In the adjacent post, 300 gr bullet for 45 colt, the subject of bullet design came up, but I didn't want to discuss it too deeply in that post, so am doing it on one specifically for the purpose. My purpose is to make it clear to the world that there is superior performance built into my designs, a little bit of why, and how I got the results I have.
I developed most of the LBT designs over about a two or three year period, then added a few as time revealed new things. Prior to and during this development I killed somewhere around 800 animals ranging from 50 to 800 pounds, taking perhaps half with revolvers. My handgun mullets MUST deliver superior killing power or I either won't sell them, and this discussion is about the handgun, primarily revolver bullets. Cast rifle bullets in the most common american calibers, 30 cal and smaller, need expansion to get good killing power. Properly designed revolver bullets give the best results when made with a flat nose large enough to produce a fast killing wound, with hardness high enough to guarantee no expansion even when large bones are hit. Ross Seyfried likes to say: 'Pistol bullets don't have a ballistic coefficient.' I agree fully, and many thousands of customer kill reports at all ranges verifies that.
Early in my design adventure I learned of many important factors in making lead shoot accurately and powerful, with the two most crutial aspects of revolver bullet design being to maximize powder room, to minimize bullet jump to the rifling, to obtain absolute precision guidence in the cylinder throats, and provide a very strong forward driving band to grab the rifling. This latter to minimize bullet skid, stripping of the rifling, and tipping of the bullet.
Other mold makers don't provide this because it causes a lot of problems with customers who don't understand how to set their gun up, and they don't want to teach them. They are content if the customers gun goes bang, but just that isn't enough for me.
I succeded in obtaining efficiency that allows much heavier bullets than had ever been produced previously, to be driven at speeds very close to the standard factory heavyweight loadings, while maintaining safe industry standard maxiimum pressures.
Only one pressure test was run that I know of, but it is very revealing. The comparison was with an original design 250 gr Keith 44 magnum, and an LFN which I cut to the exact weight. These were both loaded over the same powder charge and sent off to the pressure lab. The LBT bullet produced close to 100 fps higher velocity, as I recall, with around 2,500 psi lower pressure. Had the LBT bullet been loaded to equal pressures as the Keith, velocity would have been somewhere around 200 fps higher. -- This isn't my most efficient bullet for the 44, but was used as a comparison with the Keith which has been trusted for many years worldwide.
Every bullet I sell will outperform power wise, any other moldmakers offerings of the same weight, (If they aren't LBT copies, and I haven't seen any really true copies.) In the case of the LFN / Keith comparison above, the 250 LFN is a far superior killer when loaded to full potential, because of more speed. However the meplat is identical so killing power and penetration is identical at identical speed, and on that particular bullet, bearing length is almost identical so accuracy is very similar.
You'll notice I plug 280 gr bullets for most shooters, normally the WFN for hunters, and especially if they don't want to use full loads, because this bullet consistently drops deer bear and elk in their tracks when loaded to only 1200 fps. But power goes way up from there for those who want it, and what I've told you above holds for every caliber produced in the US.
You'll hear and read of some know it all shooters who play my desings down because they don't do their homework so far as bullet fitting, or who use the heavier blunt bullets (WFN, WLN) at too low velocity, or expect very long range accuracy, and especially with reduced loads. The heaviest bullets are for heavy loads. The bluntest are for extreme game performance and accuracy at the ranges the very best shooters can expect to hit game properly. If you want extreme long range performance for game or playing, the LFN in heavier weights, with a nose length to fit your gun, will beat any other makers bullet in the world, by a margin so large you'll never look back. The simplest and surest way to select the exact bullet you want is to tell me your requirements when you order and I'll tell you what I can give you.
No matter who makes the mold, gas checks will give about 50 fps higher velocity with slightly lower pressure than plainbase. If the plainbase load is leading heavy, the gc can add considerable more velocity and reduce pressure quite dramatically, as it will eliminate leading entirely in revolvers if the barrel is anywhere near good condition. (Lapping will make any barrel good.)
Lubricant is also crucial to getting top performance. LBT lube produces higher velocity and lower pressure than any lube I've tried, and I tried everything available when I run this test. Some lubes which don't do a good job of controling leading will give extreme pressure, perhaps 2000 to 5000 psi higher, compared to LBT lube, in which case velocity may be equal with a given load that would be moderate for LBT lube but max for the competitive lubricant. This latter pertains primarily to plain base, in revolvers, but applies to rifles also. -- This is a guess, but I believe that at least 90% of my customers who were having problems when using a competitive lube, had their problems solved completely by switching to LBT. (Some have some mechanical problems they need to learn about, which they learn here also.) I spent our life savings, which wasn't big, by the way, in developing this lube, and spent over 6 months working mostly 16 hour days to do it. I suppose it took at least 10 to perhaps 15 years to gain back my investment. In other words, bullet lube isn't a big money maker!
There is one fly in the ointment when testing any product. If you don't want it to work it won't. -- When you test LBT bullets in an unbiased way, they will prove their superiority with no room left for doubt.
