The ballistic coefficient, this little magic number that often makes us spend crazy amounts of money to have better ballistics:
- Less fall for the same speed
- Less influenced by wind
In short, only profit! (except generally for our wallet)
What if I told you that it was possible to “boost” the performance of certain projectiles?
Yes yes, you heard correctly, some projectiles can be very slightly modified to gain in ballistic coefficient ! Only one constraint, the projectile must be HPBT and without tip.
This process is called “bullet pointing” and is nothing new for our shooting friends across the Atlantic, I found the first traces of this method in 2016…
And yet, not the slightest trace of writing on this subject in the language of Molière
Even some manufacturers have taken the plunge, like the Sierra poster with its Matching P (P for Pointed) which have recently arrived on the market, same shape except the point which differs and brings according to the manufacturer an increase in the ballistic coefficient, applied ballistic put them under the radar the results are as follows:
142gr Sierra matchking standard: 0.301 G7 (page 277 ballistic performance of rifle bullets by Bryan Litz)
142 gr Sierre matchking pointed: 0.313 G7 (page 278 ballistic performance of rifle bullets by Bryan Litz)
The majority of F OPEN shooters on the US national circuit shoot 7mm 180gr Berger Hybrid Pointé projectiles to gain performance and avoid losing a single point at 1000 yards.
There are many videos on Youtube about this (Eric Cortina, F Class John , ...)
How does it work?
The principle is simple: the more pointed the tip of the projectile, the more efficient the projectile is, the only problem is that to have a nice finish of the tip, this requires an additional stamping step and therefore significant production costs for a modest gain, so most manufacturers do not do it to remain competitive from a price point of view. (3% additional BC but selling the projectile 15%-20% is not viable for them)
Reducing the size of the flat at the front of the projectile improves airflow and limits resistance to movement, in short we end up with the projectile that some manufacturers have not bothered to make.
The larger the starting flat of the projectile, the greater the potential gain. Conversely, a projectile with a very small flat will not have much to gain.
Example: A 139 gr Lapua Scenar (right) will have more to gain than a 130 gr RDF (left) IN THEORY
The necessary tools:
To point a projectile you necessarily need a “pointing die”, there are currently two manufacturers offering these pointing dies: Whidden or Bullet tipping .
For the remainder of this article we will only refer to the Whidden pointing die in our possession. 
The kit is composed as follows:
A tool that mounts on the press and accommodates 2 elements:
- A guide to the size of the projectile to guide it into the tool
- A steel insert to reform the tip of the projectile.
When purchasing, you must therefore equip yourself with the guide for the size of your caliber (.22 / 6mm / 6.5mm / 7mm / Cal 30 / 338) 
From left to right: The Cal 338 / 308 / 264 guide
You will also need the correct shaped insert for your projectile, there are 3 different tip shapes called by a number (#0, #1, #2)
From left to right: insert #0 / #1 / #2
Whidden has posted a guide to getting the right insert for your projectile.
The tool has a micrometric adjustment to more or less reform the tip.
To complete the whole thing, a small platform which fits into the shell holder housing to place your projectile. 
How to measure performance and ballistic coefficient gain?
There are many techniques to measure the gain, ranging from passing in front of a Doppler radar, to more affordable measurements accessible to TLD shooters.
Here is my technique:
- 5 balls with pointed projectiles
- 5 balls with standard projectiles
The 10 munitions having rigorously the same loads and specifications
We shoot at a cardboard at a significant distance (600 meters minimum). The higher the “pointed” grouping is on target compared to the standard grouping, the greater the gain provided by the pointing die.
To determine your new ballistic coefficient, nothing could be simpler. All you need to do is measure the height difference with your aiming point and subtract it from your correction. You will then have the “real” correction required for your projectile.
You will then need to modify the Ballistic Coefficient in your ballistic application to return to the “true” correction and therefore you will have determined the new Ballistic Coefficient of your projectile.
Example: The first attempts at the bullet pointing die
session at 1000 meters with BERGER HYBRID 300 gr projectile
Exit velocity 865 m/s
Temperature 24 degrees
Atmospheric pressure 1008 Hpa
correction in the bezel: 7.8 mil
Two groups were drawn: (end of session and not enough balls to make 5/5) 
From left to right: 300gr pointed #0 / 300gr standard
- 4 unmarked (standard) balls circled in Green on the target
- 3 bullets pointed with insert #0 circled in Blue on the target 
The group of projectiles pointed is higher on target than the aimed point by 25 centimeters (which corresponds to 0.25 mil at the distance of 1000 meters)
The real correction for the projectiles pointed should have been 7.8 mil - 0.25 mil = 7.55 mil
I then modify my ballistic coefficient in Strelok so that it tells me the correct correction (7.55 mil)
The magic happens because the ballistic coefficient 0.445 makes theory correspond to practice…
or a passage from 0.417 (theoretical Berger) in fact 0.425 measured in my barrel at the pitch of 1:8” to 0.445 thanks to the pointing with the insert #0 or a gain close to 6% on the theoretical value of Berger.
Or Whidden announces that you have to use insert #1 with the 300 gr Berger Hybrid… (not having this insert at the time of the first test I said to myself that it was the opportunity to see if from one insert to another there is a big difference)
We will note the small size of the groups at 1000 meters… 103 mm for the non-pointed (⅓ MOA at the distance) and the wider pointed group (thanks to the wind, the ammunition has nothing to do with it), but whose dispersion on the vertical axis is only 7cm! less than a click at 1000 meters.
The start of the tests is positive, however this is yet another time-consuming step, personally I would only use this for 338 projectiles...
But we will do some tests on 6.5mm projectiles in a future article!