SMK OAL Dilemma

[Ramses II]

OAL is a little difficult w/ SMK bullets. Some tips are flat (HP), some of the HP tips are longer on one side than the other...I know it is a very small amount but it makes uniforming the OAL difficult......anybody else have this experience? How do you overcome it?

Ramses II
Boy, y'all are gonna kick me off the board for asking too many questions /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/blush.gif

 

[Freakshow]

Stoey Point makes an O.A.L. guage that measures off the ogive and not the meplate(tip),or if you are a one bullet per-gun guy you can just set the bullet in a case that has a few cross sections sliced in it so that the case just barely holds the bullet. The riflings will push the bullet back to its max for your gun and you can play with it from there and just leave the die to your desired depth.

 

[Freakshow]

I forgot, there are also meplate uniformers that will smooth out the tips.

 

[dbhostler]

Another option is custom bullets. There are many, many custom bullet makers that make almost any type of bullets for whatever shooting you want to do. Usually cost just a couple of dollars more per hundred and well worth it. Go to www.benchrest.com and click on "Bullets" under "CATEAGORIES" and look around.
db

 

[brian b]

Ramses II,
What caliber and weight SMK's are you talking about ??? I have several lots of 6mm 107gr SMK's that are awesome and several lot's of 338 300gr SMK's that need some attention, fill me in and I can probably help you out
B

 

[Ramses II]

Brian,
I have .308 175 gr. SMKs. Thanks,
Ramses II

 

[brian b]

Sierra's 30's might need a little help , but there 6mm's and 30's are probably the best bullet's they make ,you just need to weigh and measure them into segregated lot's. if some of them have uneven tip (meplat) you can uniform them to a uniform lenght but dont go to absolutely flat surface or you give up more B.C.than you would think.
If you want to go the cheap way buy a Stoney Point Ogive checker and measure from the back of the boatail (with the ogive guage to the tip of the bullet and segregate into lots ). if you want to go the spendy route get a bullet bearing surface comparitor,segregate by length then trim the the meplats to a uniform length from the base of the boatail. Tubb makes a meplat uniformer for any cal. you want. Sierra tries to do the best that they can but some times thing's dont work as planned but they try harder than any other bullet Manufacturer to get things right. IMHO
B