pointed SMK from the factory
- Thread starter tillroot1
- Start date
The 107 SMKs have been pointed from the factory for quite awhile. They print a little higher on the 600 yd target than the older unpointed ones. Definitely my go-to bullet, once sorted they shoot as well as Bergers.
Nice shooting, I like the way you pulled the last 2 shots back into center after 18 leaked out.
Jdne5b
Gold $$ Contributor
What are you sorting them by?
So are the 169 SMK's
Ned Ludd
Silver $$ Contributor
You can sort Sierra factory-pointed bullets in all the same ways you sort any other bullets. I sort the 95 SMKs by OAL. The reason for this is that you can determine solely by eye that the points/tips within a single Lot# of bullets are not all the same length. That is because they are not length-sorted prior to pointing. Thus, shorter bullets appear to have "less of a point" than longer ones. However, if you sort them by OAL, the obvious [visual] differences are basically eliminated within each length-sorted group. Does it make a difference? I think it does, or I wouldn't do it. Is it "essential"? Maybe, maybe not. That will almost certainly depend on the intended use. You could also sort factory-pointed bullets by BTO length if you prefer, but that won't address the issue of point length variance.
FWIW - factory-pointed bullets can also be re-pointed if you don't like the uniformity of the points as they came from the factory. This requires a bit more finesse and experimentation than length-sorting only, as you also need to determine empirically which pointing die insert works the best, and exactly where to set the pointing die micrometer for each length-sorted group of bullets so that you just barely work the points to make them more uniform, but don't over-point or damage the bullets/jacket/ogive radius. Re-pointing factory-pointed bullets will typically not change/improve the BC appreciably like it does with unpointed bullets. However, it may be possible to improve the BC consistency (ES/SD) by making the points more uniform.
Is any of this worth the effort? Only the end-user can really make that call. I would much prefer that bullet companies let me do the pointing at home. I feel I can do a much better job of pointing because I am typically dealing with much smaller total numbers of bullets that renders the process more amenable to a high degree of precision, whereas mass production does not. However, I appreciate that I may not be the "target consumer" for factory-pointed bullets. Clearly, some folks like them, perhaps those that wouldn't point them at all on their own, or perhaps those that don't like the time and effort involved in pointing bullets and would rather pay to have them pointed during the production process. The downside is that if the consistency of the factory points isn't to your liking, it takes more effort to undo/redo the factory points than it does to simply length sort and point bullets that were not pointed by the manufacturer.
FWIW - factory-pointed bullets can also be re-pointed if you don't like the uniformity of the points as they came from the factory. This requires a bit more finesse and experimentation than length-sorting only, as you also need to determine empirically which pointing die insert works the best, and exactly where to set the pointing die micrometer for each length-sorted group of bullets so that you just barely work the points to make them more uniform, but don't over-point or damage the bullets/jacket/ogive radius. Re-pointing factory-pointed bullets will typically not change/improve the BC appreciably like it does with unpointed bullets. However, it may be possible to improve the BC consistency (ES/SD) by making the points more uniform.
Is any of this worth the effort? Only the end-user can really make that call. I would much prefer that bullet companies let me do the pointing at home. I feel I can do a much better job of pointing because I am typically dealing with much smaller total numbers of bullets that renders the process more amenable to a high degree of precision, whereas mass production does not. However, I appreciate that I may not be the "target consumer" for factory-pointed bullets. Clearly, some folks like them, perhaps those that wouldn't point them at all on their own, or perhaps those that don't like the time and effort involved in pointing bullets and would rather pay to have them pointed during the production process. The downside is that if the consistency of the factory points isn't to your liking, it takes more effort to undo/redo the factory points than it does to simply length sort and point bullets that were not pointed by the manufacturer.
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Thanks. 18 was supposed to center up after 17 went pretty wide, but mother nature had other plans, haha
There be 107’s here.
I guess its been a couple days since I bought any lol.
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