Press Releases

A look at accuracy and precision If you’re a long range hunter (varmints to big game) or tactical shooter, or just anyone interested in hitting small targets at long range with one or few rifle shots, this message is for you. If you’re a long range prone, F-class, or Benchrest shooter, this may still be interesting for you but not as relevant given that these disciplines allow sighter shots before a record string is fired. Far too often I hear of shooters agonizing over improving the precision of their hunting rifle from 1.0 MOA groups to .5 MOA groups, or from .5 MOA groups to [...]

For centuries now, science has been helping us gain a more accurate understanding of our world. The branch of science we care about as shooters is known as ballistics. The science of ballistics is well developed and understood by those who study it, but the tools and information being used by average shooters is not necessarily optimal for the shooter’s applications. In other words, there is a better, more accurate way for shooters to use ballistics to help them predict trajectories and hit targets. The purpose of this article is to present a better way for shooters to calculate ballistics. What is a Ballistic Coefficient? [...]

Background VLD bullets are designed with a secant ogive. This ogive shape allows bullets to be more efficient in flight (retain more velocity = less drop and wind deflection). While this result is desirable for many rifle shooters the secant ogive on the VLD bullets produces another result in many rifle. It can be difficult to get the VLD to group well (poor accuracy). For years we encouraged shooters to use a base of cartridge to end of bearing surface OAL (I will use the term COAL to represent this dimension) which allows the VLD to touch the rifling or to be jammed in the [...]

The data in this article is out of date. For up to date information on twist rates, please visit our twist rate calculator at https://bergerbullets.com/twist-rate-calculator/. As shooters of low drag spin stabilized projectiles, we’re compelled to understand the twist requirements of our bullets. In most cases, this is a simple matter of looking up what the manufacturers recommended twist rate is and making sure our barrel satisfies it. Occasionally you can get away with using a slower twist than what’s recommended if you’re shooting in favorable conditions. The manufacturers recommended twist rate is intended to ensure stability for any and all possible shooting situations, which [...]

When I returned to Berger in 2004, I was able to spend more time communicating directly with shooters through emails, phone calls and these forums. I believe strongly that it is from these interactions that we gain a better understanding of what rifle shooters need to be successful. I also understand that there are many shooters who need technical assistance. Thanks to your support, Berger has been blessed with significant growth. Lately, the challenges that go along with growth while staying focused on quality have pulled me away from the phone, emails and forums. For some time, I have been working on resolving this shortcoming. [...]

Walt Berger established a culture that makes the success of the rifle shooters our highest priority. This core belief influences all our efforts. When we decided many years ago that we wanted to publish our G1 BCs for all of our bullets we had a bit of a problem. We do not have access to a firing range that would allow us to establish fired BCs (turns out that this was a good thing but I’ll get into that later). Walt contacted his friend and famed Ballistician Bill Davis to ask him how we can solve this challenge. As it turns out Bill was working [...]

We recognize that changes made to a single bullet or an entire line creates challenges for those who purchase and shoot our bullets. It is important for you to know that we understand how difficult this can be and we will limit any changes only to those that we strongly believe will benefit your efforts. In a deliberate move to more effectively connect with shooters, we have split our entire line of bullets into three separate application based lines. These three lines are designated as Varmint, Target and Hunting. The most common concern we hear is that shooters want to make sure they get the [...]