I'm just now getting back into handloading....Life has kept me busy. I haven't used the new TMK tipped bullets but I've always gravitated towards the Sierra brand. That being said, what are you handloaders seeing out of them? I used to hunt often but I'll just be killing paper now. I want to play with the 125 in my 308, 150-165 in my 30-06 and 190ish out of my 300wm. I may be wasting my money on them since they'll more than likely be fed into the weapons one at a time(I'm guessing the tip is to help in deformation in magazine's).
I haven't tried the Sierra TMK Matchkings but have used the standard Sierra Matchkings in .223 and 260 Remington. They are excellent bullets, but in my experience no better or no worse than the Hornady Amax or Lapua Scenars.
I think you will be happier and better served going with heavier bullets than you are after in your first post. Yes, lighter is faster but not necessarily more accurate and will definitely not handle the wind as well as a heavier bullet.
I used to use the 165 soft point boat tail 2145 exclusively on all of them ...Kinda boring....Looking to do a little playing. I just wondered what accuracy people are swing out of the TMK type.
A while back I purchased a few hundred Sierra MK bullets from a vendor at a local gun show. I got to talking with him a found out he was/is a competition shooter and gun builder. He told me that he uses Sierra GK bullets of a similar weight for his load development, and saved the more expensive MKs for match shooting. He said the GK has the same point of impact as the MK, and found very little difference in their grouping.
For the gun building part of his operations, he had receivers for M1 Garands that did away with the 8 round en-bloc clip. His receivers used the 20 round box magazine designed for a BAR. I think this is how it should have been designed from its inception.
I use GameKings a lot, and I've played with MatchKings as well. All really consistently accurate in my rifles.
I have not used the TMK's. From the Sierra website:
Sierra has enhanced a segment of the MatchKing line by adding the acetal resin tip, thus crowning the Tipped MatchKing (TMK) bullet line. The major advantage of adding a tip to the bullet is the reduction of drag, producing a more favorable ballistic coefficient.
A while back I purchased a few hundred Sierra MK bullets from a vendor at a local gun show. I got to talking with him a found out he was/is a competition shooter and gun builder. He told me that he uses Sierra GK bullets of a similar weight for his load development, and saved the more expensive MKs for match shooting. He said the GK has the same point of impact as the MK, and found very little difference in their grouping.
For the gun building part of his operations, he had receivers for M1 Garands that did away with the 8 round en-bloc clip. His receivers used the 20 round box magazine designed for a BAR. I think this is how it should have been designed from its inception.
If that was the case all the time there would be no place for SMK's! SMK's are the only match bullet's I've used in years, I don't shoot match. If the Sierra GK bullet's shoot as well, why not just use them?
I initially thought the tip was nothing more than Sierra not wanting to be the only one out there not offering a tip. When you compare the tmk side by side with the mk there is a considerable difference in the ogive and I thought that was improving the BC. I've shot a lot of the 165 Sierra's in the 2140 and 2145 and wasn't fortunate enough to have guns that digested them and put them in the same spot at 200 so I opted to shoot the soft point because of the improved BC. Time and time I've gravitated towards the boat tail versions but to be honest my groups were always better with flat base bullets. I guess I like the accuracy of the flat base, the bc of the bt and tipped bullets but the jackets of the hunting bullets. I don't even hunt anymore so it shouldn't matter but I prefer to be outfitted with accurate hunting bullets.
Like I said previously, I lean towards Sierra but as I browse thru the current options of bullets the prices are....Well kinda pxxxing me off. What are you guys using that satisfies the accuracy mined but does break the bank.
The last three times I have bought rifle bullets, it was a place called bullets.com. Bullets.com occasionally has "sales" when their bullets are very reasonably priced. The brand I usually end up getting is Nosler.
Went to the range Tuesday and carried my 243, 308, 30-06 and 300. The 243 had the 95 gr TMK, 308 - 125 TMK, the 30-06 - 155 MK and the 300 had the 195 TMK. The only dissapointment was the 243. It states on the box 9" or faster and mine is a 9-1/8th" so I may have to drive them as fast as I can to get them to tighten up...or just use the 85 gr. The 95's were running 2-2-1/2" at 100....yuck. In fairness...I did stick this rifle back in it's wood stock because its beautiful but I may have to undo that. The 308 had a scope change so I did a quick and dirty "pull the bolt boresight" and I was on paper @ 50. 5" high and to the left...2 holes touching...moved the scope....2 holes touching....moved the scope and a 3 shot group in the red that was one jagged hole. Moved to 100 and tweaked a little more and was shooting an inch or less. Not bad for an old 788 with an old Redfield 3x9 range finder TV view scope. The 30-06 was more predictable and performed as it had in the past with most groups in the 1" with the occasional flyer(more than likely these flyers are me and not the gun or ammo....and my eyes....which bullseye should I aim at?....there are 2!). I loaded the 195TMK in the 300 winmag and loaded AA4350 from the min to the max in groups increasing by 2.2 gr in 5 shot groups, all the time looking for pressure signs. At 66 they were just flattening the primer a little but it sure liked 63.8 gr by cutting a 4 shot group into 3/4" at 100 with the the flyer opening it up to 1-1/4". I was not wasting time and the rifle was damn hot (couldn't stay at the range as long as I wanted), so if I took my time, used some eye drops I think I'll love this load! So far my opinion is that I like these TMK's if nothing more than limiting tip deformation. I did drop one of them and after inspecting it, it faired well. If it had been the lead tip I would have probably damaged it. None of these weapons are expensive, all are just left handed hunting rifles. The 243 is a 700 BDL, the 308 an odd left bolt that extracts to the right, and the 30-06 and the 300 are the Savage stainless fluted muzzle brake versions they sold prior to the accu trigger....and yes their triggers stink. When I bought them, the only way to get a stainless in a Rem 700 was thru the custom shop and .....well...they were mighty proud of them when I asked about the price. All of them have cheap glass with the exception of the 300 and it's a basic 3-9 leupold. One of these days I'm going to invest in something that is target only.....hopefully before my eyes give out! The cheapskate in me is already eyeing a 223 in an AXIS for less than $300 but I think I better opt for something with an accu trigger if I stick to the savage brand.
Redfield's name for that old TV screen scope was Redfield-Widefield. The original one's came with a 4 plex CCH cross wire's. They were like the duplex we see today but there was two steps in them. Wonderful cope's. Oh, and they were never made outside the Denver plant. I still hve one in 2 3/4x but managed to break the crosswire's years ago and a company that bought Redfield took it and put a new cross wires in it. Duplex and told me it was 4 plex, not a chance!
ohhh SADNESS!
This one (I wish I had all the rings for the turret) is one of my favs. I'm planning on taking it to the 400 yd range and dialing it in and letting the 100,200,300 let fall where they may. I bought the whole rig tears ago for $200 bucks and now it's fallen into that "can't let it go" catagories in my safe. The cross hairs are fine but since you and a couple other articles I've read indicate breakage, maybe I should retire it and throw something newer on it. I actually like the left bolt/right extraction thing at the bench...it works great!
Back to the subject......does anyone else have any opinions on the new TMK's? I guess it doesn't matter, I'm liking them....ha.
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