80grSMK

[Brad Y]

Just got a bag of 200 of the 80gr SMK's to keep my 223 fed for a few weeks.

Did a bit of a measure up and found they are all over the place. I dont have any fancy tools, just used the verniers to measure the overall lenght of each bullet. The variance was from 1.080" all the way through to 1.115" with most being between 1.095" and 1.105"

Does anyone else get this sort of spread consistently? I wouldnt think it would be that good for accuracy- I mean 35 thou is a bees dick- but still Ive never had that sort of spread in any other bullet I use (39gr 20 cal sierra blitzking, 110gr 30 cal vmax, 155gr HBC and 155gr SMK 2156)

These are supposed to be match bullets right? Ive batched them out and will shoot each individual batch separately but its pretty poor I reckon. Might have to look at trying a few of the new boxes of 80gr amax and see how they go.

[saum2]

do not go there, try BRT for some 80gn Bergers

[johnk]

Brad,

What is their provenance?

Sierra have been known to market seconds through some of the gunshops.

John

[Brad Y]

Bought from WARA shop.

The bergers arent approved yet I thought so still shooting the SMK's

[AlanF]

The Sierra seconds I was once unfortunate enough to experience came in a brown cardboard box.

I normally measure base to ogive rather than OAL of projectiles, because the tip can vary in length a bit without too much consequences.

Alan

[Malcolm Hill]

Brad Y
Some of the Amax's back about 12 months ago were causing a few issues with unexplained fliers but later batches have been ok. I've probably loaded a couple thousand of the later ones in the last six or eight months and have not had one flier. Previously there would be one or two in every fifty shots that would take off somewhere in the four ring. Perhaps you should try some of the approved 80 gn JLK's, only problem is they are not available and no one knows what they are going to cost when they do arrive. My bet is they will make Bergers look cheap.
Regards Malcolm.

[Brad Y]

I loaded some up this arvo. 9 of the ones I culled for being too short.

Used the RCBS precision mic set with a loose fit case and one of these short ones just sitting in the neck. Chambered that round to make sure the projie was touching the lands then re measured.

I set the die to give 23 thou jump as most people have said 20-25 thou is good. Out of the 9 measured up when loaded there was 2 thou difference. Whether that is from the seater or the bullet I dont know, but Im more confident with them now I know they are seating more uniformly. Obviously it must be longer tips. Still going to run them in batches though.

[Malcolm Hill]

Brad Y
Back in earlier times when the Sierra was the only bullet allowed I used to look at each one as I was loading them and any that had angled or odd shaped tips I put into a reject box. It didn't take long before I ended up with more rejects than good ones. Sierra's have never been well finished and even in that area. Testing however revealed that there didn't seem to be any difference between the grouping ability of the "good" vs the "reject" bullets. As an experiment I meplat trimmed some of the reject ones to even up the points and they were the worst performing Sierras of the lot. It doesn't seem to make any difference if the tips are a bit daggy they still shoot the same and it is the different shaped tips that have a lot to do with overall cartridge lengths varying so much.
Regards Malcolm.

[Brad Y]

Hi Malcolm

Yes I think it is the tip differences that put me off so much. Ive seated them and measured up from the ogive not the tip and everything seems much better. Will still shoot them in batches though.

Guys here have been having trouble with odd shots lost at 5 oclock recently with the 223's so hopefully this batching might help with that. Apparently the noslers measure up very well so I may look at getting some of those for testing out. Im running 25.3gr of 2208- I think thats a fairly lightish load and with an 8 twist hopefully none of them break up in flight.