30 Cal/168 SMK's

[Brux]

Just opened up a older box and started measuring the ogive's.I am getting up to .008 difference.This is just the bullets,not loaded ammo.These will be fun seating.Anybody seen this kind of variance?

 

[High Binder]

Are you sure you're actually measuring to the ogive? I could see that kind of variation OAL but to the ogive .008" seems on the high side.

 

[leadbullet]

Load them up, shoot them and don't dwell too much on .008" of an inch, makes life easier and nobody can shoot the dif anyway.
Cheers

 

[81sfo]

Smks aren't made perfect but they can be loaded to shoot one hole. Don't worry about ogive or metplats load 2.80 and shoot em !!!!

 

[Brux]

I am measuring from the base of the bullet to the ogive.They still shoot but its a pain trying to seat them all the same.

 

[TacticalBoltKnob]

I have the same issue with 175 SMKs. You think there would be more uniformity. If Sierra could manufacture these bullets to even more exacting tolerances, then they would shoot even better.

 

[M40_A1]

I am measuring from the base of the bullet to the ogive.They still shoot but its a pain trying to seat them all the same.

Seat them all the same to where? The ogives, or the bases of the bullets?

 

[l115a3]

Thus normal for SMK.

Don't worried about it, this projectile can shoot with jump

 

[gstaylorg]

If similar length variance for that lot of bullets occurs between the bearing surface/ogive junction and farther out on the nose where the seating die stem pushes the bullet, you will see a similar large variance in seating depth. If it occurs primarily between the bearing surface/ogive junction and the base of the bullet, you actually might not see such a large variance when you seat them. How were you measuring the ogive on that lot of bullets? If you were using calipers and a comparator, you might be ok, because that is really measuring variance between the boat tail and the top of the bearing surface. If you were measuring with something like Bob Green's comparator, you're probably going to have to do a lot of tweaking to get the seating depths consistent.

 

[smschulz]

I have the same issue with 175 SMKs. You think there would be more uniformity. If Sierra could manufacture these bullets to even more exacting tolerances, then they would shoot even better.

That's what they have Berger's for.

 

[Brux]

I am using calipers and a comparator.
No shit my Bergers are dead on.

 

[Exodus343]

Glad I'm not the only one, I first reloaded my precision 308 using the older paper boxed SMKs, which compared to the current ones in plastic boxes the base to ogive measurements were WAY LONGER.

 

[steve marshall]

Years ago, when I competed in High Power, I used Sierra 168's. My COAL varied up to .030". An old buck told me that Sierra made 168's on 3 different machines and mixed them. He told me to segregate by base to ogive length if it really bothered me. With a .005" window, I then separated my bullets into, you guessed it, 3 piles. I still sucked at High Power but at least I couldn't blame the COAL. And by the way, I didn't suck at 600 yards regularly shooting high 180's to low 190's.

 

[SWThomas]

You wanna see some consistency? Measure some AMAX bullets.

 

[mb3]

Just opened up a older box and

started measuring the ogive's.I am getting up to .008 difference.This is just the bullets,not loaded ammo.These will be fun seating.Anybody seen this kind of variance?

A fat human hair is about .005 to .007. Pretty much everything made has manufacture variance but, you should get good results from your smk's. I found less variance with Bergers but they are a bit more pricey.