With the evolution of small arms came the concept of twist. The purpose of twist is to stabilize a bullet in flight and improve accuracy. As firearms began to develop it was noted that when a bullet was fired it acted rather unpredictably. The bullet would wobble in flight, kind of like a knuckle ball in baseball. This wobble, caused by air flowing around the bullet, and imperfections in the caste of the bullet, decreased accuracy and limited the ability to predict the trajectory of a bullet.

          In order to overcome the inherent wobble in a bullet, rifling was put into the barrel of firearms and twist was introduced as a means to stabilize the bullet. Twist works by gyroscopic stability produced by rotational momentum of a spinning object. For example, a spinning a top becomes more stable the faster it spins until it loses stability. The same is true for a bullet; as spin rates increase, so does the stability of the projectile.

          Many people say that it is possible to over-stabilize a bullet. This simply is not true. The wobble caused by spinning a bullet too fast is not over-stabilization. Over-stabilization is not possible because one cannot make something too stable. The wobble created at high twist rates is from inconsistencies in the shape and sectional density of the bullet. For example, a small discrepancy in weight distribution through the bullet is accentuated as the bullet is spun at very high rpm?s. This is apparent down range as a bullets rotational momentum causes the bullets weight discrepancies to exacerbate the wobble inherent in every bullet. These discrepancies are like putting a lead weight in a volleyball and then rolling it across the floor. When the ball is rolled fast across the floor, the inconsistency in the weight of the ball is much more apparent. This is analogous to rotational momentum of a bullet. If there are inconsistencies within the form of the bullet, these inconsistencies will be accentuated as the twist rate of the bullet is increased. The problem with stability is not the rate of spin; rather it is a problem of bullet manufacturing. Using more than one material in the production of a bullet causes weight inconsistencies to intensify exponentially, and this makes it virtually impossible to increase twist rates without ruining the trajectory of a bullet. As a result of ballistically inferior design in the manufacturing of bullets, many shooters have gone to slower twist rates in their rifles to prevent wobble. This is not the answer to better stabilization.

          Decreasing the twist rate makes the bullet less stable at range, especially as the bullet passes into and through transonic (800-1100 fps) speeds. The reason for this is that unless the bullet has a high twist rate through the transonic speeds it does not have sufficient rotational momentum to stabilize itself through the intense turbulence created at transonic speeds. The instability presented by slower twist rates makes a downrange projectile inherently less accurate and effective. But spinning a bullet too fast also presents some problems.

          Bullets have two types of momentum, linear momentum and rotational momentum. As a bullet travels down range, the linear momentum is rapidly decreasing. This decrease in velocity is caused by the drag created by the bullet. Though the linear momentum is rapidly decreasing downrange, the rotational momentum, or spin, is nearly constant. Because the stability of a bullet is based on a direct relationship of these two momentums, the stability begins to decrease downrange and is accentuated the more the rotational and linear momentums differentiate downrange. This is what people mean when they talk about over-stabilization. The trick to overcoming this problem is getting the bullet to be ?just? stable, and achieving this stability has been a problem for bullet manufacturers for years.

          The simplest way to overcome a problem with stability is to make a blunt nose on the bullet and decrease the spin rate. By decreasing spin rate, downrange performance is compromised. Bullet manufacturers have slowly evolved to this level of bullet production by making hollow point match bullets and other blunt nose bullets. Bullets with soft lead tips present the same problem because the soft lead tip disintegrates at high velocities leaving a flat, or slightly rounded nose to pierce through the air. In other words manufacturers have come to offer a ballistically inferior bullet because they cannot figure out how to achieve stability with a bullet that has a highly streamlined design.

          As a bullet is streamlined it presents many problems with respect to stability. One of these problems is its tendency to swap ends. As the bullet flies, air tends to get up under the bullet causing it to tumble. This effect can be overcome by spinning the bullet. But unless the spin rate is very high, the bullet will wobble downrange defeating the purpose of an aerodynamic bullet. This presents another problem in that as the bullet is spun at high twist rates it wobbles due to discrepancies in weight distribution. Yet another problem with high twist rates is creating a bullet that can withstand the intense force put on it by the high rotational momentum. Most jacketed bullets will fall apart at high velocities and high twist rates. So what needs to be accomplished is a highly streamlined bullet that will not wobble at high twist rates, will hold together, and retain its twist downrange to stabilize the bullet through the transonic speed range

          At Lost River Ballistic Technologies we have developed a bullet that is incredibly streamlined, will hold together at extremely high twist rates and velocities, and maintain stability through transonic speeds. By developing a bullet that is highly streamlined we have decreased the effects of drag on the bullet and increased the ballistic coefficient. This development offers the shooter increased accuracy, range, and consistency in effectively reaching a target. Our bullets are made of a special alloy that is not jacketed. This non-jacketed bullet allows for increased forces to be applied to the bullet without it falling apart or disintegrating. By having a non-jacketed bullet we can increase twist rates, and that means increased stability. Also, because of the ability to increase twist rates we have been able to improve the performance of our bullets through the transonic barrier, which results in an immense increase in downrange accuracy. Our bullet construction, design, and manufacturing methods are revolutionary. We make a ballistically superior bullet that results in increased accuracy and precision. An example is our 232 grain 30-caliber bullet that is stable and accurate at over 2000 yards. Never before could a 30-caliber bullet reproducibly perform at these ranges. The rifle we used to accurately fire a 17-inch group at this range had a 1; 8.5 twist. Because our bullet is so streamlined and precise, it must be fired with high twist rates that can stabilize it despite the effects of air.

Matthew Mosdell

At Lost River Ballistic.