Originally Posted by Yondering
Originally Posted by Pappy348


I think those are actually hexagonal rather than polygonal though. I've seen reports of good results with regular round bullets like the Lyman 500gr .457 though.


hexagonal is polygonal. Hex meaning "six", poly meaning "multiple" or "many".

A polygon has multiple sides. A hexagon has exactly 6 sides, octagon has 8 sides, etc, both are polygons.


Yes Mom, I know; I took geometry a few hundred years ago. The important difference of the Whitworth is the way the bullet fits almost perfectly in the bore from the start rather than being engraved (or apparently swaged to fit as in your pic) like with other types. There were also one or more that had little wings on the bullet that matched grooves in the bore and did the same thing but weren't as practical.

What fresh Hell is this?