Sierra bullets seconds
- Thread starter justinp61
- Start date
dhagerty40
Gold $$ Contributor
I shoot factory seconds BUT they do not look like that! the ones I have vary about .5grs in weight and most just have blemished jackets. But the ones I have are all SMK's.
Bench shooter
Gold $$ Contributor
For shooting around corners. LOL
Highpower-FClass
Gold $$ Contributor
Those look terrible, I would call those thirds, or fourths
The sierra seconds I have had in the past looked pristine in comparison
The sierra seconds I have had in the past looked pristine in comparison
bobm
Silver $$ Contributor
Nothing wrong with those, just pick off the excess and shoot them. I stop there on the way to matches and buy the same looking 7mm bullets. Plenty accurate for my kind of shooting. I fire mine at steel for practice, the defects dissapear instantly. I feel the half of suggested retail price per pound is too much, though.
Rick300
Gold $$ Contributor
I just bought some Sierra blems from a member on here and was shocked at the condition of them. I'm not blaming the member at all. but I don't understand why Sierra would let such crap out into the marketplace! At least 25% were culled because of deformed tips and exposed cores. Why Sierra.....Why? Now I'm going to weigh them to see if they are worth shooting or not
dhagerty40
Gold $$ Contributor
I would just throw the junk in my casting pot. at least I can use the lead for round balls for the muzzleloader.
garandman
Bolt Gun Bodacious
bobm
Silver $$ Contributor
Fire forming, rough scope zeroing, critter blasting and banging steel. Heck, you might even win a match with them. I have bought thousands and have not been dissapointed with the accuracy. They have a purpose. The big black metal barrels are mostly empty when I visit. They do sell.
They look like the majority of Sierra seconds my friends and I have bought and shot over the years. Spend a few minutes scraping off the ring of lead and the piece on the point, load them up and go shoot. I have a couple rifles that have never been fired with a bullet other than Sierras out of a brown paper bag. They killed the critters I shot with them and always fell into the group at the range.
bobm
Silver $$ Contributor
Toss them my way. My 788 .222 would love them. Need my address?
That's nothing more than a lead bleed off squirt that did not break off in final tumbling. The "collar" scrapes right off with a fingernail. Gimme them bullets!
RegionRat
Gold $$ Contributor
Folks need to keep in mind the difference between commercially sold factory seconds versus showing up at the loading dock of an ammo factory.
Many years (decades now) ago, the Sierra factory was near me here in LA.
Of my club friends, I had some "official" roles that established an inside relationship which made it easier for me to be the one to roll over there and pick up factory seconds, but anyone from the public could do the same.
They looked like the photo and that was because they were literally from the factory and had not been cleaned up for commercial purposes. We learned when they ran certain part numbers as the rotation meant the ones folks were interested in were not around all the time. I had the heavy duty trucks and picked up hundreds of pounds at a time.
The ladies started to recognize my trucks and would start with those cast bean scoops, the kind you would see at the bulk section of the dry good store. When filled with bullets they were probably ten to fifteen pounds per scoop. They started filling my lead shot bags and didn't stop till I thought the axles couldn't take more weight.
The stuff I brought back to the club included everything from versions for the pistol shooters, the varmint hunters, and highpower folks. We got used to culling out scrap from seconds. These materials represent what happens at the start up of runs before they get all the different machines under control. Lead tip sprue looks bad, but pops right off and you are left with a bullet that is just as good as a first for the effort. If they were tumbled, they were indistinguishable from firsts.
The net effect of being close to the Sierra factory, was to be able to shoot for pennies on the dollar when it came to their bullets. Yes our time was worth something, but most of us were defense scientists and we could do the math. I have no reason to defend that stuff other than the gratitude to Sierra for helping myself and countless others including our juniors to climb the ranks. Many went HighMaster and Distinguished thanks to the ability to get factory seconds from Sierra.
Different batches had different yield rates, but it was always worth it to us in order to keep costs down. I burned up a few Rem factory bbls on nothing but Sierra Seconds back in those days, and would still do it again if I could do it all over again.
The Sierra folks were very good to us back then and I can't thank them enough.
Many years (decades now) ago, the Sierra factory was near me here in LA.
Of my club friends, I had some "official" roles that established an inside relationship which made it easier for me to be the one to roll over there and pick up factory seconds, but anyone from the public could do the same.
They looked like the photo and that was because they were literally from the factory and had not been cleaned up for commercial purposes. We learned when they ran certain part numbers as the rotation meant the ones folks were interested in were not around all the time. I had the heavy duty trucks and picked up hundreds of pounds at a time.
The ladies started to recognize my trucks and would start with those cast bean scoops, the kind you would see at the bulk section of the dry good store. When filled with bullets they were probably ten to fifteen pounds per scoop. They started filling my lead shot bags and didn't stop till I thought the axles couldn't take more weight.
The stuff I brought back to the club included everything from versions for the pistol shooters, the varmint hunters, and highpower folks. We got used to culling out scrap from seconds. These materials represent what happens at the start up of runs before they get all the different machines under control. Lead tip sprue looks bad, but pops right off and you are left with a bullet that is just as good as a first for the effort. If they were tumbled, they were indistinguishable from firsts.
The net effect of being close to the Sierra factory, was to be able to shoot for pennies on the dollar when it came to their bullets. Yes our time was worth something, but most of us were defense scientists and we could do the math. I have no reason to defend that stuff other than the gratitude to Sierra for helping myself and countless others including our juniors to climb the ranks. Many went HighMaster and Distinguished thanks to the ability to get factory seconds from Sierra.
Different batches had different yield rates, but it was always worth it to us in order to keep costs down. I burned up a few Rem factory bbls on nothing but Sierra Seconds back in those days, and would still do it again if I could do it all over again.
The Sierra folks were very good to us back then and I can't thank them enough.
Send them to ME,.. I'll pay,.. shipping costs !
They will be FINE,.. scrape, the tips with, your Finger Nail !
Groups, will probably open up about,.. .005 more @ 100 yds ,.. LOL !
They will be FINE,.. scrape, the tips with, your Finger Nail !
Groups, will probably open up about,.. .005 more @ 100 yds ,.. LOL !
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