Re: 168gr SMK at 1000 yards
A little extra info here that may help to fill in a few blanks. The M852 load originally came about as a result of military shooters using "Mexican Match" ammo in their M14s for across the course competition(200, 300 and 600 yards). The practice was to pull the 173 grain FMJ bullets from issue M118 Match ammo, and simply replace it with the 168 SMK. We used to have "reloading parties" detailed to do this, and the resulting ammo was what we used in competition. The term came about when the military shooters used this in the Pan Am games held in Mexico City back in the mid 1960s. The name stuck, and it had been called Mexican Match ever since. This simple substitution (the 168 HPBT for the 173 FMJ)decreased group sizes something on the order of 30% or more, with no other changes. Major accuracy improvement there. In one of those rare displays of common sense, when Lake City got wind of shooters doing this, there was a proposal to simply make the ammo as the "customers" wished; loaded with a 168 SMK from the outset. That's how the M852 was born. Originally designated as a Match round, and clearly marked as "Not for Combat Use", the cases were further marked with a knurl around the head of the case, just in front of the extractor groove. Lousy place to put it, too, since it made reloading these cases highly suspect. The M118 Match ammo was redesignated as M118 Special Ball, and was virtually identical to the original M118 round, but in a different, more plain white box. Using the same 173 grain FMJ, this was ther round intended for combat use. In the very late '80s or early '90s, Col Hays Parks, then Chief of International Law with JAG issued a ruling that, based on work done by Col Marty Fackler, MD (who was then chief of the Army's Wound Ballistics Lab at Letterman)the HPBT (OTM) Match Bullets performed no differently (in terminal performance, upon impact)than did the FMJs, and were therefore not a violation of the Hague Accords. In other words, they were suitable for use in combat. The problem was that the 168 grain/M852 load didn't perform well at 1,000 yards, and the M118 Ball round did. The problem with these was the fact that they weren't as accurate as the HPBT Match bullets. There was a quick redevelpoment for Lake City, which resulted in the current 175 grain HPBT Match bullet. This delivered the accuracy of the 168, while giving the long-range ballistics of the 173 grain FMJ; the best of both worlds. The result was redesignated as the M118LR (LR standing for "Long Range")that continues to serve today. Perfectly legal for use in warfare, and as accurate as the M852, it replaced both the M118SB AND the M852, both of which have now been out of production for many years.
Hope this helps clear up any confusion here, in what is a fairly confusing history.