I ran across a question posed by Dave Tooley over on benchrest central, and the response from Henry C. (HBC).
I thought id post it here, along with the link, since it bears directly on this topic.
Dave Tooley:
Henry,
"We can measure a bullet for a very wide range variables, in order of importance what do you think is the most crucial? If we can establish this , we can focus on the most important variables.
In the few tests I have done ogive to base length had much less an effect on BC than meplat uniformity. We have shot 10 shot strings with.030 difference in Ogive to base(6MM) and found a very small difference in BC. If I remember correctly it was about 1/3 - 1/2 as much as untrimmed meplats.
I feel that other than having a good bullet to start with, the single most important thing we can do is trim the meplats. It seems to have, by far ,the greatest effect."
HBC:
"Dave,
I think consistent base to ogive is important for consistent velocities since with consistent base to ogive the bearing and engraving length will be consistent.
Once bullets are checked (and possibly found to be very consistent in the base to ogive dimension or at least segregated in equal lots) for base to ogive then one can segregate into lots of overall length or simply trim to equal length to get a consistent ogive length, consistent meplat diameter and more consistent BC to reduce vertical stringing at 1000 yards.
Then, probably the most important, is to look at the base for defects and eleminate those from record round bullets.
Probably least important, for match grade bullets, is weight variation but for a 1000 yard match it does not take long to weigh the record bullets to avoid a gross error in bullet weight.
Henry"
http://www.benchrest.com/forums/showthread.php?t=21318
Just a little more to think on....
