bullet weight vrs. caliber

funny rms!!

i would buy that, thats an intresting thought i may have to play with that notion a bit.

pyro is correct about rifling twist being the main determining factor in bullet weight vs. potential accuracy.  However, it isn't weight per se that determines the optimal bullet for a given twist, but rather the length of the bullet's bearing surface against the bore.  It just so happens that a heavier weight bullet will usually be longer than a lighter bullet of any given diameter -- but not always.  Since Barnes bullets (except for the new MRX series) are all-copper, they are generally longer than lead core bullets of a given weight, which is why when converting from a standard lead core bullet over to one of the Barnes X bullets, the recommendation is generally to reduce bullet weight for equivalent performance.

Here are a couple links that explain twist rate vs. bullet weight:

http://www.shilen.com/calibersAndTwists.html

http://www.riflebarrels.com/articles/bullets_ballastics/bull et_imbalance_twist.htm

well if the tsx shoots like a nosler partition then I'll start out by trying the tsx 150 because my 300 likes the nosler partitions 180 grain!  I'm working on a load of 180 gr. nos. ptp for elk right now.  Can't wait to try them out sometime this week weather permitting of course.  Im really starting to like this reloading thing.  Saves a little money, well it will in the long run not yet of course (just getting started)!  except i really dont think it will save me money since i find myself shooting much more, with all the tinkering you can do it makes it a lot more interesting. 

I also have a 270 winchester so when i get the dies for it i will more than likely use it for coyotes.  i was just asking as a theoretical question because i wanted to know if anyone was geting good accuracy with light bullets.  It sounds like you can get away with shooting lighter bullets but i think that now i would stay away from loading really light for the particular caliber.  I will have to experiment with something around 150 weight for my 300 win mag to see if i can get a good deer cartridge that shoots a little flatter.  I will be hunting mulies outsside of salmon idaho this year so i want to customize a load for some longer shots out to about 300 yards.  It sounds like crash has it figured out for his gun crash wrote, "I'm loading 150 TSX  in my 300win @ 3400 fps, shooting 1/2"  at 100 yds", great feedback guys you have answered a lot of my questions about the effective range of bullet weight for a particular caliber, i appreciate it!

Griffin