Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Long Range Hunting Bullets for longer range work in .223/5.56

I could never get the Nosler 77s to shoot like the Sierra 77 either.
However, the Nosler 69s and 80s shoot very well. Some rifles even prefer the Nosler 80. I went D on Nosler 80s.

I shot my share of Sierra 69's, 77's and 80's on the Highpower Ranges. Hornady 75's didn't shoot quite as good for me as the Sierras, and the Nosler CC's were less "good" than the Hornady's. When I went on hiatus from competition I continued shooting 77's on critters. I could tell when BH was loading CC's instead of Sierras (at least I thought I could). They do just fine on critters. Now that I'm gearing up to compete again, I see that there are many more 224 options than when I left off.

I'm playing with 77 TMK's right now because my stash of MK's somehow disappeared (anyone interested in Moly Coated 77's?).

If you're not constrained by a 2.26 OAL, Sierra 80's are easy to get shooting. I didn't have as much luck with Amax's back then. Didn't group as well, and I thought the BC's were overstated. I'm hearing good things about the ELD's, so I'll probably give those a go. Nosler RDF's put up BC numbers that are tempting.

Nothing wrong with the old Berger 75 & 80 VLDs either. A lot of guys are shooting the 80.5 Fullbores too.

I'd probably skip the Nosler ELDs. I tried the 70s in a couple guns and couldn't put up the scores with them.

Also the 80gr smk’s you were shooting 10yrs ago are not the same 80gr smk of today. Sierra redesigned it and they now have a bc of .461 @2100 fps and higher if you avg the three bc they list for it, the avg bc of the 80 smk is .445 about the same as the 80.5 berger. Even though I only been once but at Perry there were two bullets that stood out among the shooters on the long line. 80.5 berger and 80 smk’s. For the short line it was 77 smk some were using the Berger 77 (these are hard to find). For long range in my SR setup I use 85.5gr berger for the 1000yd line. I’m no Carlos hathcock but when people see me shooting my SR setup at 1k using my 1-4.5 power scope they are blown away. I used 80gr eld-m for a longtime but the lot to lot inconsistencies are tiring and you are alway guaranteed a flier or two. The nosler rdf I have 1400 70gr nosler rdf’s I sell real cheap lol I cannot get them to shoot. I tried 77 RDF’s I thought I found a load, shot real well at 100 I went to a midrange match slung up and it was bad at 600. So I scrapped them and stuck with 80smk’s. If I were smart I would stick with 85.5 Bergers for the 600 and 1k yd line. But I have over 1k 80smk’s. I also just bought 1k 80gr nosler cc they were selling sps. I’m not sure if I will make it to camp perry if I do it will be a turn and burn. Fly in Saturday shoot President 100, EIC then fly out on Wednesday.

Thank you. Crap…I just got a few 70 RDF’s in to try. If they don’t shoot right off, I won’t be investing the time. It was easy to find a good shooting TMK load.

I cracked open the vault/time capsule. I’m a little fat for Sierra 80’s…and I’ve got a season or two worth of JLK and Berger 80’s. Didn’t realize how much of the 77’s I was shooting without the sling as I’ve only got a couple boxes left.

For the OP…the Sierra 77’s on flesh tend to break at the canellure which I think improves the terminal ballistics. I initially thought the cannelure was for manufacturing purposes…but maybe serendipitously they improve lethality. FWIW, I've seen more slick 77's exit with modest exit holes. I didn't see as many cannelured exits and they seemed to do so more violently when they did. Just my unscientific observation. I’d search those out if I was hunting 77’s.

Also Brian Litz from berger tested the hornady 75gr bthp that .398 hornady claims is extremely exaggerated. Litz got a true bc of .355 and thats the bc I use and it holds true for me when I shoot it at 600yds. Litz tested Sierra 77 smk it avg .369.

Yah…I think we all figured out that hornady BC’s were optimistic for the 75’s (and the A-max). Sierra is claiming .420 on the TMK’s and my come ups seem to support that so far. Need more rounds down range.

I didn’t know Sierra updated the design of the 80…I thought they just refined their measurement. I’ll have to dig a bit on that one. Today I’m shooting a box of 80’s I labeled 1994!!! I think I was 5yo when I marked that box. Definitely not the updated version.

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Bumping this. Lots of info and high entertainment value!