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Sierra 7mm 180 SMK


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Well I managed to get hold of some of the new 180 7mm SMK's from HPS on Friday.

With the Berger 180 VLD going over the £50 mark by some dealers :o it was refreshing to pay £32.60 a 100 for the new Sierras.

With a claimed BC of .660 they are going to be a real rival for the Berger and if work will give Bergers greedy sales prices a bloody nose ;)

 

Sierra180001.jpg

Left to right Berger 180 VLD/180 SMK/175 SMK

 

Well I was keen to get them tested so miked them up in my .284 to ascertain oal.

I know Sierras like a bit of jump so loaded some up 15 thou off the lands and some 10 thou into the lands.

I varied my load for the 175 SMK's I usually use to +/- 0.5gn over my standard 52gns Reloader 17.

These seem to be very accurate and easy to tune bullets.

It didn't make any real difference by altering powder charge/seating depth to the accuracy of the bullet.

This is good news as it seems easy to tune and has a broad accuracy node. So if temperature varies the velocity it should still easily stay in the sweet spot.

 

Sierra180002.jpg

All groups were 5 shots @ 100 yards. I got a bit excited with the group on the bottom right and pulled my last shot.

As you can see its grouping abilities are very consistent.

Now I need to move on to long range testing to confirm perfomance but early indications are excellent.

 

I can see big piles of unsold Bergers on the shelves of Norman Clark and Hannams :lol:

Perhaps when they have sat there a while the prices may become more competitive ;)

Cheers

Dave

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Agreed!!!

After the arrogant Berger sales antics of late, I have switched to the new shape Sierra .30 Palma because they are a fair price (£142ish/500)and they shoot easily as well as the Bergers.

If Berger hadnot pulled the plug on Foxy I would still be using them and be unaware of how good some of the alternatives are getting.

Rup

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  • 2 weeks later...

I have also found the Sierra 180 gr to be very forgiving. The smallest group is .400 and the largest .800, so 1/4 MOA to just over 3/4 MOA respectively. All four groups were shot at 200 yards with lots of mirage ( we wait for nice weather and then complain about mirage!)The powder charges are in .5 increments from 65 grains to 66.5.

Seating depth was 10 thou in, I don't have enough barrel life with the 7WSM to be messing about with changing to much!

 

At the end of the month I will run 15 pointed and trimmed Sierra's against 15 180 Berger VLD's at 1000 yards.

 

PICT0009-1.jpg

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Nice groups Ian

 

 

specially at 200.

 

 

That barrel is a good one,,

 

 

Have to be careful this year,,,,,no competative spirit is there matey :)

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Looks a good result Ian.

I'm also looking forward to testing in a week or so.

I'm still wondering which rifle to use for the short range comp at Diggle.

If the 180's shoot well at test then the .284 will be coming with me.

It looks like Andrew is off that day so will probably join us to try out his new F/TR rig.

Cheers

Dave

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  • 3 weeks later...

Update on the Sierra 180 MK.

 

Myself and Dave managed to get to Bisley last Friday, on what proved to be a perfect day for testing.

 

We couldn't get a 1000 yard target but did manage to get a 900 yard target for the morning.

 

First up was the standard (non pointed) 180 MK, 18-1/4 MOA was needed from a 200 yard zero, vertical was about 3/4 MOA (F class V bull)

 

Second to go was the trimmed, ogive length sorted and pointed 180 MK, 17-1/2 MOA needed from a 200 zero although the temperature had risen by now, vertical was 1/2 MOA apart from one shot that went high that took it to 3/4.

 

The Berger 180 VLD held pretty much the same vertical as the Sierra 180 MK, but held a marginal better group.

I should just say that the only load development that I did was the four groups that I shot in the photo several post up, so the 180 MK really did do well.

 

I certainly will not be worried when my supply of Berger 180's run out, I do think the Berger is a more uniform bullet but with a bit of sorting out the Sierra can certainly match it.

 

 

The 6mm Crusader shot better than the 7 WSM at 900 yards!

 

I'm sure Dave will have some input to this thread as his rifle really liked the Sierra.

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I have to agree with Ian, they did suit my barrel.

They held very tight vertical the standard 180 between 1/4 and 1/2 MOA elevation @900 yards

Pointing them crisped up the group to a good 1/4 MOA elevation and also needed 1/2 MOA less elevation for a central hit.

Pointing these bullets must have improved the BC so requiring less evelation, I would expect to see a bigger improvement at 1000 yards.

I've been busy this morning prepping brass and pointing bullets ready to load my ammo for the first league shoot at Diggle.

Cheers

Dave

ps I did exclude one round from the pointed group as it went high and out of group, Ian had an odd shot at the same time so I put it down to conditions as there was a very heavy mirage.

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Sounds a bit much but I suppose its better to have to many than not enough.

Round count is 75 + sighters and blow offs so 100 rnds should do it with a few spare.

Cheers and see you there.

Dave

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Dave i am thinking off taking 140 rounds to diggle , will this be enough

 

 

Sat

500 2+ 20

600 2+ 20

Sun

500 2+ 20

60 2+ 15

 

And whatever you require for blow off shots, 3 on Sat and another 3 on Sunday? and a few extra rounds just incase.

 

I will taking 100 rounds.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Agreed!!!

After the arrogant Berger sales antics of late, I have switched to the new shape Sierra .30 Palma because they are a fair price (£142ish/500)and they shoot easily as well as the Bergers.

If Berger hadnot pulled the plug on Foxy I would still be using them and be unaware of how good some of the alternatives are getting.

Rup

 

 

+1 more stopped using bergers because of price! £45 100 308 heads :angry:

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