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Posted: 1/22/2005 8:49:36 AM EDT
| Just wondering about this bullet, I noticed on the sierra website that it is shorter than the 77gr SMK whats the deal with this bullet? Anyone shoot it? What do you think? how would it be loaded up for a social work load? Does anyone load it factory or is it a purely handloading thing????? |
77grSMK  80grSMK  Linky Go to the link above and look at the 77gr SMK and 80gr SMK the 80 looks smaller. THats why I was asking. |
The pictures are not to scale. The bullet is not designed to be loaded to mag length, and will work dismally if you try. |
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You need a long-throated barrel, or the bullet will get jammed into the rifling when you chamber it and possibly be set back in the case. The bullet may also get stuck in the leade of the barrel if you remove a live round, leaving you with a chamber full of loose powder and a stuck bullet. As the others have stated, this is a specialty bullet designed to be used in purpose-built rifles and designed to do one specific thing: shoot accurately from distances of 600 to 1000 yards. Using the bullet (or loads using this bullet) outside of this realm is going to produce unsatisfactory results nearly every time. -Troy |
| The 80 smk is a long range competition bullet...ain't worth a shit for anything else. The factory loadings, and there are at least two that I know of, are seated long so the end user can seat them deeper to match their chamber. If it was more accurate than the lighter bullets, all ARs would have Wylde chambers. I believe the most accurate .224 bullet from 100 to 200 yds is the 69 smk....actually, if wind is not a factor, its probably the most accurate back to 600. The 80 smk bucks wind better ...at least equal to a .308 168gn smk. If pure accuracy is what you are after , the 53 gn smk, a flat base bullet, should be given a chance. |
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As others have said, it's for single-loading, match applications. If you try to seat deep enough for mag length loading (2.260"), the bullet is too deep -- the shank is below the case mouth and and the ogive is even with the case mouth. Definitely not a good thing. The only conceivable way it could be loaded to mag length would be to trim brass well under the recommended trim-to length to shorten the neck. If you could trim it short enough to the point where the case mouth is still even with the bullet shank when loaded at 2.260", then it would work, but I'm not sure this is possible. You still need to make sure you have enough remaining neck length for adequate neck tension. Also, 80 grain Sierras don't like to be jumped alot into the rifling. Typical seating depths have them pretty close to the lands, a couple 10 thousandths or so off. They don't like being jumped .150 - .200 which would probably be the result if you tried to load them like described above. It might be an interesting exercise just to see if it were possible, but no real practical application. |
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