Meplats on 107gn Sierra MatchKing Projectiles

[Vic Police Rifle Club]

So far the only proj's I've put through my 6BR is the Lapua 105's. A fine bullet with which I've had great results. I recently purchased my first box of 500 107gn SMK's, just for something different, and sent them off to a mate of mine (Dazza) who does all my moly coating and a damn fine job he does.

Being the perfectionist he is (Benchrest shooter of course) he contacted me concerned about the condition of the meplat on the bullets I'd sent him. Upon inspection of the proj's, all the meplats and I mean ALL looked VERY untidy. They were uneven, there were splits and cracks, even pieces of jacket folded back into the hollow point.

Compared to the Lapua's which are all even and virtually perfect, I would have said the bullets had all been dropped on their noses!! Is this the norm for the SMK's and have I been spoiled by the Lapua's or have I picked up a dud box. I have no one to compare SMK's with being the only user of a 6BR in my club so any feedback would be apprciated.

Cheers, Andy. D

[VickiMcc]

Andy
Seems to the norm in my batches, although it dosent seem to matter to much out to 600yds or so. I guess if you have lots of time on your hands you can trim them


Paul

[Tony Z]

edited 19/4/06

[Matt P]

Andy and Tony
I also have recent batch of 107's and yes they measure about 25" shorter than the last batch I was shooting (1999) there was some discusion about the latest batch on the Benchrest Forum saying how bad they were and how they were more likely to blow up due to a small "pill box" (maybe Tony can explain this) BUT I shot these at the Vic Queens and shot every bit as well as the early batch if not better. I sort by base to Ogive only and don't trim.

Matt P

[Tony Z]

edited 19/4/06

[Vic Police Rifle Club]

Thanks Gents.
It's less of a concern to find I'm not the only one who's come across this problem. It's extremely dissapointing to purchase a product who's reputation has preceeded itself for so long to find it's nothing more than just another mass produced item lacking quality control. Especially when you think the price of Sierras now are only a 6 or 7 dollars less than the Lapuas which aren't far off the perfect bullet.

I'll set myself a little experiment and do some serious testing with bullets out of the box as is, then buy myself a trimmer and repeat the test with trimmed and sorted bullets. Not just for something to do but I have always believed in the "Keep it simple" priciple coming from a Military and Police background, my way of thinking is there is nothing more required than a lot of trigger time on range.

One thing I can say is after Dazza tumbled the Sierrras in moly balls for a couple of hours, they did emerge with a lot of the imperfections "Peened" if you like or cleaned up. The obvious cracks and uneveness was still there but the tumbling had definitely cleaned them slightly.

Anyhow, time will tell. Thanks for all the input. Andy.

[Dazza]

Matt & Tony....

How do you blokes "qualify" your projectiles? What measurements do you take? I know sorting projectiles on O.A.L. you can get a lot of variation, so what measurements really count? Do you weigh each pill as well?

I discuused trimming meplats with Andy, but came to the conclusion that trimming all the damage would turn the Matchkings into a low drag Gameking

Like Andy stated, the pills looked a lot less "daggy" after they came out of the tumbler barrel.

Regards

Darren

[Tony Z]

edited 19/4/06

[Dazza]

Tony

Thanks for the info. I did a visual inspection on 200 projectiles out of Andy's lot of 500 and all the meplats looked "daggy" but basically all the same, except for one projectile......... It looked like someone belted the crap out of it with a small ball peen hammer! There was 2 large dents on the ogive, 1 on the shank/boattail junction and a big one on the heel of the bullet. All with raised burrs............. All the rest looked pretty good(apart from the meplats!). Wish I had a macro lens for my camera....

Darren

P.S. Hope the weather is improving in FNQ.

[Tony Z]

edited 19/4/06

[Dazza]

Tony,

Thanks for all the good info! I have a Stoney Point comparitor with 6mm and 22 cal inserts. When I get some spare time, I'll measure up the bullets I have on hand and see how they look. Might leave meplat cutting till some time in the future

Thanks!

Darren