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.284 & Sierra 180 ?

I think at 600, pointed, they will score right with 180 hybrids, pointed. At 1,000, I perhaps needed to have sorted them, which I had not done. At 600, though, they gave me my best group ever, on a conducive day.
 
Ringostar said:
I shot a lot of them close to 10 years ago. They did shoot well, but needed some sorting.
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That's my experience too. Sorting, trimming, and pointing transformed their longer distance elevations consistency. Quite a good BC even by today's standards if you can get them to group, and a very VLD-ish form. I put them moderately into the lands in initial testing and never changed since. Performance v the 180gn Hybrid? I wouldn't know - even on the few occasions they're actually available in the UK these days, they're far to 'rich fare' for me these days.

The older 175gn MK is also an excellent performer - surprisingly high BC for a traditional tangent ogive design. Very position tolerant and so 'easy to tune'.
 
Two Time HM LR said:
180 Range of Sierra Bullets
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No experience with the 180's....

The 183's need sorting and probably something else, plus a barrel that really likes them. Ricky Bobby velocities don't seem to go well, slower seemed better for me. They work well at mid-range.

The Berger 180Hybrid is the gold standard and the easy button.
 
davidjoe said:
I think at 600, pointed, they will score right with 180 hybrids, pointed. At 1,000, I perhaps needed to have sorted them, which I had not done. At 600, though, they gave me my best group ever, on a conducive day.
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I shoot them in my 1 in 9 twist 284 win. Flat 2 inch 5 shot groups at 1000yards. 11 inch groups at 2000 yards. I haven't even tried my Berger 180 grain hybrids. No sorting.
 
Laurie said:
I wouldn't know - even on the few occasions they're actually available in the UK these days, they're far to 'rich fare' for me these days.
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Berger is in a tough place. For the two divisions of F-Class, their bullets are winning. Why would the winning bullet not cost more? To cost less would make no sense, and they do still remain cheaper than one line of factory match bullets.

On the other hand, I don’t know anyone in our game that isn’t value conscious with a long memory of what it cost to shoot the same score, or finish place, before.

The podium can’t pay the bills, alone. The thick mid pack has to consider prices reasonable, for where they finish. Whether competing bullets will win or not is one question, but from a sales standpoint, arguably the one that matters, if the price goes too high, they just won’t sell as many.
 
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I thank everyone for there input.

I was looking for Back up Bullet !
I shoot 180 HB and love them . It the waiting list that is on my mind .
 
davidjoe said:
Berger is a tough place. For the two divisions of F-Class, their bullets are winning. Why would the winning bullet not cost more? To cost less would make no sense, and they do still remain cheaper than one line of factory match bullets.
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As an ex marketeer, I've no beef with Berger's pricing policy. What the market will bear is the price-setting mantra. Manufacturers aren't charities.

There comes a point though when many purchasers have to lower their expectations as they simply can't afford the best. We've reached that with some components prices in the UK, and one result is that whilst many of our national F-Class league fixtures saw 50/50 Open and FTR entries a few years back, Open has dropped right away in the last couple of years. It's much, much more than just bullet prices of course, but that's one part of the mix.

Interestingly, our main Berger distributor has dropped prices considerably in the last few months. They're still dearer than Hornady ELD-Ms or Lapua Scenars, but the premium is much reduced from that of a year or two back. And ... although Berger Hybrids are what most of the long-range F-Open matches are won with here, as in the US, it's not always so.

http://bulletin.accurateshooter.com/?s=Paul+Hill&submit=Search

As has been said of Paul, he wins top matches with the 'wrong' cartridge (7 SAUM); 'wrong' Bullet (180gn Lapua Scenar-L) and using the 'wrong' powder (a Reload Swiss grade - RS70 IIRC). My own final GB League F-Open outing before I became a club match only shooter got me a 'Silver' 1,000 yard stage medal and 2nd place overall at the end of day one shooting the 7 Shehane with 180 Scenars. (I blew my overall position of course on Day Two with a mediocre result, naturally enough!)

Where Berger does have a huge product advantage though right now is that if you are considering the 300WSM vice the sevens, and a fair few people here are, Berger has such an enormous strength in its 30-calibre line-up. Lapua has nothing competitive going at all, and Hornady is relatively weak by comparison. Even indigent old me shoots 200gn Hybrids (the older pre 200.20X model I got heavily discounted) in my 300 SAUM.
 
The 183 SMK has proven a winner for me on a couple of different occasions in an 284 Shehane 8.25 twist bbl. running 2,930 fps. I recently got lucky and scored a 500 ct. box of Berger Hybrids that I'm in the process of sort/trim/pointing. When the weather allows, I will work up a load with them so I have a true comparison.
I hope this helps,
Lloyd
 
Myself and 2 other F-Open shooters in the Phoenix, AZ area have shot the Sierra 180’s. We found that they shot very well…only one issue that all 3 of us found. All 3 had bullets explode on the way to the target. Personally I would shoot for practice but NOT in a match. Even if you had 1 exploding bullet that will take you out of the match. Tight race at the top! Can’t afford to loose 10 points on a exploding bullet.
 
Joseph Cordeiro said:
Myself and 2 other F-Open shooters in the Phoenix, AZ area have shot the Sierra 180’s. We found that they shot very well…only one issue that all 3 of us found. All 3 had bullets explode on the way to the target. Personally I would shoot for practice but NOT in a match. Even if you had 1 exploding bullet that will take you out of the match. Tight race at the top! Can’t afford to loose 10 points on a exploding bullet.
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I have shot the Sierra 180s when fire forming my 284 Shehane cases. The velocity was pretty low but accuracy was very good. What velocity / twist rate were you shooting when you had them explode?
 
Sierra is the only brand of target bullet I have actually never blown up. Yet, I suppose.
 
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I’ve had numerous Nosler custom comps, not make it to the target. However I’ve never blown up a Sierra 180. I’ve shot over a couple thousand of them in a 8.5 twist 284 with a healthy charge. The price was very good also. It was just all of the sorting that took me away. I switched to 180 Scenar L, and had much better success.
 
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