Anyone ever use a Meplat Trimmer?

[Mike D Texas]

I have been looking into this a lot lately. I purchased the MCR tool for 6.5mm and did some 156 EOL bullets. I did not see much difference in accuracy out to 300 yards and have yet to go further to test a drop in BC. My main concern is to make the Berger bullets more uniform with the hollow point to hopefully improve terminal performance. They don't need much improving but you still hear that story of some penciling through. Even if the trimming drops the BC by 2%, I can accommodate for that in my dope. A quick calculation shows a 3/4" drop at 600 yards. That isn't enough to worry about IMO. When you look at a Hammer bullet, they have large meplats and hollow points. I don't see that many people complaining about them.

This picture shows the meplats trimmed, deburred and then drilled out with a 0.050 drill bit. I've been drilling the tips for years but there's always that 1 or 2 that go off center and get screwed up. This keeps things centered.
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Here is a before and after picture. Honestly not a big difference but will have to see how they perform on game.
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I haven't trimmed a hybrid or OTM yet. Those have a smaller tip so the change would be greater. I know drilling out the 144 Hybrids was a pain due to the closed tip.
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This is what I do with mine but I use a .040" drill bit.

 

[Grizzly60]

If bergers are that bad out the box, all the reason to use something else

 

[Mike D Texas]

If bergers are that bad out the box, all the reason to use something else

Well the LRHT bullets are more pointed than the VLD hunting or hybrid bullets. The hybrid in my picture is untouched.

 

[Chas1]

Sinclair one doesn't work very well, bullet wobbles and now just sits on a shelve.

 

[Longtine88]

Would ZZ gauge pins be adequate for the job? I have both sets in + and - that goes to 0.2500, I've used them for a lot of different applications, but never tried to gauge meplat holes.

Unless, you are talking about the OD of the hollow point. If that were the case, I would just sharpie the tip and spin it on white sheet of paper, then measure the transferred dimension on the paper

Just throwing stuff out there.they

They would get close I'm sure. I use drill bits kinda the same way.

 

[209jones]

The Hoover attached to a Lyman elec trimmer, seems like a reasonable option, certainly likely to be easier on the constitution than a hand crank or a drill.

 

[ChrisInKY]

How well do they work and are they worth the money?

I shoot 300gr Sierra Match Kings from a .338LM (roughly $3/shot). For me it was worth with the expense. Hazarding a guess, I get about a 10% reduction in group size at 800+ meters. To achieve this, one must point the bullet ... and after ... sort your bullets into many many little piles. Your average shooter would lose interest about right here.

Meplat trimming and bullet pointing are 'next level' efforts. The cost (for the OP's system ... which I use) is high. I think the break-in point is about $450. If you're not going to re-point your bullets, there's probably very little need to even mess with meplat trimming.

The engineer (John) manufacturing this system is a shooter. Buy his stuff and he will tell you things you wanted to learn, but couldn't find on the Internet.

Cheers,
Chris