Boattails and accuracy, still trying to understand how a bullet can stabilize at longer distances. In my mind it strikes me a wobbling bullet will continue wobbling in continuously bigger cycles, maybe shows my lack of knowledge regarding physics.
All elongated bullets "wobble" slightly as they leave the muzzle, due to the powder gas blasting the base of the bullet--but boattails tend to wobble more than flat-bases for the reason stated in the essay. But if the bullet spin from the rifling is sufficient to stabilize the bullet, the wobble dissipates.
Some shooters call this the bullet going "to sleep." It generally takes longer for boattails to go to sleep than flat-based bullets, due to the powder gas causing more muzzle-exit wobble--but at longer ranges they don't drift as much in the wind, so tend to group better than flat-bases.
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