The matter at hand, though, is the latest and greatest from Parker: apparently the highest ballistic coefficient muzzleloading projectile ever released. Many of you are familiar with the .018 in. thick jacket Parker Ballistic Extreme saboted projectiles, offered in 250 grain and 275 grain versions. These have been the most popular of the Parker bullets for some time. The 275 grain Ballistic Extreme will be tested when the weather allows it in at least two of my regular test rifles, the Savage 10ML-II and the T/C Encore.
The big news from Bob Parker is this hand-crafted 325 grain .45 caliber Parker 325 Match/Hunter. And, extreme it certainly is with an eye-popping G1 ballistic coefficient of .430 printed right on the label. The Parker 325 Match/HunterIt is an aggressively profiled bullet, designed to cheat the wind as much as possible. My understanding is that this Parker 325 has a .028 in. jacket, making it more suitable for both high impact velocities and breaking bones.
The general standard in the industry has been the .50 caliber inline for many years. It currently offers the widest variety of bullet and sabot choices by a huge margin compared to other bores. As a generality, getting away from bore size for the same grain weight and profile of bullet offers external ballistics and better sectional density, the better sectional density meaning better penetration as a generalization. .45 caliber ballistics beat .50 caliber ballistics handily, so if possible it is a very easy choice to make. Along these lines, many have asked, ?So why not a .40?? Sure, the same comparison applies on the same basis, but .40 caliber bullets in 50 caliber sabots are often temperamental, although there are exceptions. The thinner the sabot, the prone the bullet is to canting or ****ing upon loading and often the thinner the sabot the cleaner release of the of the bullet from the sabot at the muzzle. These are trends, of course, not absolutes.
The 300 grain Hornady XTP, centered in the above picture, has a very good track record in offering good terminal performance on whitetail. It is a .452 diameter bullet, a hollow point, sectional density of .210, with a published static B.C. of .180 by Hornady. The hollow point doesn't help the flight characteristics, not does the cannelure on the jacket that tends to disrupt airflow compared to a smooth jacketed bullet. The cannelure, the french term for ring-like groove serves as a place to crimp brass onto a bullet, but serves no use in a saboted muzzleloading application.
Ballistic coefficients constantly vary in concert with velocity, range, and ambient conditions. It isn't an exact number, the Ingalls methodology has its issues. Sierra, for example, publishes multiple ballistic coefficients for most of their bullets in an attempt to compensate for the flaws in the Ingalls drag functions. Modern exterior ballistics has largely obsoleted drag coefficients altogether with Doppler radar ranges that allow precise projectile plotting. Nevertheless, B.C.'s are still used in the sporting world.
Downrange though, a better flying bullet makes a huge difference. Less velocity erosion, less wind drift, higher impact velocities, better tissue disruption, and better penetration capabilities all due to the higher impact velocities. Let's take a look how at how the 300 grain XTP compares to the Parker 325, assuming the identical launch velocity of 2200 fps. Since I've not had the chance to shoot Bob's new 325 through a pair of chronographs simultaneously yet to get my own ?shooting B.C.,? I'll use a more conservative than already estimated static B.C. (.430) for the Parker 325 at .400 for comparative purposes.
