I’m hearing that Black Hills is in production and just about ready to release their 5.56 77gr TMK (tipped Match King) ammo.
http://blackhillsammo.wordpress.com/2014/02/02/black-hills-ammunition-new-for-2014-5-56-77-gr-tmk/
Anyone have any particulars on this stuff? Looks pretty good and the improvement in BC from .360 (SMK) to .420 is nice.
I wonder if Sierra will sell the bullets separately. I’d love to shoot them head to head against regular SMKs.
I just got off the phone with Sierra, and those are exclusively made for Blackhills and no plans to release the separately have been made. Dan.
Solidifying my love affair with Nosler Custom Competition. 
Black hills has stated that the tmk is getting 12" of penetration along with fragmenting down to 1920 fps IIRC, and they still have not found the lower limit of that threshold. So this should be good for the people that want to use fragmenting ammo for sd. I hate all the bs with proprietary bullets though release them to people who can do something with them. Selling them to BHA only is garbage.
Well… it’s their choice to enter into this arrangement. Careful with bashing black hills… they have pull on this forum.
I think both BlackHills and Sierra are both top notch companies. I have used more Sierra bullets than all others combined because of their consistent accuracy in my guns. As a guy who roles all of his bullets, I really would of liked to have got my hands on a couple thousand of those. O well. It was worth a call to try.
I doubt this bullet is going to be a game changer. If it was THAT good, Sierra damn sure would make it available to hand loaders.
They’re not going to strap themselves to what Black Hills does with the bullet. Wasn’t there also a 175 gr .308 version of this?
There is a tipped 308 version. I believe it is the 175.
I wouldn’t put it past blackhills to ruin something like this for everyone. Even if they have pull here they could f up a wet dream.
You’re preaching to the choir. 
I know. It pisses me off when they get these premium bullets that could really shine if put in the hands of reloaders.
I’m disappointed by this news. Sierra seems to have their head up their butt. Next match I shoot that they have reps at, I will get on them about it. I know tons of people that are wishing Sierra would make a tipped match bullet. Hornady does a much better job of responding to consumer demands. Currently, I’m using the Hornady 75 gr BTHP (A-max just won’t seat deep enough) for precision rounds.
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Are you able to get those to shoot well? I’ve never had great results… not bad, but not great.
I’ve gotten them to shoot great. I posted a picture of the first two groups out of my BCM KMR13 16" 410 SS upper in one of the threads. I managed to shoot in the sub 1/2 MOA range for six or seven shots before one went out. The round that went out was just a bad shot. I did it with a 4x Trijicon.
Out of my 18" WOA barrel, the same load has been a .75 average gun over its life thus far.
LC brass, trimmed to length (chamfered/deburr in same process), primer pockets and flash holes uniformed, CCI 450s or 41, 24.5 gr Varget, loaded to 2.26".
I use Redding Type-S FL dies and Forster BR seater dies. It’s been a good combination so far. It doesn’t do so well on a progressive though.
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Great news no matter what (and I’m sure they’ll be available to Joe Handloader soon enough). Yesterday I’d have been repeating the decades-old mantra, “what could be better than the SMK (in the category of production bullets)?”
Now modified to, “probably a TMK”!