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Old January 5, 2013, 06:49 AM   #6
Bart B.
Senior Member
 
Join Date: February 15, 2009
Posts: 8,927
Sierra's been selling "seconds" over the counter at retail at their plant for decades. Bullets that don't meet accuracy standards are sold by the pound in bulk priced close to what it cost to make them.

Their 30 caliber 168 HPMK's have an accuracy standard of 10-shot 1/4 MOA average at 200 yards. At their California plant, they would grab a handfull of bullets as they came out of the last forming stage (at near 100 per minute), seat them in charged cases then shoot them about 10 seconds apart in a rail gun; repeating this for the entire production run several times an hour. If group average got over specs, the large bucket holding them would have the last few inches of bullets scraped off, then those plus all subsequent bullets not meeting specs would be set aside. Last I checked, the Missouri plant did the same thing.

Folks I talked with in southern California during the 60's and 70's said most of the time, the 168's shot about 1/2 to 3/4 MOA in match rifles through 300 yards. Heavier HPMK seconds shot about the same at shorter ranges but from 1 to 1-1/2 MOA at 600 and were not all that great as they got worse at longer ranges. Sierra's hunting and varmint seconds seemed to be a better deal. I got some 30 caliber 180-gr. SBT seconds that easily shot MOA through 200 yards in a .300 Win. Mag. And their 22 and 24 caliber varmint bullet se condss have had a decent track record.
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