bearing surface length directly affects the amt of friction between bullet and barrel...longer equals more friction, and slows the bullet( in fractions of a millisec).
Number please. Driving a single car over the Golden Gate bridge puts wear on it, too Question is, how much.
if you believe chris long's shock wave theory in determining accuracy, you'll realize two bullets weighing the same but of different bearing surface lengths propelled by the same amt of same powder will arrive at the muzzel at different times( fraction of a millisec).
If that's what the theory predicts, what's the result of controlled testing, where variables other than bearing length are removed? Seems a fairly easy test to make, and wouldn't the military be interested in the quantifciation, for artillery rounds?
i had a very accurate load but changed bullets (same weight) and seated the new ones at the same jump to the lands and the group went to hell. measured bearing surface and the newer bullets had a much shorter bearing surface.
adjusted the seating depth and found the point of departure that allowed bullet to exit when shock wave was at the receiver and, yes, the one hole reappeared.
Best I can follow, you had to change the bullet jump, then. Depending on just how much that change was...
And as far as that anecdotal story goes, I've had the opposite, with 142 grain Sierra 6.5 boattails, at least in the early days when they first came out. If you mixed the two sorts, the group was still OK, but not as good as if you didn't. But if you shot groups with the same "sort," neither one of them "went to hell" if you didn't change anything.
In short, your anecdotal evidence don't fit my anecdotal evidence, so where are we?