Ballistics are a weakness of mine. I have no idea how they work. Statements which sound good at face value often have contradictory results in the real world, and this is a source of confusion for me.
For example, in the Reloading section there is currently a discussion of 135gr .40 cartridges. Now we all probably know these have "More energy" because they are lighter. And at first this sounds like a great thing, right? But then we examine the lighter bullets versus heavier ones, and find the heavier bullets outperform the ones with more energy!
.40 S&W - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
As you can see, 135gr bullets had far more energy than 180gr, but the 180gr had better penetration and expansion! Obviously bullet design plays a role, but it's not like we're talking WWB versus Speer Gold Dots here. These were all very high-quality bullets used. With such a huge difference in energy one would expect the slower bullets to be far outclassed by the lighter ones.
So what gives? Why is energy, which seems so to be such a vital variable, not really proving its value in the real world? Does anyone know of a good online article or book which can clarify the subject? I'm tired of getting my brain all twisted around by counter-intuitive results of bullets which on paper seem like they'd give a very different performance!
Thanks! :1zhelp:
For example, in the Reloading section there is currently a discussion of 135gr .40 cartridges. Now we all probably know these have "More energy" because they are lighter. And at first this sounds like a great thing, right? But then we examine the lighter bullets versus heavier ones, and find the heavier bullets outperform the ones with more energy!
.40 S&W - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
As you can see, 135gr bullets had far more energy than 180gr, but the 180gr had better penetration and expansion! Obviously bullet design plays a role, but it's not like we're talking WWB versus Speer Gold Dots here. These were all very high-quality bullets used. With such a huge difference in energy one would expect the slower bullets to be far outclassed by the lighter ones.
So what gives? Why is energy, which seems so to be such a vital variable, not really proving its value in the real world? Does anyone know of a good online article or book which can clarify the subject? I'm tired of getting my brain all twisted around by counter-intuitive results of bullets which on paper seem like they'd give a very different performance!
Thanks! :1zhelp: