Quote:
Originally Posted by Dstyles75
Yes I was. I thought grain count would refer to the amount of gunpowder in the cartridge. So it made no sense to me that higher grain bullets had slower velocities. I now know grain count refers to the weight of the bullet. Thank you.
Dave
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Grain weight refers to BOTH.
The general rule of thumb is a heavier bullet requires a lighter powder charge.
The reason is a heavier bullet results in both more friction with the barrel, the heavier bullet is physically longer, hence more contact and friction, and the heavier bullet has greater inertia. Both result in more pressure, meaning a lower powder charge to stay within safe limits.
When you talk about POWER I believe your referring to muzzle energy, also known as kinetic energy. The issue with going by muzzle energy is the formula is MV(square), meaning energy increases at the SQUARE of muzzle velocity. This means a super light bullet at hyper speed has more energy then a heavier bullet at more normal speed. Impressive on paper but real world experience has proven in a lot of cases paper power is just that, paper power.