Bart’s 65 gr BT Test Results - Cactus Classic

B

Bart

Member
It looks like James Mock's post was right. The new BT does shoot. I think word is going to get around pretty fast and quite frankly I am proud of how well they have worked. The 65 grain .790 boattail took its finial exam this weekend at the Cactus Classic. The BTs were in the hands of only a few shooters (about 6). Granted they are very good shooters such as: Lawrence Weisdorn, Russ Hardy, Billy Stevens, Gary Sinclair and Lou Murdica, but a small number.

Going into the match I had some questions that I hoped would be answered. I was particularly interested in seeing how the little bullet would work at 200 yards in the wind. I also wanted to see how the BT would hang with the flat-base bullets at 100 yards. Conventional benchrest wisdom says BTs are often only marginal at 100 yards. Gary Sinclair’s .1662 agg in the 100 yard LV with the new BT put that one to bed.

Also Larry Costa won the HV 100 with a nice .1972 agg using Lowell Hottenstien’s BT. Lowell’s BT really doesn’t need any introduction, it’s been one of the premiere bullets in the country for years. Lowell’s BT is one of the main reasons the Michigan shooters are so tough.

Lou Murdica answered the rest of my questions with his HV 200 yard win with a .2296 in horrible conditions. The next closest shooter had a .3457 agg. Lou also won the HV Grand and the 2 Gun going away.

Summary:
Two yardages wins, one grand aggregate win and the 2 Gun. Also I believe Lou won Visalia a week or two ago with the new BT. Not a bad start.

Congratulations to all the winners!

Below I borrowed some of the results for Gary O’s posts.

Names in Red indicate users of the new BT.

Side note:
3 of the top 5 were using BTs. Lou and Gary with my new concoction and Larry Costa with Lowell Hottenstiens BT.



LV 100 – Nice mild conditions 5-7 mph winds, shifting

1. Gary Sinclair .1662
2. Alex Saldana .1716
3. Bart Sauter .1810
4. Russ Hardy .1840
5. Doc Beam .1868

HV 100 – Winds picked up a bit 7-10 and shifting

1. Larry Costa .1972
2. Charles Huckeba .2048
3. Tom Libby .2118
4. Mike Conry .2120
5. Lou Murdica .2122


Very WINDY

HV 200
1. Lou Murdica .2296
2. Larry Costa .3457
3. Bart Sauter .3694
4. Mike Ratigan .3704
5. Lawrence Weisdorn .3922

LV 200 (We only shot 4 groups because of wind/target problems and time)
1. Mike Ratigan .3956
2. Bill Summers .4038
3. Lou Murdica .4135
4. Dave Tunbridge .4405
5. Roy Damron .4485



HV Grand
1. Lou Murdica .2209
2. Larry Costa .2715
3. Bart Sauter .3067
4. Herman Hefta .3242
5. Mike Ratigan .3278


LV Grand
1. Mike Ratigan .3076
2. Bill Summers .3092
3. Gary Sinclair .3190
4. Lou Murdica .3221
5. Roy Damron .3383


2 Gun
1. Lou Murdica .2715
2. Mike Ratigan .3177
3. Larry Costa .3303
4. Bill Summers .3426
5. Gary Sinclair .3431

Thanks
Bart Sauter
 
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Bart said:
It looks like James Mock's post was right. It looks like the new BT does shoot. I think word is going to get around pretty fast and quite frankly I am proud of how well they have worked. The 65 grain .790 boattail took its finial exam this weekend at the Cactus Classic. The BTs were in the hands of only a few shooters (about 6). Granted they are very good shooters such as: Lawrence Weisdorn, Russ Hardy, Billy Stevens, Gary Sinclair and Lou Murdica, but a small number.

Going into the match I had some questions that I hoped would be answered. I was particularly interested in seeing how the little bullet would work at 200 yards in the wind. I also wanted to see how the BT would hang with the flat-base bullets at 100 yards. Conventional benchrest wisdom says BTs are often only marginal at 100 yards. Gary Sinclair’s .1662 agg in the 100 yard LV with the new BT put that one to bed.

Also Larry Costa won the HV 100 with a nice .1972 agg using Lowell Hottenstien’s BT. Lowell’s BT really doesn’t need any introduction, it’s been one of the premiere bullets in the country for years. Lowell’s BT is one of the main reasons the Michigan shooters are so tough.

Lou Murdica answered the rest of my questions with his HV 200 yard win with a .2296 in horrible conditions. The next closest shooter had a .3457 agg. Lou also won the HV Grand and the 2 Gun going away.

Summary:
Two yardages wins, one grand aggregate win and the 2 Gun. Also I believe Lou won Visalia a week or two ago with the new BT. Not a bad start.

Congratulations to all the winners!

Below I borrowed some of the results for Gary O’s posts.

Names in Red indicate users of the new BT.

Side note:
3 of the top 5 were using BTs. Lou and Gary with my new concoction and Larry Costa with Lowell Hottenstiens BT.



LV 100 – Nice mild conditions 5-7 mph winds, shifting

1. Gary Sinclair .1662
2. Alex Saldana .1716
3. Bart Sauter .1810
4. Russ Hardy .1840
5. Doc Beam .1868

HV 100 – Winds picked up a bit 7-10 and shifting

1. Larry Costa .1972
2. Charles Huckeba .2048
3. Tom Libby .2118
4. Mike Conry .2120
5. Lou Murdica .2122


Very WINDY

HV 200
1. Lou Murdica .2296
2. Larry Costa .3457
3. Bart Sauter .3694
4. Mike Ratigan .3704
5. Lawrence Weisdorn .3922

LV 200 (We only shot 4 groups because of wind/target problems and time)
1. Mike Ratigan .3956
2. Bill Summers .4038
3. Lou Murdica .4135
4. Dave Tunbridge .4405
5. Roy Damron .4485



HV Grand
1. Lou Murdica .2209
2. Larry Costa .2715
3. Bart Sauter .3067
4. Herman Hefta .3242
5. Mike Ratigan .3278


LV Grand
1. Mike Ratigan .3076
2. Bill Summers .3092
3. Gary Sinclair .3190
4. Lou Murdica .3221
5. Roy Damron .3383


2 Gun
1. Lou Murdica .2715
2. Mike Ratigan .3177
3. Larry Costa .3303
4. Bill Summers .3426
5. Gary Sinclair .3431

Thanks
Bart Sauter
Click to expand...

