Petzal: Mysteries Solved!

For quite a few years, I’ve noticed that the .308 180-grain Nosler Partition Protected Point bullet shoots with unusual accuracy. The 180PP is not an attractive bullet; it’s a stumpy little sucker with a short, sharply curved ogive and hardly any lead exposed at the tip.

A couple of weeks ago, I wondered about this to Zach Waterman, Nosler’s Public Relations Director, and he said he would enquire of their Ballistics Department. Lo and behold, they had noticed it too, and gave two possible causes:

1) Because of its short nose, the PP’s center of gravity is farther to the rear than that of a spitzer, resulting in better stabilization in flight.

2) The (press) pressures required to form the PP are higher, thus creating a denser bullet and squeezing out any voids that might affect accuracy. Next, Zach will explain the nature of the Singularity in the Big Bang Theory.

Second: There is a great deal of military information out there in cyberspace, some of it good and some of it b.s. If you would like to read some of the good stuff, see “The Weakness of Taliban Marksmanship” by Chris Chivers. Mr. Chivers–formerly Captain Chivers, USMCR–reports for T_he New York Times_. Despite this, he is one of the good guys. In addition to being a Pulitzer Prize winner and writing for Field & Stream, he is a fair and impartial journalist who gets his facts right. He has also been shot at quite a bit by the Taliban, which gives him a certain degree of credibility.

Remember that name–Chris Chivers. You will see it here again before many moons have passed.