Meplat Trimming/Forming

[Liberty's Teeth]

Open for discussion, or re-open if already addressed in this forum;
I am looking for your opinion(s) for Meplat trimming and/or forming for accuracy.
If you are trimming, what is your preference of tooling suppliers?
What are you seeing for MOA improvement from 300 to 1000 yards?
My interest is specific to 223, 6.5 and 30 cal

[WARFAB]

I'm a bit skeptical that it makes enough difference to matter if you're not shooting benchrest, but it could provide a psychological edge.

My ideas about blaming the cartridge/bullet have been evolving a bit recently.

[Meketrefe]

I will give you some input here. I did some meplat trimming years ago and really didn't notice any difference. The groups were already touching most times and the accuracy loads didn't get
any tighter. I also used bullet pointing. This also didn't see a substantial difference but I observed bullets where impacting a tad higher at long range so this was a sign that pointing increases actual BC while trimming might reduce it. At this time I switched from SMK to berger as Bergers were, and continue to be more uniform. I guess if you want to try something do something simple like taking off any obvious burrs with a very fine file and simply point them. That is a lot easier and faster and better imo.
In the last 6 years I have been using more Hornady, including the Amax line that to me they are pretty consistent and a much better value for volume shooting. I am not buying many smk anymore. There is a reason sierra are now coming out with their polymer tipped version copying hornady profiles and tip design.
Given you have super consistent brass preparation and loading/seating, I believe this is a lot more critical than anything you might achieve with uniforming the bullets.
But if you want to do it use the pointer vs. trimming. There are guys out there that do custom pointing dies for your bullet brand, model and grain. It seems like snake oil to
me specially seeing how folks are winning matches with out of the box bullets.

But this whidden pointer does a good job and fairly easy, that is for sure...

[Liberty's Teeth]

Thanks for sharing your testing Meke, I figured you have been there-done that. I just received my 80 gr SMK stock for 600 yards and looking at the points I was shocked at how ragged they are and inconsistent to one another. In a 1:7.7 they are leaving the tube at around 300,000 RPM so any given shot will get where it is going but from one another I was wondering what the net affect is? Curious, while traveling down range is there a low pressure zone around the point? If so and the air is being pulled around by the BT, trimming or pointing may not make a difference. Your thoughts?

[Meketrefe]

Thanks for sharing your testing Meke, I figured you have been there-done that. I just received my 80 gr SMK stock for 600 yards and looking at the points I was shocked at how ragged they are and inconsistent to one another. In a 1:7.7 they are leaving the tube at around 300,000 RPM so any given shot will get where it is going but from one another I was wondering what the net affect is? Curious, while traveling down range is there a low pressure zone around the point? If so and the air is being pulled around by the BT, trimming or pointing may not make a difference. Your thoughts?

I had issues with SMKs before that is why I decided to stop buying them. How bad are they? If they are too bad I would just call Sierra, it might be a problem with their final forming die specially if the burrs extend too much. But otherwise you might just give them a gentle touch by hand with a very fine jeweler's file with the tip perpendicular to the file. It is really a gentle touch. Also put them in the scale and see what the spreads are.

I would not be too worried about the shock wave. At high speed this wave moves forward at the point where it is generated and then laterally through the still air and as it moves it creates a disturbance but it is considered of insignificant effect because the power needed to create those surfaces waves is so mall that there is no much energy involved. So I would not worry about this ballistics fact as other inconsistencies have far more effect like off center inconsistencies / inconsistent mass distribution or any other inconsistencies further down the jacket or in the crown of the rifle. The BT reduces the vacuum and disturbances at the tail. That is why the same bullet with the slightest improvement at the base will be a much better flier but then
again the flat base are more tolerant to disturbances (more consistent) as they leave the bore and that is why they are the choice for 100-300 yards score shooting where BC is less critical. The lapua hybrid tail is a good compromise between both.

I found trimming makes no difference and pointing improves a bit BC but apparently no noticeable accuracy gains. I would not worry too much for a .224 and 600 yards tough. See how they shoot and then decide.

[Liberty's Teeth]

Thanks for your feedback Meke, I'm still in learning mode on match ammo and I am grateful!!