![]() This experimental work helped pave the way for development of the. The combination of a wide meplat, high bullet weight and high speed helped boost the performance of the. 38 caliber cast bullets out long and develop very fast loads. Utilizing the newly available heavy framed hand guns with long cylinders, Keith was able to seat his. This came to be known as the ‘Keith style’ bullet. The result was heavy bullet design featuring a generously wide meplat that could be driven at high velocities. Changes were also made to the location of the bullet lubing grooves. Keith took this a step further by utilizing a concave ogive on his bullet molds to allow more of the projectile to be seated outside of the cartridge case, thereby increasing case capacity. In Keith’s experience, a semi-wadcutter produced the right balance between external and terminal ballistics. A full wadcutter target bullet (essentially no bullet taper / ogive) proved even more emphatic but this bullet design also produced a very steep trajectory. One of Keith’s earlier discoveries was that a flat pointed semi-wadcutter target bullet delivered higher trauma on game than a round nosed bullet. Used by target shooters, the flat point punched a clean hole through target sheets which helped aid the scoring process. Flat pointed ‘wadcutter’ bullets first appeared around the turn of the 20 th century. It had started as a ball and then eventually became a round nosed conical bullet. Prior to Keith's influence the handgun projectile had not greatly evolved. During the 1920’s, U.S gun writer Elmer Keith (1899 -1984) became heavily involved in handgun hunting along with the development of his own projectiles combined with maximum power loads.
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