bullet pointing is it worth it

[creedfan]

I have been shooting mid range F class for sometime. and now I am dipping my toes into 1000 yard f class.
I will be shooting a 284 Winchester with 180gr berger hybrids.
I have read that Pointing the bullets will give me a more uniform and consistent bc. any thoughts on this would be much appreciated.
And any tips and tricks or guidance of any kind would also be appreciated.

 

[Gina1]

One of the first things I noticed when I was starting to point bullets is at 600 yards the pointed bullets hit the target 2 inches higher than the un pointed bullets. Same power load, same primers, same bullet, same seating depth. In a broadened sense to me it meant the bullet was getting to the target faster, so there was less time for the bullet to drop, hence the 2 inches.
Will it help my score during a match ? I hope so
Just my thoughts..

 

[F Class John]

Fwiw those 180s will benefit greatly from a point. It's a known thing. Other bullets maybe debatable, but the 180 hybrids love to get tipped. Get the Hoover, it rocks.

 

[R.Morehouse]

If done correctly I am sure there could be some benefit in uniforming the front of your bullets. If your technique is off there is a possibility of screwing up the relationship of the core & the jacket. If you choose to go for it, start out with very small batches until you believe you have it right by seeing it on target. On a personal note, If I drop a bullet it becomes a sighter......Best case scenario in my anal mind would be to pick up my bullets in person at the guy's house making them....

Regards
Rick

 

[IdahoSharpshooter]

It might, if you are the type of person who weighs primers and does the other little things.
As Morehouse posted, you need to see it on the target. But, not where the groups now land, but how much smaller and more consistent the aggs are.

 

[1shot]

I've been pointing bullets since John Whidden first introduced his die. I've never seen a difference at 600 and in, but the improvement was noticeable with all bullets at 1K. As @F Class John said, some benefit more than others.
I hope this helps,

Lloyd

 

[Longtrain]

I used a Whidden Pointer for a while when I was shooting F-TR. I was shooting 185 Berger Juggernauts in my 308. The pointed bullets saved me one full MOA at 1000 yards. Shooting a Dasher now in F Open, I haven’t pointed the 108 Berger’s, lazy? Maybe. They shoot so, so well as is, I haven’t been tempted to fool with them yet.

 

[rkittine]

After shooting with Andy at the Williamsport 1000 Yard bench rest school a few times, I bough a Meplat trimmer and pointing die, but also have stocked up on the new Sierra pointed projectiles. As a newer unexperienced shooter, I will take all the help I can get.

Bob

 

[DocBII]

Creedfan,

Well, if you are going to the trouble of pointing them, you may wish to trim the bullets to a consistent length before pointing them.

HTH,
DocB

 

[searcher]

At 1,000 yards - the smallest details that are not readily apparent at 100 make noticeable differences at 1000. I point my bullets for any type of match past 300 yards. OCD

 

[David Christian]

@creedfan, what does your typical score and ES look like for a 600 yard, 20 shot string? Depending on those answers tipping could prove to show a noticeable difference else I might point you in a different direction first.

 

[creedfan]

@creedfan, what does your typical score and ES look like for a 600 yard, 20 shot string? Depending on those answers tipping could prove to show a noticeable difference else I might point you in a different direction first.

 

[creedfan]

but typically i shoot 198,199,or 200 @ 600 yards with my 6br the 284 hasn’t been shot in a match yet

 

[David Christian]

@creedfan, nice target! That pesky shot 15 is just barely out.

1. Sort your bullets by OAL into bins by length.
2. Set up your tipping die for the longest bin.
3. Adjust your die down until you get the amount of tip you are looking for.
4. Don’t over tip or you will create a bulge between the tip and ogive.
5. For each successive bin you should only have to tighten your die down by the width of your sort bins (.002 - .003)
6. Go shoot and change the BC setting in your ballistics app so that the elevation on your scope matches the elevation suggested in your app.

For the Berger 180’s you will see a +7% BC increase.

Keep up the good shooting!

 

[creedfan]

what about Meplat trimming does it do any good?

 

[M14AMU]

Certainly! It helps the guy that sells the tool to buy groceries!

 

[ShootDots]

For what it is worth, I will give you some "tested" observations about pointing bullets. When I first started pointing I used the Whidden pointer. It had 3 inserts, one for each type of bullet. I never found that to be a good idea. I went with the Hoover "pointing system" that uses "punches" that are milled for each bullet. That seemed a bit better. Then I tried meplat trimming. That was actually counterproductive! I believe it "shifted" the jackets and knocked the center axis OFF center. I stopped that! Then I found out that you need to measure every bullet to within a +/- of 1 thousandths. That way longer bullets and shorter bullets are placed with each other and you won't "over-point / under-point" a bullet. Once sorted, I point ONLY ENOUGH to make the meplats a bit more consistent. I do not like "pointing them til they close"! >>> Just enough to make them A LOT more uniform. Does it ACTUALLY make a difference? Good question! I say that IF the meplats are fairly "UN-uniform", it should help.. However, on bullets like the Berger 6mm /108 BT, Berger 6.5 / 140 LRBT or the Berger 30 / 230 Hybrid, the meplats are so good I can only believe that pointing them would or could only hurt the cause..

 

[rardoin]

In my experience, Berger 180's, if pointed correctly, will have enough increase in BC to make it worthwhile at 600yds and out. I also tested Berger 184's and, although I did raise the group center at 1000yds, suggesting a slight improvement in BC, the they would not group as well as unpointed BTO and OAL sorted rounds. I've tested Berger 140H's pointed/unpointed (but no sorting done prior) and did not find enough difference at 600yds to pursue it any further but I would not consider it a valid test because of the lack of pre-point sorting.

On April 1 I did try pointing Hornady 190 A-tips and.......nevermind....

 

[1shot]

I've been pointing bullets since John Whidden first introduced his die. I've never seen a difference at 600 and in, but the improvement was noticeable with all bullets at 1K. As @F Class John said, some benefit more than others.
I hope this helps,

Lloyd

After reading the comments of others it dawned on me I left out a step in my process. I sort my bullets by OAL first. Depending on who’s bullet it is, I will relegate the extreme short and long to a fouler pile. I will then trim all the remaining Bullets to the shortest one. All those bullets are then pointed. Finally, I sort B2O. I allow .001+-
Those bullets are for the BIG matches, all the others are used for club matches, LR load development etc. As I said before and others have found as well, some bullets show more improvement than others. With that said, I have found that ALL bullets had less vertical dispersion after normalizing the BC. As always, YMMV,
Lloyd

 

[mensajd]

The more recent Sierra HPBT bullets that I've purchased came pointed from the factory. Nice touch.