Home Forums Reloading Big Game Rifles sierra goes polymer tip SMK 175 is sleek!

https://www.sierrabullets.com/products/new.cfm

Dia. Weight Sectional Density B C and Velocity Ranges
0.308 168 .253 .535 @ 2050 fps and above
.521 between 2050 fps and 1650 fps
.480 @ 1650 fps and below

0.308 175 .264 .545 @ 2400 fps and above
.530 between 2400 and 1800 fps
.495 @ 1800 and below

That ought to increase sales!

Make a good bullet better

Mike

With the plastic tip to initiate expansion and the heavy jackets, these should make great deer bullets. My only complaints with the original MK's was that sometimes they failed to open.....The TMK should be a great bullet!!


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I was thinking the same thing.

Funny thing is Hornady's tipped bullets have a lower BC than their open tip. Case in point is their 6mm 105 AMAX vs. 105 Match HP.

Waiting to get my hands on the 69 and 77 grain version, backordered at Sierra directly, Ruger seems to be the only company getting this right lately, don't announce a product until its ready to ship.............

My rifle loves the 175 SMK so hopefully these tipped version will shoot just as well and get me out further with a higher BC?

Hopefully they will be lethal enough for a deer/hog bullet?

I was about to purchase the 178 Hornady or 155 Scenar next but the 175's shoot dang good.

The G7 for the 69gr .224 is .177, up over the .169 std. 69gr. MK.

The G7 for the 77 .224 is .206, up over the .190 std. 77gr. MK.

Now, how will they translate on the twist/stability scale? A 1-9 that shoots the current 77 Nosler CC or 77 MK could be worthless with the tipped 77 SMK.

The 175/308 should be around .268 G7 BC, over the .243 std..

Looking forward to testing some of these out. The 155 looks very interesting. Most of the BC improvements are not the result of the tip but the ogive. What is yet to be seen is if the new bullet shape is as forgiving as the traditional SMK shape. The newer version of the 155 Palma (2156) can be a bit more difficult to tune than the older one (2155). It looks like the new bullets are similar to the 2156.

They could not make a bonded version of that? Geez!

Yes I am looking forward to trying the 175 in my 5R & the 77 in my RRA.

Looks almost as good as the 190 ABLR

Yeah but if it acted like a 190 ABLR on game I would be without any worries.

It looks like they have retained the same type of ojive which I appreciate. While others might best sierra in BC, Sierras have in my admittedly limited experience been one of the easiest bullets to get to shoot well.

Has anyone ever shot a deer with a Matchking? I know they say not too but dont they say that about the Secnar too?

I agree.

Personally no. However from what I gathered from others they can

1. Blow to pieces without sufficient penetration
2. Pencil through with no expansion
3. Act like a great game bullet with sufficient penetration and expansion.

It looks to me they have gone from a tangent to a secant ogive. Admittedly that is only based on looking at the picture, they do not state that they have done that. I agree a bonded version of that could be popular for hunting.

Here is a test. Hard to see so right click save and open it in paint or windows viewer and zoom in. Wet newsprint with bones and dead animals were used.

Hundreds. SMK's main shortcoming is variability. Not just from bullet to bullet from the same model, but from caliber to caliber and weight to weight within the same caliber. Most suffer from fleet yaw variability, some more than others. Newer versions are more prone to deeper penetration before yawing due to the smaller opening in the nose.

Having said that- SMK's don't scare me and I would have little issue using them again depending on the caliber/cartridge. Penetration has never been an issue, and exits typically are around 3-5 inches with the .308 168, 175, 190, and 220gr versions.



As for the TMK's- they were designed for a reason and bonding wasn't one. Despite the misunderstanding of those that believe everything should be bonded, mono, or offer extremely deep penetration with the bullet looking like an ad afterwards, the TMK offers superb wounding characteristics and is an excellent open air bullet.