The Rest of the Story.....

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10 years 2 months ago #41805 by MTM
The Rest of the Story..... was created by MTM
...or, the story at rest.
This a continued but separate post regarding my issues reloading the 300 Blk. The RCBS AR seater die arrived today. Cleaned it up and set the die in the press according to the destructions. This one has a taper crimp machined into the die so setup was a bit different. Once set I reloaded a few and stopped to measure. One was spot on but the other two were +8 and +11 thousands off. Tried another three and got similar results. Pulled the bullet from the setup dummy round and re-seated it...spot on. So, I took 10 of the 125g SMKs and measured just the bullet. Specs ranged from a low of 1.155 to 1.163. Ok. Opened a new box of SMKs and it got interesting. The low measurement was 1.127 to a high of 1.159. In my mind that's quite significant. No wonder the OAL was consistently inconsistent. Did the same experiment with five Nosler Ballistic tip bullets. The difference was nominal at roughly .005. Too bad I didn't do this test before I ordered the new die. Still, I kinda like the RCBS AR die so no worries there.

Since I'm not depending on the SMKs to do anything but go down range and hit paper I'll continue to load and shoot them so long as they fit the gauge and the magazine. I'm just not motivated enough to separate bullets by weight and length. Reckon, though, I'll invest in Nosler for more serious fun.
The following user(s) said Thank You: jtallen83, NightForce

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10 years 2 months ago #41813 by Siscowet
Replied by Siscowet on topic The Rest of the Story.....
MTM, thanks for that info. That is good to know. You may want to shoot Sierra an email reporting that. And ask for a replacement box of bullets. Bet they send it and ask for those back. Might be an issue in their production line.

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10 years 2 months ago #41815 by jtallen83
Replied by jtallen83 on topic The Rest of the Story.....

Siscowet wrote: MTM, thanks for that info. That is good to know. You may want to shoot Sierra an email reporting that. And ask for a replacement box of bullets. Bet they send it and ask for those back. Might be an issue in their production line.


I bet they respond, those numbers don't seem worthy of the SMK logo.

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10 years 2 months ago #41845 by MTM
Replied by MTM on topic The Rest of the Story.....
I wanted more information and the only place I know of to find the truth is on the Internet...so I Googled almost to the end of the Net and found that my findings with the Sierra SMKs weren't uncommon at all, less so though with tipped bullets. That's why there's nifty gadgets on the market to trim meplats, uniform bullets and to help one find his/her ogive.

Since I didn't quite reach the end of the Internet there must be more truth out there. Funny thing, trimming the meplat. I always thought it had something to do with a Urologist.....

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