Berger 6mm 105 grain VLD

Dimensions taken from Lot#1042

Sample Size:

5

Ogive Radius:

15.2  calibers

Sectional Density:

0.254 lb/in2

Rt/R:

0.67

    This bullet was originally designed by Bill Davis for the 1986 World FULLBORE Olympic Championships held in Sweden.  The team wanted a new cartridge and bullet to take the place of their heavier recoiling .308 Winchester with 168 grain bullets.  The new cartridge and bullet had to have much less recoil and match or exceed the ballistic performance of the .308.  Berger answered with this optimal design which has been a staple high performance bullet ever since.

    A good number of records have been set and titles won with this bullet including John Whidden’s 3 US National Long Range Championships.  John fires this bullet with great success at 1000 yards in rifles that he’s chambered and built in .243 Winchester.

    Also successful in 600 and 1000 yard benchrest shooting, this bullet is favored by many 6mmBR shooters.  In fact Terry Brady holds the 600 yard Benchrest record (5-shots in 0.860”) with this bullet fired from a 6mmBR. Here is a link to the 6mmBR load data page from AccurateShooter.com.

    In most cases, Berger’s Target and Hunting VLD’s are identical on the outside, the only difference being jacket thickness.  This bullet is an exception because the Target version has a slightly wider meplat (tip) than the Hunting version.  The details and effects of this difference are fully reported in this article on Berger’s weblog.  The bullet pictured above and the performance data below is for the Hunting VLD, made on the original (thin) J4 jacket.

    The well known Achilles heel of the VLD design (secant ogive) is it’s sensitivity to seating depth.  Shooters who have time and opportunity to tune loads can get VLD’s to shoot very well, but they seldom shoot accurately in ammo that’s not prepared specifically for a given rifle and chamber.

Drag and Ballistic Coefficient

Fps/Mach

Cd

i7

G7 BC

i1

G1 BC

1500/1.34

0.343

0.935

0.272

0.520

0.489

2000/1.79

0.296

0.944

0.269

0.475

0.535

2500/2.23

0.264

0.929

0.274

0.466

0.545

3000/2.68

0.240

0.924

0.275

0.453

0.561

Average:

0.933

0.272

0.479

0.532

Variation:

0.020

0.006

0.066

0.072

Rifling Twist Rate and Stability

Stability Factor

Barrel Twist

Best case

Nominal

Worst Case

1:7"

2.22

1.94

1.68

1:8"

1.70

1.49

1.28

1:9"

1.34

1.17

1.01

1:10"

1.09

0.95

0.82

*Stability Factor above 1.4 indicates good stability.  Below 1.4 indicates marginal stability.  Less than 1.0 is unstable.