The 20th Century: The Age Of The Bullet - Brief Article

Guns Magazine, Dec, 1999 by Charles E. Petty

As we usher in the new century, it's natural to reflect on the big developments of the last one. Almost all of the reloading equipment and components we deal with on a daily basis had their origins in the closing years of the 19th century. Smokeless powder, the brass cartridge case and centerfire primers all came within the last quarter of the 19th century and with them came improvements in firearms. The basic theory of almost every firearm design today was known by the dawn of the 20th century.

With that as preface, what do we have to claim as noteworthy for the last days of the second millennium? Not much. Firearms are mature technology. We don't have many -- if any -- quantum leaps to brag about. That's because firearms technology largely evolves based upon small improvements. We've come a long way from Jan. 1, 1900, but the raw materials -- the delivery system -- of brass, steel and a few chemicals is pretty well unchanged.

The big news this century has been bullets, specifically the arrival, in factory ammunition, of premium bullets that were once the private preserve of the handloader. After World War II, sport shooting evolved under the guidance of some pretty famous names: Sierra, Speer, Hornady, Huntington and Nosler, to name a few. They shaped the future with their special bullets.

Handloaders had it made. With virtually no effort you could whip up a load that would almost surely outshoot anything the factories produced. Usually it was a better game bullet, too.

Then in the '70s Federal Cartridge Co. changed the rules. They created a "Premium" line of ammo using a few selected Sierra bullets. That was followed quickly by loads using the famous Nosler Partition bullet. Federal had built a better mousetrap.

Today everyone has one or more premium or super-premium bullets n their line. We've got the Barnes X-bullet, Speer Grand Slam, Swift A-frame, Winchester Fail Safe and, of course, Nosler's Partition and Ballistic Tip styles. Whereas before our choices were basically Ford or Chevy, the shooter's horizon has expanded to include luxury and performance.

Each of the premium styles has an attraction, but I know of no objective way to prove one best. I've killed a deer with an X-bullet and a few weeks later another with a Fail Safe. Both fell where they stood so it's pretty hard to say one is better than the other or to complain about the results. And it surely doesn't provide me with the kind of information I need to make best judgements.