Black Hills 5.56mm 77 Grain Tipped MatchKing Accuracy Evaluation Update





In 2016 I posted an in-depth review of the Black Hills 5.56 77 grain Tipped MatchKing ammunition.  Three 10-shot groups of that 2016 lot had an average extreme spread of 1.26”.  The smallest of those groups had an extreme spread of 1.14” with a mean radius of 0.39”.







The cartridge overall length for the 2016 lot of the Black Hills 77 grain Tipped MatchKing averaged 2.246”, while the 2023 lot averaged 2.243”.  The length of the bullet itself is basically the same for both lots.  The 2016 lot was loaded in Winchester brass and the 2023 lot is loaded in Lake City brass with stab primer crimps.  Both lots have sealant in the primer pockets and neither lot has sealant at the case mouth.




In my 2016 review, I noted that the 77 grain Tipped MatchKing was one of the longest bullets being commercially loaded to magazine length in the 5.56mm cartridge and that it had such a long ogive that the cannelure extended past the bearing surface of the bullet and onto the ogive, giving the grooves of the cannelure a rather unique “arrowhead” appearance.











The base to ogive measurement of the bullets in the 2023 lot is approximately 0.017” longer than the 2016 lot and the configuration of the bullet at the junction of the bearing surface and the ogive now allows for a full-fledged cannelure that does not appear to extend into the ogive, or it was just a matter of pressing the deep cannelure that makes it appear so.





A 10-shot group of the 2023 lot of the Black Hills 5.56mm 77 grain Tipped MatchKing ammunition fired from the same Lothar Walther barreled AR-15 used to test the 2016 lot, fired under the same conditions from a distance of 100 yards had an extreme spread of 0.86” and a mean radius of 0.24”.





I’ll be posting chronograph data for the 2023 lot in the near future.


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Holy shit!

Awesome, thanks for sharing.

I would be curious what the POI shift between the MK262 Mod 1/AA53 is and the TMK.

Indeed

Looking forward to the chrono data

I'd be curious how the AAC 77gr tmk stacks up against this

Tagged for chrono data.

Impressive thus far.

Perhaps just a sign of tooling/qc improvements over the years.

Wow.  Thanks.  In a post COVID world where QC has gone down hill. Good to see not everywhere.

The average charge weights were within a few tenths of a grain of each other.

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More interested in es / sd

That should tell the story of dispersion at distance

Regular BH 77MK has came down in cost considerably lately,  the TMK loads however have not.  At least not where I have looked……

That is very impressive. Wow.

Thanks Molon.

Wow, that's really interesting

What is the OAL of 2023 ammo?

Where did you source the 2023 Black Hills 77 TMK?

Do you have images of the 2023 TMK crimp on the cannelure?

Luckygunner has some but its $80/box

Definitely in for more data and speeds with SD/ES.

I’m starting to work on the 77 TMK load development again and am extremely interested!!!

Which is actually a decent price. I ordered 5 more boxes to try this new loading.

Sure hope it shoots to same POI as the older stuff.

Black Hills has expended their supply of TMK bullets. The D556N19 that they shipped last month was backordered from 2020.

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The 77 grain Tipped MatchKing is more finicky in the barrels that I've used them with and not quite as accurate in those barrels as the standard 77 grain MatchKing, but it's a sub 3/4 MOA bullet.




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The 77TMK can be a very accurate bullet.  

I used a handloaded version to shoot this group here:
(It's the Validation group I shot........ marked as "Krieger Best group"..................)

https://www.ar15.com/forums/AR-15/200yd-Groups-Velocities-of-Winchester-62OT-mk318-64-GD-and-others-/16-744061/?page=1&anc=bottom#bottom