I just picked up a couple of boxes of Hornady's new Match bullets in 7mm 162gr. I opened the box and was surprised to see that these bullets come factory pointed. Pulled out an equivalent Amax and had a look at them side by side, very similar looking ogive but the Match appears more tapered toward the nose. It looks (not measured diameters) like the Amax is a little larger/fatter at the pointy end to accommodate the ballistic tip.
Pulled out the digital calipers to check the consistency of the bullet length and was surprised again to find the bullets I measured (10) all less than 2 thou difference in length. The meplats being factory pointed were all very uniform and without a ragged edge. Length is of interest to me because I like using my pointing die to close meplats up as much as is possible. Not much is to be gained by pointing but I went ahead and did it anyway and every bullet came out perfect.
I pulled out my Shehane rifle and the Hornady OAL gauge and re-checked the Amax against my measurement last time and got a measure on the new Match bullet. Using a Hornady bullet comparator the Amax measured 2.440" and the Match was 2.462 just touching the lands. For comparison sake the Berger 180gr VLD measures 2.454" which is in the middle of the 2 Hornady bullets. A measured 22 thou longer OAL for the Match bullet indicates the bullets are similar but certainly not the same dimensions.
I loaded some up the same as the Amax's I have been shooting and will test them out this weekend. I have set them up with a 20 thou jump and will shoot them in a club comp without having done any development work. It might be a complete disaster but dont have time at the moment for testing. Does anyone have any info on shooting the new 162gr Match bullet and in particular what bullet seating jam/jump works best?
The bullets look and measure up as dimensionally being consistent but the proof of the pudding is in the eating, who can tell me how these projectiles go?
Ian
Pulled out the digital calipers to check the consistency of the bullet length and was surprised again to find the bullets I measured (10) all less than 2 thou difference in length. The meplats being factory pointed were all very uniform and without a ragged edge. Length is of interest to me because I like using my pointing die to close meplats up as much as is possible. Not much is to be gained by pointing but I went ahead and did it anyway and every bullet came out perfect.
I pulled out my Shehane rifle and the Hornady OAL gauge and re-checked the Amax against my measurement last time and got a measure on the new Match bullet. Using a Hornady bullet comparator the Amax measured 2.440" and the Match was 2.462 just touching the lands. For comparison sake the Berger 180gr VLD measures 2.454" which is in the middle of the 2 Hornady bullets. A measured 22 thou longer OAL for the Match bullet indicates the bullets are similar but certainly not the same dimensions.
I loaded some up the same as the Amax's I have been shooting and will test them out this weekend. I have set them up with a 20 thou jump and will shoot them in a club comp without having done any development work. It might be a complete disaster but dont have time at the moment for testing. Does anyone have any info on shooting the new 162gr Match bullet and in particular what bullet seating jam/jump works best?
The bullets look and measure up as dimensionally being consistent but the proof of the pudding is in the eating, who can tell me how these projectiles go?
Ian
