now working on dimpled shell casings for larger artillery projectiles. Dimpled Jacket Delivers Explosive Fragmentation While the internal design and core materials of the new dimpled bullet remain classified, the design team revealed that the terminal performance of the new bullet has been spectacular. The bullet penetrates like a FMJ but then explosively fragments, resulting in a devastating energy release in the target. According to Capt. Jack Sarazen, an Aberdeen engineer, the enhanced terminal performance of the dimpled bullet was unanticipated. This was a serendipitous effect of the slight thinning of the jacket material where the dimples are pressed. Sarazen explained: Most FMJ bullets break along the cannelure and then fragment into two or three large pieces. With the dimpled bullets, you have multiple fragmentation points so the bullet literally blows up like a grenade in the target. Comments (14)

Mark Edgreen On Potterfields Donate $500,000 For Youth Hunter Education Gabe Schmudlach On NRA Hires Tactical Coordinator Will Future High Power Matches Include Tactical Rifles? Steve Urban On NRA Hires Tactical Coordinator Will Future High Power Matches Include Tactical Rifles? Danny Reever On Potterfields Donate $500,000 For Youth Hunter Education

Tags

14 Comments
1. I curious how it would perform with moly coat.
Comment by foster April 1, 2009 @ 9 am

Reply 2. Guaranteed Moly will add another 75 fps to the dimpled bullets.
Comment by Jerry Tierney April 1, 2009 @ 10 am

Reply 3. I do this everytime I moly-coat my bullet with the molyed steel shot applcation, just cant see the dimples with the naked eye. RANDY
Comment by rewinder April 1, 2009 @ 11 am

Reply 4. Please splain to me how the vastly diminished jacket surface area might withstand the gas-cutting effects of propellant combustion?

Or is the classified jacket material some kind of Unobtainium alloy from the planet Krypton?
Comment by Steve Clark April 1, 2009 @ 11 am

Air Rifle Ammo


.308 Win 22LR

Reply 5. If you waisted the bullet you could reduce drag by another 20% and at the same time provide a marker for crimping.
Comment by steve podleski April 1, 2009 @ 11 am

AR15
Ballistics Barrel

Benchrest
Brass Bullet
Bullets Camp

Reply 6. APRIL FOOLS!!!!!!!!!!


Comment by Dasher April 1, 2009 @ 11 am

Perry CMP

F-Class Gunsmithing High Power Hornady


Creedmoor

Reply 7. April fools


Comment by daniel April 1, 2009 @ 2 pm

Hunting IBS Lapua NRA NSSF


Olympics Optics

Reply 8. Its april first guys..


Comment by Ron April 1, 2009 @ 4 pm

Palma Pistol Powder Primers

Reloading
Remington
Rifle Rimfire
Savage Scale

Reply 9. Happy April Fools Day!


Comment by Rick Ashton April 1, 2009 @ 4 pm

Scope Second
Amendment

Reply 10. do not forget the nine iron brass alloy cartridges.
Comment by nofoooolu April 1, 2009 @ 5 pm

Shooting SHOT
Show Smallbore
Spotting Scope

Tactical Target
USAMU Varmint

Reply 11. Well you could make the tail end looking like the nose. Basically like a football then you add a flat heal to it. The bullet starts off looking like a flat base bullet but after going through the barrel the heal separates something like what a sabot does and journeys on like a football.

User Help
To Comment On A Post, Click Post Title Or The "Comment" Link. The Bulletin Title Serves As The "Home" Button. If You've Been Reading A Particular Post And Want

Comment by Brandon April 1, 2009 @ 7 pm

Reply 12. Absolutely awesome


Comment by timnuccio April 3, 2009 @ 12 pm

To See All Posts Again, Click The Bulletin Title In The Tan Header Bar.

COPYRIGHT NOTICE
ALL Bulletin Content Is Copyrighted, 2009 AccurateShooter.com. You May Not Reproduce Original Text Or Photos Without Advanced Permission In Writing.

Reply

April Fools!!!!!!
Comment by blah February 16, 2010 @ 5 pm

AccurateShooter.com
HOME PAGE SHOOTERS' FORUM

Reply 13. The last thing a terrorist hears is FORE!!!


Comment by LJ Farris February 19, 2010 @ 9 am

Meta
Log In Entries RSS Comments RSS WordPress.com

Reply

RSS feed for comments on this post.

Leave a comment
Name (required) E-mail (will not be published) (required) Website

Submit Comment
Notify me of follow-up comments via email. Notify me of new posts via email.
Blog at WordPress.com.

Вам также может понравиться