Sierra .243 bullets #1530 really inconsistant length?

[KevinThomas]

I'm a bit lost here as to the "barrels of cores" commentary here. They aren't made in advance, but are cut and formed at the bullet press itself. There is no other treatment for them. They're cut from lead wire (perhaps this is the source of the "8 dies" comment?), formed in a swage to their final weight and shape, and are dropped immediately into a core feeder. When a press is running, that core is formed, and then finds itself inside a jacket as a finished bullet in less than a minute or two. The ONLY ones that are formed ahead of time are those used in the FMJ bullets, which require a totally different process. Aside from those, the spitzers, HPBTs (match or hunting) all follow the first process I described. All of the cores in a given lot of bullets came from the same roll of wire, and were cut and extruded through a single die, and ONLY a single die.

 

[243winxb]

Sierra makes the core of the bullet from four lead alloys: 6% antimony-4% tin, 6% antimony, 3% antimony, 1 1/2% antimony and pure lead.

https://www.sierrabullets.com/about-us/sierra-story/index.cfm

I find this interesting.

After the bullets have been formed in the bullet presses, they are tumbled in the front wash and polish operation to remove any surface blemishes and to polish the jackets. These finished bullets are then given a comprehensive visual inspection so only the best bullets will be packed for shipment to our distributors around the world.

 

[Bart B.]

From Sierra

After the bullets have been formed in the bullet presses, they are tumbled in the front wash and polish operation to remove any surface blemishes and to polish the jackets. These finished bullets are then given a comprehensive visual inspection so only the best bullets will be packed for shipment to our distributors around the world.

Their bullets sold 1000 per brown box I showed earlier were not cleaned, polished and inspected. They still had the lanolin sizing lubricant on them and 3 or 4 in a box could have a visible jacket flaw. They shot about 30 to 40 percent more accurate than those clean, shiny ones sold to distributors 100 per green box.

 

[hikfromstik]

If you want to get real confused try measuring bto then base to tip . I got a weird batch of Sierra's and about went nuts trying to figure out if it was my fault . I ended up shooting them without sorting and they were some of my most accurate rounds .