AXE BULLETS!

[dekeoutdoors]

I have some loaded in my 308 and 375 ruger. Best projectiles out there

 

[JAYgs8163]

Interesting design, especially the tip!

 

[Rcritch]

There is another maker I was looking at who is using the driving band concept, with an almost sub caliber projectile, but the company escapes me at the moment.

I would suggest that "almost" is the most operative word in the above observation.

Anything closely approaching "sub caliber" could likely lose accuracy unless it employed some form of a forward bourrelet to preclude micro yawing of the projectile, especially if boat-tailed and with a long ogive. The potential loss in accuracy would be less in the heavier bullets with high ballistic coefficiency due to their longer cylindrical section and be greatest in lighter bullets with a minimal L/D (length over diameter.)

Since my laboratory work on internal ballistics was primarily with saboted artillery rounds, and I know but little about bullet manufacture, I can only guess about such things. But my SWAG (Scientific Wild *** Guess) would be that the rear banded bullets use the multiple driving bands to efficiently trap almost all of the driving gases and aid in engaging the rifling which would then allow the middle of the bullet's body to be a few thousandths less diameter than the barrel's groove diameter but still enough greater than bore diameter in order to fully stabilize the projectile from any yaw, while substantially reducing drag as well as the swaging forces of engaging the rifling. The AXE bullets similarly reduce drag and swaging forces by featuring a series of bands and groves throughout the full caliber body of the bullet. Properly designed, either approach should be effective.

Reducing drag and internal force on the bullet in that fashion could allow the projectile to: 1. Achieve the same velocity as a "standard" bullet at a lower chamber pressure or: 2. Achieve a higher velocity at the standard pressure. The advantage of the latter option (#2) is obvious: More downrange energy. But my guess is that there would be an even greater advantage to the former (#1) option: Better accuracy. That, because there would be less internal stress working on the body of the bullet as a result of its being swaged less deeply, on average, into the rifling. Those internal stresses should have minimal effect if the bullet's body were to be perfectly uniform in its internal geometry and molecular consistency, but any imperfections within the bullet's body would likely be magnified by the greater stress of more fully engaging the rifling, to the detriment of the bullet's accuracy.

I find the driving band concept to be a profound development in bullet design. Due to the jacketed bullets' harder copper on the outside and soft lead interior it might even prove to be more beneficial to jacketed bullets than to the mono bullet design. But I can see tremendous potential for driving bands in future development of all bullet types.