Hi Bart,

Not that you didnt have great results with the bullets that you were shooting at the Cactus, but why didnt you choose to shoot the boattails also?..................Don
 
Your boattails also shoot in cold, windy...

weather. Steve Robbins (who is crazy enough to shoot all winter in Michigan) has been shooting them in practice and keeps telling me about very, very small groups.

You also let out a semi-secret of the best shooters in Michigan. This group does NOT include me. They have been shooting Lowell's boattails and keeping their mouths shut for some time. Since Lowell's health can't support making anywhere near the amount of bullets that you do, he's never pushed real hard at selling them. Every bullets he's made for years has been pre-sold.

It's a good thing for the sport of benchrest that you now have boattail bullets that have to be considered among the world's best.

By the way... GOOD SHOOTING.

Dick
 
Don,

Would you believe that I didn’t have enough to shoot the match?

Larry Costa was kind enough to haul several of the South Eastern Region shooter’s equipment to the Cactus. At that time I put in what I thought would be enough BTs to shoot the Cactus. However, I conned a friend (Jim Andress) into going to the Cactus. I told him not to worry about bringing any equipment because we could both shoot my rifle and use my stuff. The bottom line is we didn’t have enough BTs to get us both through the match. We also found a tune with the Ultras just before the range closed that looked pretty strong. Actually Billy suggested a seating depth and it really brought the barrel to life.

Jim and I did tune the BTs in the rifle and they looked great, but the possibility of having to change bullets in the middle of a big match was not very appealing. We already had enough adversity with the two of us getting loaded and trying to clean and cool down the barrel between relays.

It worked out pretty well all in all. I just made some very poor decisions concerning conditions Sunday afternoon.


Bart

P.S. The biggest problem was forgetting to get the bolt before the other guy goes back to load. Jim and I got to run an extra 3 miles tracking each other down..
 
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These are great bullets.

I am back from "near death" due to the flu. There are two reasons for this post....one is that my computer was fried by lightning(I guess) and I had to re-register for the forum; and the second is to say a word about these new BT bullets. One does not have to shoot very many of these bullets to realize that Bart has a real winner.
 
I'm sure they are great bullets...

JD Mock said:
I am back from "near death" due to the flu. There are two reasons for this post....one is that my computer was fried by lightning(I guess) and I had to re-register for the forum; and the second is to say a word about these new BT bullets. One does not have to shoot very many of these bullets to realize that Bart has a real winner.
Click to expand...

but lets not forget Don Genthner and Allie Euber have been producing short range BR 6mm boat tail bullets for years. Most people have shunned them for years based on "conventional wisdom". --Greg
 
glp said:
but lets not forget Don Genthner and Allie Euber have been producing short range BR 6mm boat tail bullets for years. Most people have shunned them for years based on "conventional wisdom". --Greg
Click to expand...

Anyone with a good borescope and their thumb on the pulse of competitive BR would have to be blind to not notice that Hottenstein, Ocock, Bruno, Gentner, Euber, Schmitt, and others are shooting BT's for a good reason, and it is not superior external ballistics coefficient. It is better internal ballistics.

BT's wont gaurantee wins, but with the correct bore fit and everything else right, they can provide superior results..............Don
 
Bart said:
Don,

Would you believe that I didn’t have enough to shoot the match?

Larry Costa was kind enough to haul several of the South Eastern Region shooter’s equipment to the Cactus. At that time I put in what I thought would be enough BTs to shoot the Cactus. However, I conned a friend (Jim Andress) into going to the Cactus. I told him not to worry about bringing any equipment because we could both shoot my rifle and use my stuff. The bottom line is we didn’t have enough BTs to get us both through the match. We also found a tune with the Ultras just before the range closed that looked pretty strong. Actually Billy suggested a seating depth and it really brought the barrel to life.

Jim and I did tune the BTs in the rifle and they looked great, but the possibility of having to change bullets in the middle of a big match was not very appealing. We already had enough adversity with the two of us getting loaded and trying to clean and cool down the barrel between relays.

It worked out pretty well all in all. I just made some very poor decisions concerning conditions Sunday afternoon.


Bart

P.S. The biggest problem was forgetting to get the bolt before the other guy goes back to load. Jim and I got to run an extra 3 miles tracking each other down..
Click to expand...

Bart, the life of a bullet making competitor is never easy.

I think they aught to make a new rule for those that make/sell BR bullets and compete in BR tournaments, at least a .1" aggregate handicap, I figure thats about what you are handicapped when trying to mix the 2 endeavors.........................Don
 
Bart

How short of a throat would one need to shoot your new BT bullets?

Thanks.

Gary
 
With new brass I’ll fire-form and shoot them again with a lite load. Then I trim everything back to 1.500. I pretty much keep them there and stay on top of the length.

Bart
 
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Jim,

Not exactly for sure! I have a lot to get done between now next week. If it keeps snowing I may have to follow the Snowplows out! Probably Tuesday or Wednesday . Looking forward to seeing you!

Bart
 
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