By Bob Forker
soft cover 520 pages, 8 &1/2” X 11”
Available from Rowman & Littlefield
1-800-462-6920
$49.95 + $5 shipping
Veteran writer Bob Forker’s detailed book is an extremely valuable reference guide for all hunters and shooters.
It contains the ballistic data out to 1,000 yards for over 190 calibers and more than 3,000 different commercial loads for rifles and handguns.
With today’s laser rangefinders, the hunter can make any reasonable shot for which he can hold properly, but he has to know the trajectory of the cartridge and load he is using. Different loads for the same caliber have different trajectories and this book shows each one at ranges from 100 yards to 1,000 yards.
Forker’s book also shows four other important factors at each of these ranges, namely the bullet’s energy, the “Taylor Knock Out Index,” bullet drop in inches, and wind drift in inches, as well as the ballistic coefficient of each projectile. This is all critical information for anyone contemplating a long range shot yet most people do not have access to a 1,000 yard range equipped with the instruments to determine these factors. For them, this book is priceless when needed.
There are four sections to this book in which cartridges are divided into four sections: centerfire cartridges, African cartridges, pistol cartridges, and rimfire cartridges. The section on African cartridges offers data out to 500 yards while the latter two categories show data only out to 200 yards. You also get the maximum average pressure of each cartridge in copper crusher cup and transducer psi as well as the standard barrel length and twist rate used for velocity testing. Recoil is a factor that cannot be overlooked and there is a relative recoil factor for each cartridge.
All in all this book holds a wealth of information that will prove useful to all serious shooters.—Jim Dickson
