Thread: Hawkes Bay Rifle Club

Originally Posted by Dead is better

Not that i can afford monolithic bullets (yet) but i'm curious as to why the NRA has an issue with them.

You've answered your own question. Part of the reason is cost. TR shooting is about skill at arms. Putting shooters on a range using the same gear, calibre, and ammunition, then letting them get on with doing their best in the conditions that confront them. Because there is no longer a service rifle in use and also ammunition is no longer issued for most matches, the way that an attempt is made to make competition fair and affordable, is to specify a maximum bullet weight for the allowed calibres. Currently there are 3 projectiles with near identical BC. The NRANZ sells one of them for $44.50/100 to its members. In such a competition, projectile brand is unimportant. Everyone will be using a bullet that behaves in the same fashion with no obvious advantage.
These bullets are all conventional construction. Whenever a manufacturer comes out with a bullet with a higher BC than their competitors you can be assured that competitors will switch to the bullet that performs best in the wind. There are two monolithic .30 calibre bullets that I am aware of that have a huge advantage over the conventional swaged projectiles of 155gn.The advantage is around 2.5 moa. less wind drift at 1000 yards in a 10mph. wind. I don't have a NZ retail price but converting Warner's price gives a NZ equivalent of $110/100 without the traditional scalping that NZ retailers indulge in. When you consider that most club shooters get though 2000 or more rounds a season, such a cost increase just to stay competitive, would definitely put a dampener on proceedings. Add to that the need to rebarrel to shoot the longer bullet and you have Trademe full of used target rifles. The route to becoming a better shooter is time spent on a range, taking all the weather can throw at you, putting rounds down range. Cost is a component in how much people shoot. I suspect that this is one of the reasons why ICFRA, which sets the rules for international competition, has banned monolithic bullets. The NRANZ has adopted the ICFRA rules with only minor changes.
Another limitation is as 6X47 points out, is the certification of the range. Most big ranges in the Commonwealth as well as NZ are/were Defence ranges and are currently certified by reference to JSP.403 which bans AP or tracer from civilian use on these ranges, or any projectile that may have different ricochet characteristics than a lead bullet, or a jacketed lead bullet.
For sporting rifle or FTR and F class the bullet weight restrictions don't apply but the bullet construction restrictions still do.
Hope this is of help.