After being told about these bullets and after seeing an article on Accurateshooter.com saying they were specially made to suit 10 twist barrels I thought I'd give them a try. However when I got the boxes of bullets through the mail it said for 9 twist or faster on the label. I have spoken with Sierra about this and they say that if I load them hot they may well stabilise in my 24" 10 twist barrel. As a novice reloader though my question to you guys is how hot should I go before I quit? I'll be using rem brass, br2 primers and imr4350 to start with. My rifle is 243win.
6mm 95 grain Matchkings
- Thread starter Lime Dawg
- Start date
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Fiftydriver
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If you notice the force needed to open the bolt increasing you should stop increasing.
If you notice any significant ejector marks(shiny spot) on the case head, stop.
If your primer pockets lossen up any noticable amount when you reprime them, stop.
If you are greatly exceeding that the published loading manuals are printing for max velocity with that bullet weight, stop increasing.
Simply put, if the bullets do not stabilize at 2900 fps, they will most likely not stabilize at 3000 fps either, at least not at long range.
Kirby Allen(50)
If you notice any significant ejector marks(shiny spot) on the case head, stop.
If your primer pockets lossen up any noticable amount when you reprime them, stop.
If you are greatly exceeding that the published loading manuals are printing for max velocity with that bullet weight, stop increasing.
Simply put, if the bullets do not stabilize at 2900 fps, they will most likely not stabilize at 3000 fps either, at least not at long range.
Kirby Allen(50)
James Jones
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Jul 1, 2002
- Messages
- 2,854
More good advice from Kirby.
You can't apperciate how fast the pressure will spike once it gets so high and the destruction it can cause unless you have seen it , I've never seen it first had but I have seen the coroners photos of the scene and the body , that has to say enough right their !!!
on factory guns I generaly start to see slight shiney spot on the case first then the bolt lift very close or at the same time and if you get a soft batch of primers you may see slight cratering first , this to me is pleanty hot enough.
I know a guy that has a gun thats welded shut from one shot !!! ,he worked up a load for his 22-250 on a cold spring morning to get ready to shoot the ground squrrels when it got warm. His load was running a 55 gr Ballistic tip out at over 4000fps from a 24" 1-12 Douglas barrel, he diden't make it out to shoot till mid June and the temp were in the low 90's , first shot the gun went off and he look at us as we looked at him with that "what the hell was that" look on our face when he tried to open the bolt it was stuck solid and coulden't be hammered open !! upon inspecting the gun we removed the scope and saw that their was a crack in the front reciever splitting it between the scope base mounting holes. Several custome gun builders looked at it and guessed that the pressure was in the 80,000-90,000 psi range !!!
Anyway if they on't shoot well that seems like a great reason to rebarrel the gun right?
You can't apperciate how fast the pressure will spike once it gets so high and the destruction it can cause unless you have seen it , I've never seen it first had but I have seen the coroners photos of the scene and the body , that has to say enough right their !!!
on factory guns I generaly start to see slight shiney spot on the case first then the bolt lift very close or at the same time and if you get a soft batch of primers you may see slight cratering first , this to me is pleanty hot enough.
I know a guy that has a gun thats welded shut from one shot !!! ,he worked up a load for his 22-250 on a cold spring morning to get ready to shoot the ground squrrels when it got warm. His load was running a 55 gr Ballistic tip out at over 4000fps from a 24" 1-12 Douglas barrel, he diden't make it out to shoot till mid June and the temp were in the low 90's , first shot the gun went off and he look at us as we looked at him with that "what the hell was that" look on our face when he tried to open the bolt it was stuck solid and coulden't be hammered open !! upon inspecting the gun we removed the scope and saw that their was a crack in the front reciever splitting it between the scope base mounting holes. Several custome gun builders looked at it and guessed that the pressure was in the 80,000-90,000 psi range !!!
Anyway if they on't shoot well that seems like a great reason to rebarrel the gun right?
oldfamily
Well-Known Member
My factory 243 with a 1 in 9.125 barrel will shoot the 107 smk's, so I would just load up some rounds that you have data for and try them out. I was worried about the 107's not shooting well with my rifle and they out shoot the 75 gr v-max and 105 a-max. Start on the low side and work up like normal. I am using IMR 4064 with my rifle. Hope this helps. Oldfamily
There seems to be so many opinions about what weight will/won"t stabilise that it all gets confusing. The only reason I probably wanted to stick with the lighter bullets was that 100gr partitions didn't shoot well but 90 grain Scirocc's made me look as though I could shoot. It could just have been me having a bad day though lol! I bought 200 of the MatchKings so I'll definitely be giving them a go. If these stabilise I'll probably give the 105 a-max a try as well as a guy on another forum had told me they stabilised in his 10 twist.
243 w/95's
I have a Sako (factory) .243 Win that I tried the 95 grain Berger's in and they did not shoot. Went to the 95 grain Ballistic tip and have had great results using Accurate 3100 powder. <1/2" 3 shot groups at 100 yards and great velocity. Have taken 3 whitetails & javelinas all with one shot kills, no tracking required. FWIW
I have a Sako (factory) .243 Win that I tried the 95 grain Berger's in and they did not shoot. Went to the 95 grain Ballistic tip and have had great results using Accurate 3100 powder. <1/2" 3 shot groups at 100 yards and great velocity. Have taken 3 whitetails & javelinas all with one shot kills, no tracking required. FWIW
