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joeb33050 posted this 23 December 2018

https://eley.co.uk/eley-tenex/

The iconic flat nose projectile of ELEY tenex is one of many innovations pioneered by ELEY engineers. As it cuts through the air its revolutionary design pulls the centre of pressure forwards, aerodynamically stabilizing the projectile and increasing accuracy at the target.

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Ken Campbell Iowa posted this 23 December 2018

hmmmm ...   " iconic"  , eh ? ....   doesn't sound like an engineer to me ....

ken

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Eutectic posted this 23 December 2018

Nice try by the advertising department. This "revolutionary" design has been around for a long time. It has a downside because it decreases the Ballistic Coefficient and thus increases wind drift. It works, as long as the range is short and the wind is light.

Tenex is GREAT stuff, I would use it a lot more if it did not cost  50 cents a shot. The accuracy delta between CCI Green Tag and Tenex in my rifle is very small, so paying half as much is an easy choice. Since I do not do serious rim fire competition Green Tag is what  use.

Long ago I tried flat pointing Green Tag for hunting to increase the energy transfer. 25 yard accuracy was unaffected. This worked very nicely, the squirrels did not approve.
CCI now offers a 22 Small Game Bullet which is a small flat point - same idea, . I have not tried it but it should work.  

I hope the ELEY advertising department got their Christmas bonus!

Steve

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Larry Gibson posted this 23 December 2018

Concur with Eutectic; "Nice try by the advertising department."

I swage that same "iconic flat nose" on any .22LR solid suing a Waltz die.  I shoot a 100 yard .22LR benchrest match monthly here and do as well with "Waltz'd" Norma Match, CCI green tag and Wolf match in my old Remington M37 as with the much more expensive ELEY 10X.  However since I get the same improvement in accuracy with the HP nose punch I think the improvement in accuracy is more a function of uniform sizing the bullets to .225.  Last match I tied for 1st place with a score of 399 - 33X. 

LMG

Concealment is not cover.........

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Hornet posted this 23 December 2018

  I looked at some of those a few months ago and I'm impressed by how much their patented flat nose design looks like the Lyman 225107 with modified lube grooves. And a Beeswax-based lube, huh?

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joeb33050 posted this 23 December 2018

Eley's goal behind the initial TenEx development was to provide British-made .22 LR ammunition, built to extreme consistency, that British shooters could use to win British shooting competitions. (American-made Western Supermatch and Winchester EZXS were the dominant competition loads of the time.) It worked. The 1951 British Championship and the Grand Aggregate events at Bisley were won by Eley team shooters using TenEx.

 

 

 

It was the first time these titles were won using British-made ammunition. Eley spent the following decade readying TenEx to compete in the international market, steadily improving the quality by means of a "half tolerance" standard for TenEx components compared to standard ammunition and the creation in 1962 of a segregated TenEx component manufacturing and cartridge assembly facility where half tolerance became the standard tolerance. Those wins at the 1964 Olympics and in the following years were the proof of their success.

Then came the breakthrough Eley executives view as the most important single factor in the TenEx story: Eleyprime. During the years that the engineers worked on perfecting Eley ammunition, they were also engaged in ongoing research into priming technology. Commonly used priming material is percussive; bump it, it goes bang; give it a spark, it goes bang; look at it cross-eyed, it goes bang. In the 1960s and 1970s ammunition manufacturers worldwide used essentially the same technology.

 

 

Concerned by the inevitability of explosive accidents no matter the precautions taken, Eley in 1975 embarked on a project to find a new priming process. In 1979 chemists working on a dry powder mixture for filling .22 cases discovered that it was non-explosive until exposed to water, whereupon a chemic

A closely guarded (and patented) secret, this new Eleyprime process had two huge consequences: It eliminated the risk of explosion from the preparation and dispensing of priming compounds, and it allowed the amount of priming material applied to each individual rimfire case to be very tightly controlled in a normal workshop environment using automatic equipment.

 

 

This last part is critical because it has long been known that case-to-case variation in the amount of priming material is the most important factor regarding variations in .22 LR rimfire performance. This is due to the fact that in small rimfire cartridges the primer is a significant portion of the actual propelling charge (much more so than in larger centerfire cartridges) and because conventional priming compound is too sensitive to be aggressively metered and applied.

al reaction converted it to conventional lead styphnate (primer compound).

