TCooper & Papaburger -Excellent points all. I think we are in common agreement on the principles pretty much....but I still favor balls....so far.
In the final analysis we may have to independantly test fire my assortment of balls against your own preferred pellets. I would attempt to find a some people here who have PRECISION 22 caliber rifles THAT MUST BE CAPABLE of repeat firing at the same velocity(EXACTLY) a number of times for the tests to be meaningful. I would send by mail samples for the shooting tests.
From that testing we can most easily determine the pellet vs the ball DROP at_a_distance_ on bench shooting where the human element is minimized. That drop is a solid indicator of whether drag loss is greater in a pellet or a ball IF.... the weights are the same and the shooter is careful.
If the ball hits higher than the pellet at say....90 feet, it would mean the ball RETAINED its velocity better or it <edited>was traveling faster at time of impact.... And I win!!
The reason we may have to resort to this is.... we can use the Bc formula to equate a ball.... but we run into problems with the pointeds, we do not know the form factor. ALSO, even more important.... the wasp waist form of the pellet(forgot the term) interupts any drag formula, AND the sum of the combined drags of a pellet.... waist shape, skirt size & shape, plus a HOLLOWED skirt....are enormous drag factors. I have found no formula or description which even comes close that we could use to estimate whether the Bc of a ball would have more effect in slowing a ball down than_all_that_summed_drag_ of the skirted wasp waist parachute.
Ballistics of bullets only help a little.... here is sum(pun) of the stuff I am trying to find to help us decide this issue, but we will still need to back it with dynamic shooter tests. -LarryS
<edited>Incidently... my KE box showed the "muzzle energy" of a Lobo ball was EXACTLY the same as a Daisy wad-cutter at 1.5 feet.
Ballistic coefficient (BC) = SD / I
SD is the sectional density of the bullet, and I is a form factor for the bullet shape. Sectional density is calculated from the bullet mass (M) divided by the square of its diameter. The form factor value I decreases with increasing pointedness of the bullet (a sphere would have the highest I value).
Forward motion of the bullet is also affected by drag (D), which is calculated as:
Drag (D) = f(v/a)k&pd2v2
f(v/a) is a coefficient related to the ratio of the velocity of the bullet to the velocity of sound in the medium through which it travels. k is a constant for the shape of the bullet and & is a constant for yaw (deviation from linear flight). p is the density of the medium (tissue density is >800 times that of air), d is the diameter (caliber) of the bullet, and v the velocity. Thus, greater velocity, greater caliber, or denser tissue gives more drag. The degree to which a bullet is slowed by drag is called retardation (r) given by the formula:
r = D / M
Since drag (D) is a function of velocity, it can be seen that for a bullet of a given mass (M), the greater the velocity, the greater the retardation. Drag is also influenced by bullet spin. The faster the spin, the less likely a bullet will "yaw" or turn sideways and tumble. Thus, increasing the twist of the rifling from 1 in 7 will impart greater spin than the typical 1 in 12 spiral (one turn in 12 inches of barrel).
Facts/truths are always interesting to learn.