Slow down my 6 Creed will make it shoot better at 600yd? HUH?

[JGorski]

I was told today I should try slowing my 105 HPBTs down below 3k fps to make it shoot better at 600yds. Reason being was bullets do strange things when they get past 300yds & 3000fps. I told this fellow shooter my rifle shoots under an inch out to 300, he said thats fine but going 2900-2950 will lower your SD and group size. What do you guys feel about this statement?
Oh, I shot a best 3.625" today, dont think I had anything over 5".

 

[Edds]

If you want to know what the difference is, the best thing to do is try it.

 

[Captain Kirk]

Ah, no. There may be a case with a given load and accuracy node at a specific velocity, but it would effect accuracy at all ranges. Saying that any load that is above 3K fps will show a lower SD when lowered below 3K is completely false.

 

[DAVETOOLEY]

I was told today I should try slowing my 105 HPBTs down below 3k fps to make it shoot better at 600yds. Reason being was bullets do strange things when they get past 300yds & 3000fps. I told this fellow shooter my rifle shoots under an inch out to 300, he said thats fine but going 2900-2950 will lower your SD and group size. What do you guys feel about this statement?
Oh, I shot a best 3.625" today, dont think I had anything over 5".

I won't get into the lower SD thing. That's all about load development. I will address the velocity issue. Bullets are like race cars. The faster you go or want to go the more perfect they have to be. Any flaws in balance or meplat uniformity are magnified the faster you go. Slowing them down minimizes these issues. I cut my teeth in short range benchrest and then transitioned to 1K competition in '95. We learned very quickly that when we're talking about pure accuracy speed is not the answer. Accuracy lives around 3000 fps or less depending on the bullet. Now with that being said everything is a compromise. You need accuracy, enough speed and BC to get the job done. After that learn how to shoot and read the wind.

Here's an example of what shouldn't work. I lobbied for a good flat base bullet for 1K comp. Much easier to make a good FB bullet than BT. People laughed at me but it was made and I kicked their ass on a regular basis when I still competed. I hold one 10 shot small group record and one of the biggest skeptics, a good friend, holds the another record in another organization with that same 187 gr. FB bullet. We could shoot these bullets at 3100-3150 FPS and still maintain accuracy.

 

[JGorski]

I won't get into the lower SD thing. That's all about load development. I will address the velocity issue. Bullets are like race cars. The faster you go or want to go the more perfect they have to be. Any flaws in balance or meplat uniformity are magnified the faster you go. Slowing them down minimizes these issues. I cut my teeth in short range benchrest and then transitioned to 1K competition in '95. We learned very quickly that when we're talking about pure accuracy speed is not the answer. Accuracy lives around 3000 fps or less depending on the bullet. Now with that being said everything is a compromise. You need accuracy, enough speed and BC to get the job done. After that learn how to shoot and read the wind.

Here's an example of what shouldn't work. I lobbied for a good flat base bullet for 1K comp. Much easier to make a good FB bullet than BT. People laughed at me but it was made and I kicked their ass on a regular basis when I still competed. I hold one 10 shot small group record and one of the biggest skeptics, a good friend, holds the another record in another organization with that same 187 gr. FB bullet. We could shoot these bullets at 3100-3150 FPS and still maintain accuracy.

Thanks for the replies! The 2 loads I used yesterday are running in the 3140ish range, 41.6 & 41.7grs H4350, meplats are trimmed and all bullets were very close to being the same length, ogive length again were the same, I honestly dont know what I shot on the last load of 41.7 but dont think it was that bad, Dave Lockman was scoring the targets and I only know my third group was about 4.2ish, as was my very first group of the day(radioed back from the pits) give or take, so my agg was not bad, but this Comp is for the smallest group of the day, Ed did that with a 1.361" with his 6.5x47Lap, new range record, congrats to ED! I think I made it into the top 10, finally, we'll see when I get the results in the mail. Now I have to figure out how to beat Ed, haha