Anyone use 77gr TMK's from Sierra? Helpful hints from their Ballistic Tech

[Former11B]

https://sierrabullets.wordpress.com/...g-tmk-bullets/


Might be useful to those who use the 77gr TMK (like myself) and have issues with the seating die marring the bullet. Fortunately, I haven't had that issue. I use an RCBS Competition .223 die that side-loads the bullet and lines it up and seats it in the brass, so no balancing act is needed.

The article mentions two very popular powders for use in conjunction with the 77gr TMK: RE15 and Varget, and how loads seated at 2.25-2.26" might be compressed...since I shoot mostly out of PMags, I load them at 2.262" to give myself a little extra space, in addition to that, I use a longer drop tube and pour the powder slowly to help back it better, but my 23.0gr of RE15 still crunches down pretty good. I have had no pressure signs at all, even with hotter loads (I bumped it up to 24.1gr but the accuracy wasn't there, so I brought it back down)

Anyhow, hope this article is useful to some.

[alamo5000]

That's awesome. Thanks for the link. That is very helpful.

I don't use these specific bullets but I found it very interesting reading.

[mustangfreek]

Seen that info today also, will read later

I have not played with these tipped ones but if they come down some in price I'll probably pick up sone

[Former11B]

I keep my eye on Midway and find them on sale every so often. They're super nice

[Former11B]

I shot my hand loads beyond 100 yards finally, and had the best accuracy from 23.0gr and 23.6gr of RE15 at 2.63" OAL using a CCI BR4 primer. I'll probably stick with the 23.6gr for the added velocity if I decide to hunt with the round or shoot longer ranges

Anyhow, I was shooting a 2.5-10x32 Vortex HS-LR on 10 power, so at 300 the sticker really helped for a reference point. I wrote 2.5mils on the target but I meant MOA, for my holdover

200yds; this was right at 1.8" at the top left "flyer" to the opposite side. I just felt like shooting this target a lot


300yds; this is 2.5" between the furthest shots



I did dial a couple clicks left, since I was erring to the right on both

[mustangfreek]

Not bad, do you exclusively only use r-15 , curious how some varget or tac would do

[Former11B]

Not bad, do you exclusively only use r-15 , curious how some varget or tac would do

I've stocked exclusively RE15, and had good enough results with it I've never wanted to try Varget. I used 4064 and hated it, and had OK results with 2000-MR. Varget vs RE15 is sort of like tomato/to-mah-to. You might have one rifle that performs great with RE15/Varget and another that hates it.

Also, using a sort of lower power optic, my groups are "sub MOA" but I really have the optic on the SPR for target ID and to help make hits on man sized targets out to 5-600 yards. Not seeking bench rest performance because I was shooting WAY too quickly for all that, especially at 200 yards. I'd reset the trigger, make sure my breathing was in the right rhythm and shoot again