.223 match bullets - Hornadys, Sierras, or Noslers?

Status
Not open for further replies.
Joined
Dec 29, 2002
Messages
898
Location
Relay 3, Target 17
What do you prefer? From what I've gathered and my experience with factory ammo, I know the Sierras work. I've read lots of good about the Nosler J4s. And my local dealer has the 75 gr Hornadys, both the BTHP and A-MAX, in stock. The experimental side of me will eventually buy and try all three, but I'm just curious what some of y'all use.
 
I've tried lots of V-Max; Ballistic Tips, and Sierra Match Kings, with good results. However, the best groups I ever shot with my AR were with Bergers. Best with my .223 VS was with Ballistic Tips.
 
.223 match bullets - Hornadys, Sierras, or Noslers?
Yes.

I've used all three in .30 caliber and neither of two rifles could tell the difference between them. They were ALL good, at the 1 MOA or less level.
 
Quintin,

Whichever ones you can find the cheapest! :) Honestly, I haven't tried the Hornadys, but I have used many Noslers and Sierras. Quite frankly, my scores are the same either way. So I buy whatever is on sale or available when I need lead. Just don't mix Noslers and Sierras in the same batch, but that should go without saying. (They do have slightly different sight settings IME.) Loads that are safe for XX-grain Sierras are normally safe for Noslers of same weight. Hornadys may vary, I don't know.
 
I have a friend who swears by the Noslers for prairie dog hunting. I know that he shoots an AR at distances up to 200 yards and has said that they are very accurate.
 
My default is Sierra over the years

My default is Sierra over the years. That said I don't think I

(that's me, I'm not that good a shot, others may demonstrate a real difference I obscure by not holding as hard as they do)

could tell even a statistical difference with today's production - and no practical difference for sure.

On the other hand I distinguish match bullets - fast twist/low drag from the varmint bullets many are talking about here. I've seen more difference over the years in varmint bullets but I suspect that reflects different guns and loads especially brass at different times and places more than it does the bullets.
 
my preference for sierra is based on their tech support line. i call in all the time to ask for loads for their competitor's bullets or just oddball questions. last week i called and asked what they thought about tumbling loaded rounds (after reading that thread here) and wound up talking about an hour with them. very interesting.

anyways, they always give excellent info. you can tell the difference between someone who knows *** they're talking about from experience and someone just spouting an opinion based on how many times they've heard some urban legend.

granted, i've never called nosler. they probably have an excellent tech support team too.
 
depends on the use. In all honesty I'd go over to http://www.nationalmatch.us , they have so many threads comparing the three that rehashing it here...might waste some electrons.

A quick summary. Sierra's are great. Hornady's are great. I can't say anything about nosler's. I use moly coated 69 gr sierra's, but I'm going to try the sierra 75 gr a-max and see if it groups better.

thanks,
atek3
 
I have used them all except the noslers.
this is my opinion only but it is from my own experiences and others close to me.
I like sierra's and it seems their quality control is very nice (take the tour at the factory sometime)
As far as the 69's and 77's they work as fine as you can hold.
I have thousands of the moly 75 hornady's sitting at home and they work fine but really have not played with them much except as team loads for ntit practice and match. Did use them in a off hand match and was happy.
Do plan on trying them out more this next year.

Berger 73's are very very nice but the cost sets me back but they hammer better groups in the one rifle I tested them in back in sept in a match.
Do plan on buying a few thousand of them to try out this coming year and more than likely they will become my main load at 200 and 300 for serious matches.

Now I will try the heavier one's like the 75 amax, sierra 80's and the berger 75 vld's.
I have alot of friends that love the 75 amax and my team captains try to get me to shoot them instead of the 80 sierra's.
I agree that I could push the 75 amax faster and all that speed thing over wind drift that goes with it but when the 75's out shoot the sierra 80's in my rifles I will switch. when my coach is telling me to switch and then using me as the first shooter to get the wind down he does not complain about them then. I do know then shoot flatter cause of the speed in my rifles but I get better groups with the 80's.
As alot of folks tell me you get a reliable result with 80's
Now some of us are playing with others rounds like the 90 jlk's and with the ar15 at 800,900 and 1,000 I am leaning toward the use of berger 75 vld's.
Building a new upper for just long range for this next year so will get to try some things out. will see if the bergers will shoot out of my 1-6.5 barrel and if they will not will try one of my other rifles to see which is better a 90 jlk with a 1-6.5 twist or the 75 berger vld's in a 1-8.
I think it will be the bergers and the speed on them as at 800 and beyound I do want the faster bullet as what if any I lose in acurracy I will make up in less clicks between shots. But I will still have to wait to see as it did not make me switch at 600 but the 75vld's might work out at 600 also.

