Online rumor mill says Sierra bullets are becoming less available. Federal supposedly created these "Center Strike" projectiles as a stop-gap.

The difference in box markings is subtle, but you won't miss it, if you're paying attention.

BC is slightly worse on the Center Strikes. OAL length is .030 shorter, for the Center Strike loads.

This is all from LGS observations. I haven't shot them, nor do I intend to.

Does anyone know anything else about the Sierra supply rumors?

I don't know anything about the shortage, but what cartridge(s) are you referring to?

I've seen them in the 175gr and 168gr .308 loads. They'll presumably be put in the .223 ones as well, and anything else they put Matchkings into.

Seems as though they announced them at Shot Show last year. So, not as new as I thought, but maybe they're just now getting into stores.

Interesting, and now I’m wondering why that might be.
Shortages like that usually result from one of two different reasons: lack of demand and switching manufacturing to other lines, or because all the output is being bought up by a government agency or the like.

The first seems more likely to me as precision shooters (evidently) continue to desert the 308 Winchester cartridge in droves: “Yeah, we could sell those bullets, but not nearly as many as at one time, and it makes more sense to concentrate our production on what people want these days”—? Without checking, I assume that the 168 and 175 grain MatchKing bullets have very little use in other cartridges.

I don’t shoot huge volumes of 308, but although I have a generous supply of 175 grain Federal GMM purchased literally years ago, I usually shoot Hornady match loads these days.

In any case, and though Federal has a history of using other manufacturers’ bullets*, perhaps they don’t want to continue to be tied to that sort of supply line.

* I recently tried some Federal 223 Remington loaded with Berger bullets in my Tikka T3, but in comparison to an actual Berger brand load in a side-by-side test it didn’t perform nearly as well.

Center Strike might be an SMK knockoff made or rebranded for Federal. If so, Nosler could be on the short list of suppliers. Federal could be making their own bullets, but I think that's a stretch.

Maybe Sierra is having supply issues. Or getting difficult to deal with. Or is pricing themselves a little high. Regardless, Federal almost certainly would take a financial hit without the GMM line. I suspect they will do a lot to protect supply lines to keep GMM ammo flowing to the market.

I do see a mixed bag with Sierra in recent years. The long-standing SMK are good bullets, but some of them have lackluster BCs compared to competitors' newer bullet designs. The beauty of the SMK bullets is that they tend to be jump tolerant and shoot well in most quality barrels. Sierra's TMK product line addresses the higher BC issues, but the TMK bullets seem to be quite picky with barrels and chambers. TMK factory loads have almost always shot inconsistently in my barrels, both 223 and 308. On the other hand, the heavy 6.5mm SMK bullets do quite well in many 6.5 PRC rifles -- better results than Hornady's so-so 147 ELDM. A couple of years ago, I picked up some Federal TRU Law Enforcement 69 grain loads -- their accuracy is inconsistent among my barrels.

Sierra touts the accuracy of its new-ish 169 grain 308 bullet, with a boat tail design which evidently eliminates the transonic flight issues of 168 SMK. However, the 169 has limited factory loading. Those who load the bullet tend to show pictures of one great group they attained....then crickets. SMK 169 has been on the market long enough now that if it were truly the paragon of 308 match bullets, every loader would be all over it like white on rice.

One relatively new FGMM load that looks promising is the 223 with 73 Berger. It shoots really well in my 20" Bartlein and 18" Bartlein barreled AR15s, and my Proof barreled bolt action. But nothing special in my other rifles, which have 5.56 chambers. IMO that means the 73 Berger likes tight match chambers, but doesn't play as well with all-around chambers.

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I have decent supplies of FGMM ammo with SMK bullets. Don't really see a need to try Center Strike ammo. But if my SMK inventory gets low and FGMM with SMK becomes hard to find, then I will test some Center Strike products.

quote:

Originally posted by sigfreund:
* I recently tried some Federal 223 Remington loaded with Berger bullets in my Tikka T3, but in comparison to an actual Berger brand load in a side-by-side test it didn’t perform nearly as well.

What's up with deleting your post on FGMM Bergers? I was just in the process of responding.

My post didn’t seem in line with the topic of the thread.

In summary, though, with a Tikka T3 that probably has an “all around” chamber, the Berger 77 grain OTM Match load has performed significantly better for me than the Federal GMM with Berger 73 grain OTM bullet. That limited sample seemed to confirm what you posted about the 73 grain load.

Bullet manufacturers may be shifting production to the new 6.8x51 round. If there is a shorter supply of SMKs, the military is likely to scarf them up, leaving less in overrun crumbs for the civiliam market. If you shoot high volumes, better stock up.