7mm 180 Berger Hybrid

[Ovenpaa]

At long last I have some 180 Berger Hybrid's arriving Tuesday for my 7mm SAUM, has anyone tried them yet?

[RDavies]

Ovenpaa. These Hybrid bullets havent been distributed in Australia yet.

[Ovenpaa]

Nor in the UK as far as I know, I took a risk and ordered 500 from the USofA, they worked out over 20% cheaper even after tax than 180 VLD's direct from home so it had to be worth a try.

[Hangfire]

Whats the verdict Ovenpaa. how are you finding them in comparison to the VLD's?

[Ovenpaa]

I shot a comp with them end of last month (Phoenix) at 4/5/600 & 8/9/1000 with very little load development time and they seemed to exceed the results I have had with the 180 Targets so I am quite pleased with them. Since then I have tried pointing them as the Hybrid's have quite a large meplat. I have pointed them from .070" before trimming down to .045" after a light trim and saw a good improvement in verticals. I was testing on a very windy day so the results are not conclusive but I saw tighter verticals and a POI around .675MOA higher. I think they are going to be a keeper for a while.

What I will say is this is a home built tipping system, I found the cost of Whidden and Hoover systems excessive by the time they get to the UK however people around me where using them with improved results so I have built a conversion for a Redding Competition seater, basically unscrew the die and drop the internal guide out from the body and replace with a guide and 7mm tipping die. The hard part was deciding on the angle and then grinding a cutter to suit.

Anyway my new tipping tool and the 180 Hybrid could be a worthwhile combination.

[Hangfire]

Bugger, I was hoping you would say they are crap and don’t worry about them!

Looks like more load development coming up.

Is there any likely-hood of you going into production with your tipping tool?

[Ovenpaa]

Bugger, I was hoping you would say they are crap and don’t worry about them!

Looks like more load development coming up.

Is there any likely-hood of you going into production with your tipping tool?

I have waved the tipping conversion at some of the people I shoot with and there has certainly been some interest, I built it mostly because I wanted to see if it would give me any advantage but I really did not want to spend the money 'just in case it worked' (GBP250 will pay for a lot of bullets/powder/entry fees)

shooting is expensive and techniques like bullet tipping could offer a serious advantage to shooters however they will be put off by the price. I think I can build a conversion kit for Forster and Redding micrometer seating dies for a quarter of the UK price which has to make it more appealing for fellow shooters.

So yes I may well build half a dozen or so

One minor issue is patents, I have looked at both the Whidden and Hoover systems and mine will be different but still working on the same principle, from what I can gather there is a bit of an argument going on in the USA right now about patents and IP from the Whidden side but having said that bullet pointing has been around for many years, I think it was Corbin who first introduced a method of closing the meplat down and no doubt people were looking at it even before.