The Eleyprime System allows exactly identical amounts of the inert powder to be put in each case. Then a round-tip rod is inserted down into the case to press the powder evenly into, and around, the rim, and a single, metered drop of water is added, which activates the compound over a several-hour period.

 

 

After drying, the cases can then be conventionally charged with precisely metered propellant (five rounds at a time on the TenEx loaders). Before Eleyprime, there was an average 31 to 39 milligram spread in the amount of priming material round-to-round in TenEx ammunition. With the Eleyprime System (EPS), the spread was reduced to only plus/minus 1.0 milligram. It was a stunning achievement, and in 1988 Eley received the prestigious Queen's Award for Technological Achievement.

But technology does not stand still. TenEx maintained its preeminent place among premium .22 LR ammunition during the 1980s and 1990s, but other ammunitionmakers advanced their own manufacturing techniques. Eley monitored their rivals' progress, and in its own lab and testing ranges regularly compared the competitors' performance against TenEx.

The performance standard Eley applied was 10-shot test groups, fired from a fixtured rifle (not a special test barrel) at 50 meters. The specification called for a nominal percentage of test groups to measure less than 15 millimeters (the diameter of the 10-ring on a standard 50-meter smallbore rifle target). As of 1998, TenEx performance ran 8 to 10 percent; that is, 8 to 10 percent of all 10-shot groups fired were less than 15mm diameter. It was the best in the world, but new loads from Lapua and Federal Cartridge's new match ammunition were knocking on the door.

 

 

Eley tasked its engineers to take a blank sheet of paper, start with the Eleyprime system as the only foundation, and reinvent the TenEx cartridge from the ground up. The goal was to improve TenEx performance to at least a 30-percent 15mm-group standard; in other words, make it three times better. 'm not allowed to tell you how they did everything they did, but even in summary it's one of the most impressive achievements I've seen in my 30 years in this business. Eley engineers identified 50 primary variables--basics like bullet mass, case internal volume, and proThen they determined 200 secondary variables--things like the ambient humidity in the assembly facility, the metallurgy of the cases, human competence. Finally, they identified 700 tertiary variables--subtle things the TenEx project manager told me turned out to be the ultimate keys to getting things really up to "the TenEx level." For example: weather conditions in the country where the propellant powder is manufactured on the day that particular lot of powder was mixed. (Yes, Eley actually adjusts the TenEx loading profile for each powder lot based on this and other equally subtle considerations. The same is true of the other end of the process; manufacturing "lots" of TenEx consist of one day's run from a single loading machine because the weather is different each day.)

With nearly 1000 variables charted, the engineers addressed bullet and case design. Bullet design was analyzed with sophisticated computer modelling for in-flight characteristics. They discovered that a flatnose projectile was distinctly better for subsonic velocities out to 50 meters. The reason is that bullet stability is enhanced the more forward the center of pressure (air-pressure resistance) is located forward of the center of gravity of the bullet, and roundnose bullets do not "push" the center of pressure as far forward. (Incidentally, the small "pip" visible in the center of current TenEx bullets is not a ballistic feature; it's the result of an air pocket in the mold that allows the sharp-cornered edges of the nose to form fully.)

They also determined that the presence of lead oxide in a bullet was a primary cause of "detached shots" (what non-engineers call "flyers") because of differential resistance to passage through the bore. So TenEx bullet material is fabricated in an oxygen-free atmosphere and lubed with a soft tallow/beeswax material, the same lube Eley used 150 years ago; most modern bullet lubes are paraffin-based, which is harder.

 

 

 

I was particularly intrigued by the information that the engineers had determined the base of a bullet was much more significant for accuracy than the nose of the bullet. In-flight tests showed that a very slight mar, burr, or scratch on the bullet heel would almost always result in significant yaw angle upon departure from the muzzle. They could actually pinch the nose of the bullet with a pair of pliers and it would have a much lesser effect on point of impact. Consequently, the heel of every TenEx bullet is visually inspected by computer before loading, and bullets with even the slightest imperfection are discarded.

http://www.shootingtimes.com/editorial/ammunition_eley_101405/99277

 

Yeah, it's all advertising nonsense. Eutectic and Larry win again.

 

 

 

 

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Larry Gibson posted this 23 December 2018

Wasn't trying to "win" anything.  All I said was that other makes of .22LR match ammunition, when resized in my Waltz die, shoot as well as ELEY 10X does in my Remington M37.  Being able to put the same "iconic" nose dimple on them or to HP results in the same accuracy at 100 yards (not 50 meters).  Additionally, HPing (which removes the dimple nose shape) the ELEY 10X results in the same level of accuracy as "out of the box" 10X. 

