Anyone ever use a Meplat Trimmer?

[Mikecr]

There is another ingenuity that would help here. A Bob Green Comparator (BGC).
If you wanted to trim only, to same meplat diameter, you would do so w/resp to a datum high on qualified ogives.
Qualified meaning same ogive shape (radius).
Use a BGC to validate this, before any other measure off bullet noses.

F-Class John was seeing his variance partially because his ogives were not qualified.
Base-to-Ogive (BTO) is also not a credible measure to act on, because it includes too much (base length, bearing length, ogive radius).

 

[Beluebow]

I've trimmed.

I've trimmed and pointed.

I've just pointed.

Now I just point and sort OAL after pointing...bullets will typically grow .002-.006.

@Mikecr sorting OAL is about as close as you're going to get to sorting meplat diameter until someone comes up with a tool for that.

 

[Zstingray]

Yes I have one. I have 6.5mm, .308 & .338 bodies.

What would you like to know?

I would like to talk to a shooter that actually uses trimming the Meplat on bullets and this person is a BR, "F" Class, ELR shooter.
Looks like something that would throw a wrench into my reloading system. If there was a gain in accuracy i would do it, but need to talk to a Bonified Metplat Trimmer.
Please PM me so I can exchange phone #s to talk.
Happy New Year, God Bless
Len & Jill

I shoot F-Class and I shoot with several National Record holders. I have by the grace of God held a record at 1000 yards and three at 600 yards. The majority of these afore mentioned shooters no longer trim the meplat but they do point the bullets using a pointer such as the Hoover. This being said they all use Berger bullets which are very consistent. The current world record holder in F-TR at 600 yards, which is restricted to 223 or 308 does point his bullets. I shoot with him almost monthly.

Looks like something that would throw a wrench into my reloading system. If there was a gain in accuracy i would do it, but need to talk to a Bonified Metplat Trimmer.
Please PM me so I can exchange phone #s to talk.
Happy New Year, God Bless
Len & Jill

 

[Mikecr]

sorting OAL is about as close as you're going to get to sorting meplat diameter until someone comes up with a tool for that.

OAL means nothing about meplat diameter.
OAL is base length + bearing length + nose length.

I would love for someone to come up with a way to measure meplats

 

[Beluebow]

I shoot F-Class and I shoot with several National Record holders. I have by the grace of God held a record at 1000 yards and three at 600 yards. The majority of these afore mentioned shooters no longer trim the meplat but they do point the bullets using a pointer such as the Hoover. This being said they all use Berger bullets which are very consistent. The current world record holder in F-TR at 600 yards, which is restricted to 223 or 308 does point his bullets. I shoot with him almost monthly.

I feel like we should know each other....PM sent.

OAL means nothing about meplat diameter.
OAL is base length + bearing length + nose length.

I would love for someone to come up with a way to measure meplats

I've had this conversation with Bryan Litz and Emil Praslick...you are welcome to argue with those guys.

I've owned the Bob Green tool...sold it.

 

[Longtine88]

OAL means nothing about meplat diameter.
OAL is base length + bearing length + nose length.

I would love for someone to come up with a way to measure meplats

Looks like to me it would have to be some kind of laser optical micrometer. I know they exist but not sure about applications for precision reloading. And doing that to each bullet would take time.

 

[Mike Matteson]

THE RABBIT HOLE! It's deep down here. Interesting too. Done some reading on it, but so many other thing to do. Everytime I think I am at the bottom of the hole.
I got my shovel out, and digging again.

 

[Coyote Shadow Tracker]

I shoot F-Class and I shoot with several National Record holders. I have by the grace of God held a record at 1000 yards and three at 600 yards. The majority of these afore mentioned shooters no longer trim the meplat but they do point the bullets using a pointer such as the Hoover. This being said they all use Berger bullets which are very consistent. The current world record holder in F-TR at 600 yards, which is restricted to 223 or 308 does point his bullets. I shoot with him almost monthly.

Thank you very much with your response!
I'll have to look into that.
Len & Jill

 

[HunterMann]

Wow have things changed and evolved...

When I was a kid, the farm manager's truck gun was a Universal 30cal carbine with a peep sight. He shot all kinds of varmints, rabbits, even sand hill cranes with the standard mil surplus ball. Very little meat damage on the rabbits and birds he took. He had built a jig onto a grinding wheel that would just open the nose of that 30cal ball ammo. Those modified rounds he used quite successfully on larger things up to and including the local deer. He kept loaded magazines of each round in the glove box and carbine tucked in behind the seat. My only previous experience was popping cans or paper with a BB gun and a 22 single shot and I thought this carbine was just the coolest thing ever. Probably started my lifelong interest in rifles of all kinds.

 

[Ray Gross]

OAL means nothing about meplat diameter.
OAL is base length + bearing length + nose length.

I would love for someone to come up with a way to measure meplats

You could do it with an optical comparator of sufficient magnification. You could do it much faster with machine vision. You could get a fair proxy measurement by making something similar to a BGC that registers the ogive on a datum close to the meplat and then measuring the distance from datum to meplat.

 

[Old Rooster]

THE RABBIT HOLE! It's deep down here. Interesting too. Done some reading on it, but so many other thing to do. Everytime I think I am at the bottom of the hole.
I got my shovel out, and digging again.

You are right buddy!
Like everyone else I'm just trying to weed out things that don't work and add things that do work and feel good about a device that puts a near perfect round hole in the bullet and take irregularities out of the point.
I quit using Bergers years ago for way too many bullets penciling through animals I hunted hard for and now I feel like this was likely the reason.
A fixable problem.
Not just for Bergers but for any hollow point bullet.
Yep this rabbit hole gets pretty deep.

 

[SteveBurton]

I have been looking into this a lot lately. I purchased the MCR tool for 6.5mm and did some 156 EOL bullets. I did not see much difference in accuracy out to 300 yards and have yet to go further to test a drop in BC. My main concern is to make the Berger bullets more uniform with the hollow point to hopefully improve terminal performance. They don't need much improving but you still hear that story of some penciling through. Even if the trimming drops the BC by 2%, I can accommodate for that in my dope. A quick calculation shows a 3/4" drop at 600 yards. That isn't enough to worry about IMO. When you look at a Hammer bullet, they have large meplats and hollow points. I don't see that many people complaining about them.

This picture shows the meplats trimmed, deburred and then drilled out with a 0.050 drill bit. I've been drilling the tips for years but there's always that 1 or 2 that go off center and get screwed up. This keeps things centered.

Here is a before and after picture. Honestly not a big difference but will have to see how they perform on game.

I haven't trimmed a hybrid or OTM yet. Those have a smaller tip so the change would be greater. I know drilling out the 144 Hybrids was a pain due to the closed tip.

 

[Old Rooster]

SteveBurton if you would keep everyone updated on your bullets it sure would help.
Thanks
Old Rooster

 

[bamban]

Looks like to me it would have to be some kind of laser optical micrometer. I know they exist but not sure about applications for precision reloading. And doing that to each bullet would take time.

Would ZZ gauge pins be adequate for the job? I have both sets in + and - that goes to 0.2500, I've used them for a lot of different applications, but never tried to gauge meplat holes.

Unless, you are talking about the OD of the hollow point. If that were the case, I would just sharpie the tip and spin it on white sheet of paper, then measure the transferred dimension on the paper

Just throwing stuff out there.