Thread: Sierra Matchking 308 125gr HP for huntinf

Originally Posted by NRT

Yeah my go to in the 06 as well as 125 sst chest shot reds out to 250 yards kill very well .

The difference is they have been designed like an Interlok. These 125gr are a basic cup and core with a HP. Sooo, may not hold together the same. Ill stick to fallow or smaller i think at this stage. Still gotta find the deer lol.

Sorry was replying to Ernie asking about using ballistic tip noslers.

Originally Posted by NRT

Sorry was replying to Ernie asking about using ballistic tip noslers.

All good mate.

Originally Posted by erniec

I have some Nosler Ballistic Tip in 125 gn I intend to load as a lighter load in 30.06 has anybody used them.

Never used them. But they look pretty good and nosler has a vety good rep.

That's all I use on Sika out of my .308. None have complained. Usually find the jacket (and not much else) under the far side skin for a shoulder shot, unless its a direct hit on the bone, then its a grenade and all the vitals have lots of little holes in the them.

Well, the Sierra 125gr MK #2121 arrived today.
I have cut 1 in half (bottom) tested the lead hardness and measured the copper cup thickness. Along with a few other bullets i had sectioned in the past.
When i cut it, it was obvious the copper was very hard. Although i cannot compare that ATM.



Note the lead hardness is about average and cup slightly above average thickness.

It was immediatly obvious that drilling the tip could not happen without filing the tip. And the cavity behind the tip was large so filing the tip off seemed the obvious thing to try. After filing the tip off by about 2.5mm and cleaning it up i ended up with a HP of about 1.3mm and 1gr lighter bullet.

I reckon these will work fine with the tip filed same as i did up to fallow.

Now, just need to find a nice mild load and a jig to make filing them easy and consistant.

Oops, forgot to mention. Lead has a Brinell hardness of 4.

@Oldbloke

Yep I thought you’d be on the right track if you altered the tips. That bullet is going to open up lethally now.

Interesting that you can do it with just filing. I’m wondering what would be the best method for consistent projectile length without having to pfaff around too much. It’s too long ago for me to remember the nitty gritty but I do remember watching the old fella place the round in the jig, pass the file over the tip a couple of times and then lower the drill press, remove cartridge, repeat. It was a very quick, repeatable and accurate process because the drill stop controlled the amount of tip material removed, and he could do a lot of rounds in an hour. Of course the big difference here is this was with a loaded ammo, and not just the projectile on its own.

A board of correct thickness with carefully drilled hole through it so only the excess but can fit out.place board over it a d file off. Or just use eyetrometer and Bench grinder.

Completed 25. File in a thingamajig. Course file then a couple of strokes with i fine file. Obviously bit slow. Length variation was about 0.3mm. So after checking with vernier 3 or 4 got a couple of additional strokes with fine file.

This is how, and end result selected from random.
End result 0.2mm variation.

Tried grinding and too hard to control resulting in tip groynd at an angle.

Drilling doesnt really work. By the time the flat is big enough i get to the hollow point.

they are more uniform than sierra hpbt are from the factory. and those shoot accurately enough.

Ill weigh them tomorrow and come up with some weights

@Micky Duck
Yes, i will try that.
But currently im thinking that 1" is 25.4mm.
Sooo, get a square lump of 1" steel and drill a 5/16" (0.312") hole through.
File them roughly in the mini vice, last few strokes with fine file bullet in the 5/16" hole with sleel sitting on my steel topped work bench.

try dropping them right down in your mini vice till just the excess is poking up...your file will hardly touch your vice jaws but will zip off tip easy.

Well, i got a pleasant surprise. Weighed 10 of each, selected randomly, original 125 and filed now 124gr.

Have loaded 4 with 43gr AR2208, about 2750fps. 1 for an impact test into longlife milk cartons of water and layers of cardboard. And 3 for an initial group.