I can only agree with one of your statements. A modern bullet is neither an airplane nor a leaf.
With regards to your attempt to refute the idea that a bullet with the shortest flight time will have the least drift, I don't see how anyone could argue with the fundamentals of that statement.
Minimizing time to the target is the whole idea behind trying to combine the highest possible MV along with a bullet with the highest possible BC (lowest drag). You want to launch it as fast as possible and have it maintain that high speed as long as possible, assuming accuracy remains the same or at least not degraded to an unacceptable degree. In simple terms, lasers out-shoot sling shots.
As for slowing down the least, think about it. Selecting a high BC bullet because it has less drag and therefore slows down less than a low BC bullet makes sense, all other things being equal. But it's far from the whole story especially because "all other things" are hardly ever equal. Consider a 500fps bullet with zero drag vs a 4000fps bullet which has high drag and arrives at the target at 2000fps because it slows down so much. The imaginary zero drag slow bullet arrives at the target (much later) still at 500 fps. I'll take the fast, high drag bullet even though it slows down the most. Shorter flight time wins the day. High BC is not the whole answer.
Yes, wind does indeed "blow the bullet over". Consider a round musket ball. It is effected by wind drift just like anything else. True, modern bullets react slightly differently than musket balls, but only slightly differently and not because a lateral shift in POI when shooting a modern bullet a cross-wind somehow violates the laws of physics. The primary shift in POI caused by a cross-wind is actually caused by the cross-wind, not the dynamics of a spinning bullet. Every golfer knows this and so do football quarterbacks throwing long forward passes.
It is true that a typical bullet spinning at more than a quarter of a million RPM which is shot in a (roughly) parabolic arc while it is aimed off axis to compensate for a cross wind will NOT behave exactly like a simple musket ball. The modern bullet has an initial angle of attack because its axis is not perfectly aligned with the relative wind as it exits the muzzle and the arcing flight path combined with the bullet's spin further complicates the ballistic details when compared with a simple, non rotating ball. However, these differences are small and much of the change in POI caused by the dynamics associated with a spinning bullet is evident in still air. True, exterior ballistics related to modern bullets are well studied, quite complicated, and, for the most part, understood. But bullets still obey basic physics.
I suppose you could say a long skinny spinning bullet "drags itself" because of aerodynamic effects, but this change in POI is small when compared with the fundamental drift caused by the simple effect of the crosswind "blowing" the bullet off the basic POA.
simply....
wrong.
sorry.
As I stated, this is not an opinion.
Regardless "what you would choose" the aforementioned 500fps bullet with zero drag would show essentially ZERO drift whereas the 4000fps bullet would drift wildly. As anyone who's actually USED both would know. In simple fact, a lead slug fired from a Sharps Big 50 will go through the crosswind 'WHup-WHup-WHup' for three or four seconds and hit the 1000yd buffler whilst the 40gr 22-250 bullet will SIZZLE thru the same air, the SAME crosswind in 1/3 the time, and miss by 20ft.......
It's physics
It's ballistics
And it's well understood.....and contrary to popular belief round balls are governed by the same laws as rear-balanced spin-stabilized conical projectiles.
If you were right, you could drop a bullet off the barn roof for three seconds and the bullet would "blow over."
I've done this, it doesn't, much.
Mann did this (read 'The Bullet's Flight From Powder to Target: The Internal and External Ballistics of Small Arms' by Franklin W. Mann, it's available online for free) they didn't. This did truly puzzle the estimable Mr Mann and he spent his life trying to solve the conundrum.
Others since then have solved the conundrum.
Again.
The wind DOES NOT blow the bullet over, nor does it "roll on the wind" as they're still teaching jarheads to this day......the bullet IS SUCKED OVER by it's own deceleration-based drag. this drag is simply re-aligned by the wind vector that the bullet "feels," a combination of IT'S OWN WIND of 2000mph (The Big Suck) with the small sideward component added by the crosswind.
Now, 2 IDENTICAL bullets with different velocities will show different "wind drift" with the faster bullet generally showing less drift.......when talking about two identical bullets, both supersonic, Jerry is right. BUT...The difference is minute, TINY, infinitesimally small, generally swallowed up by other effects but YES...... TWO IDENTICAL BULLETS, the faster one will have less drift. Not much less.......you'll never know it as a 200fps change (say 3200 to 3400) in a 10mph direct cross is only .009 or NINE THOUSANDTHS OF AN INCH at 100yds with a modern BR bullet. With the older, blunter stubby bullets this might be as much as .012 inches at 100yds and can be as much as an inch at 300, BUT THAT'S FOR A 10mph CHANGE!!! Missing a bump of 2-3mph is only a couple thou....
really, a couple thou.......002 inches for 200fps
What Jackie's experiencing is simply that to a decent trigger-puller in "normal" conditions accuracy always trumps BC and generally speaking short, fat point-blank BR bullets are MUCH more accurate than the long skinny "VLD" style bullets. Although this paradigm is changing.....bullets are getting better. Chamberings are getting better. GUNS are getting better and shooters are learning how to make the big pills perform better. There may soon be a time when on a windy, blustery day the high BC bullets become the better choice for 200-300. Beyond that, at 600-1000 it's no contest, the roles reverse. Low BC bullets go through the air like a snake at long range. I've watched them. It's startling. Watching a 3500fps bullet travel over 1000yds looks more like bowling or pingpong than shooting LOL!
. The .30 BR's are certainly accurate enough, but the little bumble bee shaped bullets are blown about more than I care for. Good shooting...James Mock
