I've noticed a high percentage of my Berger 140 Hybrids and 185 Hybrids have clogged tips. It looks like lead comes all the way to the point and a sewing pin will not fit in the tip on those bullets but will go in .100+ on the others. I was considering pointing these but it would not work with the 30% that are clogged. Has anyone else experienced this?
Clogged tips on Bergers
- Thread starter jsthntn247
- Start date
Yep, Berger is very aware of this and working hard to to launch a fix in the near future. It is very hard to make a long ogive bullet like the Hybrid line from Burger. You have core seat issues and lube issues -- a little change makes a big difference. Tangent ogives do not suffer from these issues to the extent that a long secant ogive is exposed. When you see the faint lines around the ogive/meplat junction, that is a red flag as to lube as it relates to forming the bullet and not folding the jackets. The lead coming out the meplat is a function of lube and the core seating process. As a new bullet maker myself, I can tell you that making a long boat tail bullet -- tangent or secant -- is much more difficult than making a flat base. Then the hybrid ogive makes it even more difficult.
Most will agree that the Berger line of Hybrids have dominated the long range prone and F-Class game for some time -- despite the defects. The bullet design simply overcomes many flaws. Are the current Hybrids the best they can be? Heck no. But, Berger is dedicated to making them better than ever with their upcoming launch.
Berger and Sierra are really raising the bar on the quality of their long range offerings. I dare say they are pushing each other for dominance at 600 and 1000 yards with the new Sierra 6mm 107 vs. the 105 Hybrid, and the Sierra 7mm 183 vs. the 180 Hybrid. This is great for the game, and improves the commercial offerings to the shooting community. All is good and will get much better very soon. Combine the bullet improvements with the fine barrels on the market and it is easy to see that the long range precision game is better than ever -- we simply have better preforming tools than in the past.
Jim Hardy
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jsthntn247,
Could you please send us some samples of the bullets in question? Please PM me. I will be out of the office 6/30 , 7/1 and 7/4 but back on 7/5/16. Thank you very much!
Take care,
Ned Ludd
Silver $$ Contributor
It's not surprising that Berger gave you clogged tips...analogously, burgers give you clogged arteries 
. jsthntn247 - don't worry, Phil will take care of you. FWIW - I have two recent [different] lots of 185 Hybrids that do not have clogged tips, so it may be a lot specific issue.
. jsthntn247 - don't worry, Phil will take care of you. FWIW - I have two recent [different] lots of 185 Hybrids that do not have clogged tips, so it may be a lot specific issue.The hybrids I have been modifying belong to customers so I have none to send. I don't modify 7mm any more because I am making my own 7mm bullets. I expect my 6mm dies to come in shortly, so not likely to be modifying 6mm either - conflict of interest.
Most of the time you cant see the folded jackets till you modify the internals of the meplat. Sometimes you can. It is mighty easy to find when you are engaged in my modification process -- in fact, it is impossible for me to miss one. I have probably modified 15000 hybrids in the last 18 months. One lot of 7mm 180s had only 4 folded jackets. the rest had 11 to 17 percent. I will PM you as requested.
Jim
That's approx 30%. Which is about what I'm seeing
1911mag
Gold $$ Contributor
I have the .223 90VLDs with the same issue , my reject rate was 10% per box. When I called customer service the guy I got said the boat tail is the most important part and the clogged tip would have no affect on performance. Needless to say was not the response I expected.
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