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Originally Posted by FL-Flinter
Sundance,
I see I really didn't write out my thoughts clearly or completely.... Yes, you're correct that a .54 will usually smoke a smaller caliber on a breezy day at long range and yes, that is all about projo weight - no disagreement from me on that.
What I was trying to say and didn't get around to it is .... you can't change the weight of a round ball for a given bore - well, okay you can by changing the alloy but assuming we're doing apples to apples the alloy is almost pure lead. Yes, the more mass the ball has, the less the likely crosswind will change its flight path but the potential for it's path to be changed remains the same as for a smaller diameter ball. Velocity plays a major roll too because the longer the ball is in the air, the more time the wind has to work upon it - also if the ball remains supersonic through the flight, wind will be much less a factor. Thus, weight alone is not the sole determining factor.
We can't compare round ball to conical bullets since the weight of a round ball for a given bore size cannot be increased. You are correct, a 300gr bullet in the .45-70 will dance around on the wind but there is a two-fold issue with that. First issue is that the bullet is too short for its diameter which makes it very susceptible to yaw and with yaw usually comes the corkscrew flight path. Even though it can remain supersonic for the duration of the flight, crosswinds can have more of an effect on it not only because of its lower mass but also because of the increased drag created by the yaw.
If you were to compare two 300gr bullets of different diameter, you would see that neither will react the same to the same crosswind. Say a 0.458" diameter 300gr bullet is blown 10" right at 200 yards by the crosswind yet a 300 grain bullet fired at the same velocity from a 0.338" will only drift 1" right in the same crosswind. The difference comes in that conical bullets need to be of a minimum length for their caliber in order to fly correctly with or without any crosswind, thermal currents or headwind.
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Very well written my friend & I will add what is in the Lyman Black Powder book...
A Round Ball is like a Bumble Bee, round & aerodynamically incorrect in all ways for flight but the Bumble Bee doesn't know that it can't fly it just does, just like the Round Ball doesn't know it can't fly but it does with limitations.