Sierra 130gr HPBT MatchKing

[Second]

Found a new bullet from Sierra that looks interesting.
They have the 130gr TMK but this is a MK without the resin tip. High BC bullet.

Anyone having more info about them?

Looks like I got more info on them...

I have contacted Sierra support regarding this bullet the MK 130gr BTHP and the already existing TMK 130gr bullet.
My question for Sierra was "Why the BC G1 for the TMK is lower than the BC G1 for the MK?". The info on their site is that the added resin tip will reduce drac factor and increasing the BC.
With this 6,5mm 130gr TMK and MK, this does not apply. The MK have a much higher BC than the TMK.

The reply and info from Sierra is this:
Our original 130 grain HPBT #1728 had a G1 BC of .355, then came the 130 grain TMK #7340 we changed the shape of the bullet and added the acetal resin tip and it did increase the G1 BC to .518.
So the 130 gr. TMK with the acetal resin tip does have a higher BC than our original 130 gr. HPBT #1728 which does not have the acetal resin tip.

Now this year ?NEW for 2020?, we came out with a new 130 grain Matchking #1729, we changed the bullet profile again and closed up the nose of the bullet which increased the G1 BC to .584.


So the TMK basically originates from the 130gr BTHP GameKing. With some changes to the bullet and added resin tip.
And now for 2020 they released the 130gr MatchKing and with a "new" design they could get a higher BC.

[Lemonaid]

Thanks for the info!

[CJW]

Thanks 2nd.

[LRRPF52]

Yeah, the 130gr Game King has a huge meplat meant for expanding on game.

It makes a much louder noise when it hits things as well.

This new 130gr SMK sounds like a Berger 130gr VLD, which is one of my favorite 1000yd bullets in my .260 Rem gas gun. The new 130gr SMK #1729 has a pointed tip that Sierra has been doing to their popular LR SMKs for many years now.

I still need to play with the 130gr RDF from Nosler in compound throat chambers I have, as that bullet has a very Sears-Haack body shape to it.

Here is the 130gr TMK next to the new 130gr SMK:

[Second]

Good picture and info LRRPF52!

The Nosler 130gr RDF is still the bullet that I have found that has the highest official BC G1 in 130gr group of bullets.
But the RDF seems to be little tricky to get to shoot small groups. Have You had any luck with the RDF?

[kmon]

THe 2 highest BC bullets I have used in the Grendel are the Berge AR Hybrid 130 and the Nosler 129gr ABLR. I like both of those, of the 2 I think the Berger is a little more accurate in my rifles but not by much.

Later this year I might try the Sierra offerings

[Second]

Little more info from Sierra.

I continued the conversation with Sierra and regarding to the reply from Sierra that I posted earlier, I asked this:
"So basically, the TMK is the GK with a resin tip?
And the new MK is a ?new? bullet?"

The reply from Sierra:
"No, not really.
We designed the TMK to get a higher BC than the GK.
Later we saw we could make a few more changes to get an even higher BC, so we brought out the New MK this year."

[tdbru]

many have noted that the ogive shape on the older SMKs, similar to the ogive shape on the TMK is more friendly to get small groups than the ogive shape on the new SMK that LRRPF52 is showing above. those short bearing length, really pointy rounds seem to take a lot of load development to get tiny groups from, based on what i am reading, though, of course they do have higher BCs. the older more rounded ogive SMKs did give up some BC, but were very forgiving on load development to get to shoot tiny groups. if you're trying to compete in 1Km matches with the 6.5 G i can understand the pursuit of the highest BC bullet possible. if you're only competing in 300m matches, pick what gives you the tiniest groups, in my opinion. sometimes that works out to be the same bullet, sometimes not. i have some 120gr. SMKs to do some load development on. others here have posted that the 120gr. SMKs are easy to get to group well. easier than the 123s. i am going to see if that claim works in my case. the furthest i have opportunity to shoot is only 555m on occassion. only 281m usually. so staying supersonic at those short distances is easy for the 6.5 G. so i don't need to worry about BC as much. i think i should rather focus on what groups the best. i hope for you that very high BC bullets work well and the load development is successful.
-tdbru