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Old July 22, 2012, 09:20 PM   #14
Unclenick
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Join Date: March 4, 2005
Location: Ohio
Posts: 21,022
Yes, the barrel was originally for the 173, but the 173's design influenced the 175 design, so in a way it all goes around in a circle.

Actually, I'm pretty sure all the 173's for M118 SB and M118 Match were made by Lake City. When they first took over manufacturing National Match ammo from Frankford Arsenal starting in 1962, they put a lot of effort into improving how they made that bullet, so LC has the tooling for it. But the 168 grain SMK proved consistently more accurate in service rifle matches (600 yards maximum range targets) when it was substituted for the 173 (so-called "Mexican match" ammunition), so they came to recognize the military match load was at a competitive disadvantage without that bullet, and started making M852 match ammo for which they did buy the 168 grain bullets from Sierra. But that had the not-for-combat open tip warning on the boxes.

Then in the 80's, the Adjutant General issued an opinion that the small match bullet open tips were non-expanding and therefore not a violation of the Hague Accords. They then tried M852 in the M24 sniper system, but because its 13° boattail tends to make it dynamically unstable in the transonic range (starting around 700 yards in .308) it didn't hit at long range reliably. So they went back to the 173 grain BT FMJ and started working with Sierra to develop the 175 using the 9° boattail that proved stable through the transonic range on the 173 grain bullet. That's why the 175 does well at distance.
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