As Eutectic said; TenX is "great stuff" and it is.  However, it costs 3 1/3 as much as the Norma .22LR Match that I'm using.  The Norma Match, when "Waltz'd". shoots just as well as the TenX at 50 and 100 yards in my M37........that's all that was said.

If ELEY 10X was available for the same price as the Norma Match, the CCI Green Tag and Wolf match then I would certainly be using it.  

Quoted from your posted article, note the underlined.

"But technology does not stand still. TenEx maintained its preeminent place among premium .22 LR ammunition during the 1980s and 1990s, but other ammunitionmakers advanced their own manufacturing techniques."

 

Concealment is not cover.........

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750k2 posted this 25 December 2018

There is way more to it than any of this when the big guns get involved.

The key phrase was "in My rifle"

When you get involved in unlimited comp there is real voodoo involved.

I have been trying to take all I learned from bench and applying it to centerfire cast shooting

as I am a true beginner with cast in rifles.

I believe bullet profile was for scoring as much as accuracy.

there are only 2 choices in ammo Lapua and Eley with Eley still the best choice - sure Lapua is making

in roads but Eley is still your best bet and even then you must test lots to find what can win in the

conditions that day - The US hasn't did any worthy ammo since FED UM(dimpled) and I heard that the presses

for that were put on trailers outdoors and allowed to rust???

The real gains will come from rifling and chamber - throat specs.

2 barrels off the rack rifled the same chambered the same shooting their tested ammo

and 1 will out do the other in the wind - Their still working on it though.

Rimfire BR is a real money pit even more so that centerfire.

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Scearcy posted this 25 December 2018

Interesting information

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Ken Campbell Iowa posted this 26 December 2018

...750k2 is pretty much correct ... i quit ARA and BR50 when they started shooting indoor and midnight ( low wind ) matches to get better scores ....   though it was great when it started, and i have great memories and great friends from those days.  just to illustrate how good those rifles were/are, the factory Anschutz weren't good enough ...  we chased barrels, chamber reamers, ammo lot numbers, and tuner settings on a weekly basis;  obsession can be fun if you remember to keep a sanity penny in your pocket ... 

... and I still have a brick or two of that federal killer ammo ... i shoot a 3 shot group about once a year just to marvel at the stuff .... of course i have now downgraded my 22 to a Cugir Romanian Training Rifle ... 

... now shooting 22s is fun again, just like my 2 inch grouping plinking rifles ...  maybe god invented cast bullets just to give us an unsolvable challenge ...

gotta go, i just had an idea that just might work ... i am going to try standing all my powder grains on end ... only the ones that remain standing will be used for my very best loads .....

merry christmas , and hope you all got a stocking full of lead !! 

ken

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RicinYakima posted this 26 December 2018

Ken, Did about the same time. Last match I hosted here in the desert, three guys on the "green board?" the top shooters in the country showed up. They shot 45 targets and "DNF'd" in each of  the five matches. That way they didn't hurt their average. That was the end of .22 bench rest shooting for me. Ric

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M3 Mitch posted this 26 December 2018

For me and I think a lot of guys on here, formal target shooting is "just a game" and we don't take it very seriously, I know I am quite happy to beat the score I shot last time, and if a national champion happens to be on the line and shoots a much better score than I did, I don't let that bother me much.  To me, what's important is "practical" shooting, the ability to hit game or assailants effectively.  To the extent that shooting paper helps me do that, I am interested. 

But the guys at the top of every "game", are there because they take that game very seriously.  And to some extent these guys are the "racing improves the breed" guys, so they are good for the rest of us.

I personally cast for my existing firearm collection, that's just what I want to do.  But more serious competitors at the unlimited level will make up purpose-built guns in order to "win the game" - and win it they do.  Of course we have production classes for people who want to compete with other people who are not shooting "race guns".  It's all good.

It's a damn shame that Federal quit making serious target ammo.  Like the British, we should have some national pride about this.  But I am certain this was a business decision, as in, they were not making any or much money with that high-end target ammo. 

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M3 Mitch posted this 03 January 2019

I meant to mention that Aquila ammo has "Eley priming" prominently displayed on the box.  I have not shot enough of this ammo to have a real idea if it shoots more accurately than regular domestic brands.  But just thought I would put that out there.

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