- Location
- West Quebec
I have had great success with the Sierra Matchkings and have stayed with them and Varget at around 24.1 in my Savage 12 BTC
Reloading for .223
- Thread starter Jacobpoirier
- Start date
I have had great success with the Sierra Matchkings and have stayed with them and Varget at around 24.1 in my Savage 12 BTC
So ive shot the new tipped matchkings in a service rifle match and they scored well. Two problems ive found with them though.
#1 they are longer than the regular 77 so they need to be seated a little further into the case to be able to fit in the mag. While this may not be a problem it does mean that they will be a ways further off the lands than the reg 77. For me i think the reg 77 gets me better seating depth with less bullet pushed into the casing to take up valuable powder space and/or compressing the load more than needed.
#2. I use redding type s bushing dies for sizing. The seating stem for my die is crushing the jacket and leaving a ring impression around the jacket midway between the tip and the case mouth. It is not simply a cosmetic ring , it is a physical impression that is easily felt with the finger. My thoughts are that the jackets may be thinner than the regular 77 perhaps because of the manufacturing process to get the plastic tip in? Just a guess but talked it over with a couple of Canada's top target rifle shooters and they thought the same. I had a couple of uncalled flyers with these bullets and an uncalled miss so i am not sure if the bullet was the culprit or not. Still even with the deformity and uncalled miss i shot them into 582-64v/600 classic 1-12 service rifle match which is a pretty high score.
Im going back to nscc at the end of august and i will be shooting the old 77 matchking. Its not a vote of non confidence, its simply not enough testing. I have a vld seating stem inbound for the dies so i am hoping that will take care of the ring problem that a dremel couldn't. Ill post results when i figure it out. Till then keep shooting the regular 69s and 77s without worry.
#1 they are longer than the regular 77 so they need to be seated a little further into the case to be able to fit in the mag. While this may not be a problem it does mean that they will be a ways further off the lands than the reg 77. For me i think the reg 77 gets me better seating depth with less bullet pushed into the casing to take up valuable powder space and/or compressing the load more than needed.
#2. I use redding type s bushing dies for sizing. The seating stem for my die is crushing the jacket and leaving a ring impression around the jacket midway between the tip and the case mouth. It is not simply a cosmetic ring , it is a physical impression that is easily felt with the finger. My thoughts are that the jackets may be thinner than the regular 77 perhaps because of the manufacturing process to get the plastic tip in? Just a guess but talked it over with a couple of Canada's top target rifle shooters and they thought the same. I had a couple of uncalled flyers with these bullets and an uncalled miss so i am not sure if the bullet was the culprit or not. Still even with the deformity and uncalled miss i shot them into 582-64v/600 classic 1-12 service rifle match which is a pretty high score.
Im going back to nscc at the end of august and i will be shooting the old 77 matchking. Its not a vote of non confidence, its simply not enough testing. I have a vld seating stem inbound for the dies so i am hoping that will take care of the ring problem that a dremel couldn't. Ill post results when i figure it out. Till then keep shooting the regular 69s and 77s without worry.
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