Cadillac Jeff
Well-Known Member
Same here
Thank you for sharing that information and the source.I have never seen a difference in accuracy; this was because I did not test rigorously enough. Fortunately John Zemanek answered this question in a 1993 article in Handloader magazine. Using two identical 148 grain Hensley and Gibbs #50 38 wadcutter molds, one plain base the other bevel base and identical target loads, John fired 2600 rounds in three revolvers using a Ransom Rest. Bevel base bullets gave groups averaging 18% smaller than plain base bullets in all three revolvers.
This is a significant difference, but it is 3/16 inch at 25 yards and 3/8 of an inch at 50 yards. When groups are averaging around 2 inches at 50 yards, any improvement this small is hard to detect with the normal variation in group size. It takes a lot of careful testing to show it. No wonder I was not able to see it comparing a few groups.
Does John’s work completely answer the question? No, the difference was small, the loads were light, and the guns were high quality. Different gun, and load will certainly affect the result. If you are competing, using match grade guns, and a tiny improvement is important, I would go with a bevel base.
For most shooting either base style is OK.