OK, so I spent a little time this weekend trying to determine what might be the reason these bullets were rejected. All the ones I have bought in the past were mainly inconsistent weights. The 139 SST's had another quality issue I had not seen on previous ones. The polymer tips on some of the bullets were not crimped properly leaving the red tip insert loose and off center. In fact they were easily pulled out with little effort with pliers. Cutting one open showed the jacket and core were not even touching the plastic shank of the insert. Of the 12 boxes only 35 to 40 in each of two boxes had these rejects. All the rest were OK. I fired some today and they grouped just as well as the good ones. Even the bullets with out the tip grouped about two inches at 300 M , plenty good enough for practice. All of the sampled bullets measured at .2841 diameter with my Brown and Sharpe micrometer. Overall these bullets are a good value for practice ammo.


139 SST rejects:


139 SST good ones"




No crimp into the shank.







The 154gr. Interlocks all weigh in at 150 grs. Not a problem.

The 162 SST's look and weigh OK.

The 139 GMX had a weight consistency issue, some were as low as 136.5 and up to 140grs.

The 175 Interlocks were OK and just an "over run" of bullets ran for Federal Cartridge.




L to R: 139 SST....154 Interlock....139 GMX....162 SST....175 Interlock




500 meter gong looking thru the 25X Leupold 3/8 dot.



Hi temp at 2pm.

Great write up Bob....

Awesome!!! That is some great detail on what to expect from these "blem" bullets. I wish that Sierra would get their blem bullet prices more in line with what Hornady does.

Man, that GMX looks like a death missile!

Very nice write up!! Thank you for sharing!!!