02 / DESIGN & MANUFACTURING
How BulletLab designs, machines and tests monolithic brass projectiles for precision target shooting.
01 / MATERIAL & MACHINING
Each BulletLab projectile is CNC-machined from a single piece of brass. The programmed turning process helps keep dimensions consistent from one projectile to the next. It also helps maintain concentricity, meaning the nose, shank and base are centred on the same axis.
02 / BARREL CONTACT
Raised bands on the shank engage the rifling, while the recessed sections between them reduce the length of surface in contact with the bore. This gives the design a smaller bearing surface than a continuous full-diameter shank.
03 / EXTERNAL GEOMETRY
The ogive is the curved nose profile, the shank is the body behind it, and the boat-tail tapers the rear. BulletLab designs these features together for target shooting, balancing the forward profile and tapered base with the bearing surface and mass carried by the shank.
04 / CALIBRE FAMILIES
For calibres larger than .224, different BulletLab weights in the same calibre family are designed to retain the same seating-die setting and cartridge overall length. The design varies weight primarily through shank length while preserving the nose geometry that contacts the seating stem. Actual assembled dimensions can depend on the seating stem and component tolerances.
05 / STABILITY
The nose cavity changes how mass is distributed along the bullet and gives BulletLab another way to manage overall bullet length at a given weight. The Miller Stability Factor estimates gyroscopic stability from bullet geometry and mass, rifling twist and flight conditions. A significant nose cavity can affect the estimate, so the calculation is one design check alongside range testing. Miller’s original stability paper · Research on open-tip stability
06 / EXTERNAL BALLISTICS
The G1 ballistic coefficient describes how a bullet’s drag compares with the G1 reference projectile. It helps estimate velocity loss and trajectory. BulletLab uses practical shooting tests to assess how its designs group and to compare points of impact at different distances under recorded conditions.
See the original targets →07 / ON THE FACTORY FLOOR
PROCESS VIDEO
This factory footage shows profile turning, pilot drilling, hollow-point machining and parting off during manufacture of the BulletLab .308 180 gr HP. It includes the original machining sound.
08 / WET-PACK OBSERVATION
In one wet-pack test, the recovered rear shank weighed 108.8 gr, approximately 90.7% of the nominal 120 gr bullet weight. This observation applies to the recovered shank in that specific test. Retention can vary with the impact conditions and test medium.
09 / MATERIAL RESPONSIBILITY
Conventional lead-core projectiles can leave fragments in meat, organs and carcass remains. Eating contaminated meat or offal can expose people to lead, including farm workers, guides, trackers and slaughtering assistants who receive portions of harvested game. Venison fragment study · South Africa’s Game Meat Strategy
Vultures and other scavengers can ingest lead fragments in unrecovered game or discarded remains. Research in southern Africa has linked this exposure to lead ammunition in carrion. BulletLab’s lead-free brass removes lead from the projectile itself, reducing this specific source of exposure for people and scavenging wildlife. African white-backed vulture study · South African isotope study
