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Sierra Ammuniton?

5K views 19 replies 10 participants last post by  SidecarFlip 
#1 ·
Has anyone had any experience with Sierra Ammunition, in particular their Outdoor Master .223 Remington w/ 55 gr. HPBT. This is loaded ammunition (cartridges), not just the bullet. There was also a green sticker on the boxes about having mil-grade primers and “best for use in AR-15s”

I picked up some recently at a local Academy Sports store and since I’ve used Sierra Bullets off and on for years, thought I’d give it a try although it was kind of pricey. I have no idea when Sierra got into the loaded ammunition business but it must have been fairly recent, I would think.

When at home I opened them up and was surprised to find that the brass was Lake City (LC) and appeared to be at least once fired brass. The brass had light scratches as if cycled in a magazine and very light indications of a dent one normally sees when fired brass hits the ejector port. Under 10x magnification I could see that some cartridges had more than one extractor mark on the rims.
 
#3 · (Edited)
It would be interesting to see someone recycling components and not disclosing that fact... That could be quite a liability issue for the remanufacturer, the distributor and the retailer.

It would be worth checking to verify if it was new or remanufactured, determing if it was not disclosed by the packaging and then writing up the details for the forum.

I would consider it misrepresentation and contact Academy Sports and ask them for an explanation if it's true.

All that said, Sierra does sell ammnition per their website:

 
#4 ·
The thing I'd want to know and that is, was the brass prepped correctly before loading. Surprised it didn't state that on the box (reloaded cartridges). Sierra produces good projectiles and candidly, LC is probably the best cases to reload.
 
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#5 ·
Another player in the game is a good thing.
I wonder, since they cases are recycled cases, and LC if they are coming from some Military training camp? Uncle Sam saves all the empty brass used in training, and it must go some where, but i never knew where.
The next question is where are the primers coming from? That seems to be the real bottle neck in every aspect of ammo production these days.
Probably never know the answers. Is Sierra still producing bullets in Missouri? They used to have a plant in Sedalia, MO?
Brother and his shooting buddies used to get huge amounts of bullets at the plant up there. Really cheap too!
They were supposed to be seconds, but other than tarnish we never could see any thing wrong with them.. I think those days are over now. Have not heard anything of this for several years..
 
#7 ·
I bought a 28" 6.5 twist .223 barrel for 90 gr SMK, trying to make a FTR out of it. Sierra max loads were not enough to stay supersonic to 1000yds; overloads delivered the occasional missing bullet. I finally caught one on paper at 100. The bullet was BENT, not fragmented, a "C" shaped hole in target and backer.

75 Amax was worse in that fast twist, my spotter said he could see silver trails in the sun when one broke up.

Both were accurate, fine up to 600 yd at book loads.

Berger and especially JLK VLDs would stand the gaff of heavy loads and shoot well to 1000.

BC claimed comparable to 175 gr .308 but I don't think they shot as close to the wind. And hard for the pit to find teeny holes.
 
#8 ·
95% of what I handload in rifle cartridges is Berger. They have fantastic weight retention. Dug more than one out of a carcass and weighed them. Besides, I personally know Brian Litz. VLD Hunters for me.

They aren't cheap but they do the job and are very accurate downrange.

You do your part, they do their part.
 
#18 ·
Your impact velocities must be quite low!! As this is quite the opposite of what most hunters observe with Bergers!

Generally, Bergers give “very” low weight retention and fairly shallow penetration on high velocity impacts.....especially so if bone is encountered! However, many people want violent expansion rather than penetration! I guess that’s the reason that there are many different bullet designs....thin jackets, thick jackets, bonded jackets, interlocking jackets, partition type, and monos, to name a few! memtb
 
#9 · (Edited)
I bought a box of MagTech 5.56 from TargetSportsUSA and it was supposed to be lead core. When the ranger person checked it, (he noticed it looked a little different but I had not noticed) he waved a magnet over it and it stuck to bullet. Luckily I had the new MagTech and the old Federal separated and I coul go ahead and shoot. Finally got a refund on the ammo.

With the ammo shortages, it could be simple mistakes under pressure to ship or it may be something else.
 
#10 ·
It’s getting interesting. As suggested, I did look over the packaging again and could find no mention of remanufactured on it. Also went to the website and could find no mention of it other than “Outdoor Master™ cartridges utilize innovative components and production processes….”

Found a 1 800 # on the boxes for Tech Support and called that. The tech was polite and helpful in so much that he answered my questions. Here is what I found out according to the tech:

Sierra contracts the ammunition manufacturing out; they do not manufacture it themselves. Also sounded like they may use multiple manufacturers.

As far as headstamps, it sounded like it could be one of several. He mentioned Lake City, Federal and what might have been HSM. He was under the impression that they did not use once fired brass but did mention the usual about supply line sourcing.

Testing of lots is done by Sierra at their facility. Pressure, velocity, etc. The ammunition I have is from lot 0307232119.

He also mentioned that he thought if I was uncomfortable with it, I should return it to Academy Sports and perhaps exchange it. I probably won’t do that at this time, it would probably just be more of the same. Might crony a few rounds through my ranch rifle and see how it goes. Also thinking about emailing Sierra to get more information regarding the lot my ammunition came from.
 
#19 ·
Might crony a few rounds through my ranch rifle and see how it goes.
Finally got around to chrony some of the Sierra Outdoor Master .223 55 gr. HPBT. Only used 5 rounds instead of my usual 10. Min. velocity. was 3059 fps, max was 3168 fps and std. dev. was 30.80. This was shot from a Savage Axis II rifle. Wasn't neccesarily going for accuracy at this point, just velocity measurements, but used a target at 50 yards as a aiming point and accuracy was acceptable. Three of the five could be covered with a quarter, the other two were fliers that I was responsible for.
 
#11 ·
Awhile ago (few years actually, I purchased some loaded 338 rounds from HSM and they were just fine, but then, there are only a very few manufactures that produce 338 brass. Privi (which I'd never even consider using, Nosler) (which is actually Norma brass and Norma themselves.
 
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