Thread: Accuracy at 100 vs 600 (example). Variations in accuracy at different ranges

Originally Posted by ChrisW

Its not possible. A projectile cannot just alter its course mid flight (other than due to external factors, wind etc), as would be required in order for a projectile that was shooting say 1 inch at 100 to shoot better than that at distance.

I would respectfully disagree. Projectiles may not get more accurate at distance, but they can certainly get less accurate. In the military, different calibre sniper rifles have different ranges they are guaranteed to make a headshot on, due to the different ranges that projectiles with different bc's and weights drop back through the sound barrier, as described above.

Also, many years ago for shits and giggles I would reload tracer projectiles out of 556 rounds into my trusty 222. With tracer burnout around 800m it was obvious that the 1:14 twist was not effective at stabilising long projectiles, as the tracer would arc gracefully out to 300ish, then scribe a weird helix about 50m dia till tracer burnout occured. Quite impressive to watch.