Dang hate to spend the extra bucks but at this point I am willing to do it.
n540, berger 73, rem. 7 1/2 primer hammers and then add a lapua case and it might get expensive but trying not to use the lapua's.
 
I've recently been playing around with Noslers and Sierras. I had shot my best group out of my CZ 527 .223 with Nosler Btips, but then I had to go and try some Sierra Matchking 52s. The Sierras beat them out with a 100yd group of .31 instead of .32" from the noslers. The matchkings are cheaper by $2, and I've been really happy with them.
 
I've been developing loads using all three. All are good, I've been loading the 68 - 69 Gr. bullets, and would line them up like this Nosler Sierra Hornady. All are 3/8 to 1/2 minute groups. I think they will do better, It's my bad :confused: .
 
I get good groups with everything in .223: Berger, Sierra, and Hornady.


I have been using Hornady 55 gr. Vmax and 60 gr TAP soft point the most, but I will switch to 45 gr Remington HP next season and moly coat them.
 
The experimental side of me will eventually try anything I can get my hands on...I've been using Black Hills remans throwing 77 Sierras the past few matches, but my stock in that is starting to run out, and I wanna shoot full course. I'll probably order a few hundred or so of each and go to work. I was kinda thinking about having different uppers to individually experiment with each bullet, but finances ain't allowing that right now. Any recommended sources online for said bullets? My local dealer only has the Hornadys on hand; I've heard a lot of good about OK Weber?
 
yes otto weber has a very good set up and is very friendly to deal with and is widely known and respected in the highpower world.
The nice thing about the ar15 is that you can use several uppers and set them up for what you want to do.
I basicly when I get so many rounds down a barrel and the throat starts to erode I usually get a new barrel put on and have that one put on a upper that I want to do other things with. its a little better cost for me to build more uppers that way.
I have one upper I use only in 1 match a year at the nationals in the NTIT match and the barrel was my first one I got back in 2001 and has over 4,000 rounds down it but it was not used for alot of 600 yard matches so it had alot of life left in it, Now it gets only moly 75's and less than 500 rounds down it or so a year now with practice, tryouts and that one match.

my second upper is my back up rifle and it rocks anytime I need it and has alot of life left in it and take it with me to matches just in case and it got me leg points last year when my main upper went south the day before.

now my main upper has only like 700 rounds on it and it will get a break with the plan on it being still going strong threw camp perry in august.

now the barrel that went south on me had less than 1,000 rounds down it and had a serious copper fouling problem, but going to try and work on that and putting it on a new upper thats getting built to use it for long range only so it will not get alot of rounds down it.
 
I was really tearing it up with the 77 SMKs (bare) up to 300 yards, and I know Jon does with regularity. At that time I was using bare 80's for the 600 yard load. When I wanted to try playing with 90 JLKs, I knew that I needed a moly'd barrel so I went to moly'd 75 Hornady boat tail hollow points for up to 300 yards because they're so dirt cheap compared to SMKs though my channels (got partially sponsored by Hornady). I still got good scores but didn't tear it up like I did with SMKs. Coulda been me cause I took a LOT of time off after Nats last year.

Seems like just about all these bullets will flat shoot if you can. Scientifically speaking, they are still shooting well, whether you can hit the broad side of the barn or not.

One thing you will have to do is make sure your twist rate is fast enough. If it is not at least a 1:9 it won't stabilize the 77s and 75s. Some 1:9s wont' even do it.

Some have had problems shooting 75 gr AMAXes in 1:6.5 twist barrels as it blows up the bullet.

AR+good barrel+good bullets+free float tube= tack driving.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top