The author and his son stand in front of a 1,000-yard target fired prone with DTAC 115-grain 6mm bullets. Note the elevation consistency, which is key to good long-range scores.

It’s easy to determine how consistent velocities are using a chronograph during testing, but it’s not necessarily showing us what really matters, which is consistency of velocities at the target.

A load with a low standard deviation (consistent muzzle velocity readings) is certainly the first step in choosing competition ammo, but that will not tell you how consistent these velocities will be maintained farther downrange. Downrange chronographing can be a challenge, but it’s well worthwhile when developing long-range ammunition.

Due primarily to the production process in making a hollowpoint match bullet, there will be inconsistencies in the meplat or extreme tip-end of the bullet. These inconsistencies are influential in having each bullet in a box exhibit consistent behaviors downrange, and that is because they’ll have slightly different effective ballistic coefficients.

Essentially, a ballistic coefficient is a measure of how much speed a bullet loses; the higher the BC, the less speed it loses. If bullets are flying at different speeds, though, there will be greater elevation displacements on target.

A few years ago I developed a tool that uniforms the meplats of match bullets. Testing showed significant reductions in elevation group sizes. I strongly recommend this effort to any serious long-range shooter. No matter what the cartridge/bullet combination chosen, it’s an easy way to improve on-target consistency.

Ultimately, however, my efforts in bullet design have shifted toward incorporating plastic inserts to seal the meplat. This technology can be so well controlled that uniforming is no longer necessary. I realize that I’m certainly not the first to have incorporated this format into long-range bullet design. The difference, or my goal, was to also incorporate increased accuracy potential and a best possible BC profile into those I have engineered.

Ultimately, small groups at long range come most readily from an efficient, highly accurate cartridge firing bullets that are equally consistent in their downrange performance. A high score at 1,000 yards comes more from precise and consistent target feedback than it ever will from just higher and higher velocities.