Home · Tom's Ballistics · Barrel Life · MCDRAG · Drag Functions

Drag Functions

Overview of the Lowry / Winchester-Western G1, G5, G6, and GL drag functions G(v) for velocities from 100 to 5000 fps in 100 fps steps. Source data: E. D. Lowry (1965), via jbmballistics.com.

G1

Flat-base, pointed reference (most common commercial BC model).

G5

Boat-tail / rounder-nose family; lower drag than G1 at high speed.

G6

Flat-base spire-point; often fits FMJ spitzers well.

GL

Soft-point / deforming-nose style; matches G1 below ~1300 fps, rises faster above.

G(v) versus velocity

G1 G5 G6 GL Values outside published bands are linearly extrapolated

Published Lowry points: G1/G5/G6 ≈ 400–4400 fps; GL ≈ 400–3600 fps. Steps below/above those bands are extrapolated (shown in italics in the table).

Tabulated values (100–5000 fps)

V (fps)	G1	G5	G6	GL
100	0.0068	0.0052	0.0063	0.0068
200	0.0104	0.0081	0.0103	0.0104
300	0.0140	0.0110	0.0143	0.0140
400	0.0176	0.0139	0.0183	0.0176
500	0.0212	0.0168	0.0223	0.0212
600	0.0249	0.0194	0.0263	0.0249
700	0.0294	0.0217	0.0304	0.0294
800	0.0361	0.0241	0.0348	0.0361
900	0.0473	0.0275	0.0398	0.0473
1000	0.0682	0.0362	0.0465	0.0682
1100	0.1024	0.0681	0.0736	0.1024
1200	0.1387	0.1017	0.1079	0.1387
1300	0.1663	0.1143	0.1198	0.1663
1400	0.1869	0.1254	0.1274	0.1869
1500	0.2033	0.1353	0.1336	0.2033
1600	0.2169	0.1444	0.1392	0.2247
1700	0.2284	0.1525	0.1442	0.2446
1800	0.2385	0.1594	0.1488	0.2639
1900	0.2473	0.1651	0.1527	0.2831
2000	0.2553	0.1696	0.1560	0.3023
2100	0.2627	0.1731	0.1586	0.3215
2200	0.2697	0.1761	0.1606	0.3408
2300	0.2762	0.1789	0.1622	0.3600
2400	0.2829	0.1816	0.1635	0.3792
2500	0.2894	0.1843	0.1643	0.3985
2600	0.2959	0.1869	0.1649	0.4177
2700	0.3027	0.1895	0.1653	0.4370
2800	0.3097	0.1921	0.1654	0.4559
2900	0.3168	0.1947	0.1654	0.4754
3000	0.3243	0.1973	0.1654	0.4927
3100	0.3321	0.1999	0.1654	0.5129
3200	0.3400	0.2024	0.1655	0.5330
3300	0.3482	0.2050	0.1656	0.5523
3400	0.3568	0.2075	0.1658	0.5716
3500	0.3657	0.2109	0.1661	0.5907
3600	0.3748	0.2125	0.1664	0.6090
3700	0.3841	0.2150	0.1668	0.6273
3800	0.3936	0.2175	0.1672	0.6456
3900	0.4030	0.2200	0.1677	0.6639
4000	0.4125	0.2225	0.1683	0.6822
4100	0.4221	0.2250	0.1688	0.7005
4200	0.4320	0.2275	0.1694	0.7188
4300	0.4418	0.2299	0.1700	0.7371
4400	0.4516	0.2324	0.1707	0.7554
4500	0.4614	0.2349	0.1714	0.7737
4600	0.4712	0.2374	0.1721	0.7920
4700	0.4810	0.2399	0.1728	0.8103
4800	0.4908	0.2424	0.1735	0.8286
4900	0.5006	0.2449	0.1742	0.8469
5000	0.5104	0.2474	0.1749	0.8652