I’ve heard that Nosler now owns Silver State Armory and that the bullet used in the 5.56 77gr load is Nosler’s instead of Sierra’s. What’s the general opinion of these compared to Black Hills or IMI’s 77gr OTM load for reliability, accuracy and fragmentation?
The local Cabela’s has them for @ $17 / 20 and I picked up two boxes to try out in my rifles.
Thanks in advance,
This was covered recently, and the gist is this…
The Noslers are every bit as accurate, and frag a tad bid better. We’ve gone to shooting 77 Noslers exclusively. We’ve taken them out to 1000 yards and they hang all day long with SMKs.
How different are yours (I’m assuming handloads here) velocity wise from the factory loads?
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Aries144
I remember reading the same. I shot two of the IMI (SMK) loads into a row of gallon water jugs at 50 yards and one in fact penetrated through the first jug before tumbling. Small hole in and small hole out. The second, third and fourth jugs were obliterated. The second test round apparently tumbled in the first jug and still demolished four jugs worth, leaving about 18gr of jacket and some #8 sized lead fragments.
Once I got home I found that the two SSA boxes I purchased today were labeled differently:
However the hollowpoints of the SSA loads look similar. In the photo the SSA are the rounds at 3:00 and 9:00. The 12:00 round is IMI “Razor Core”/SMK and the 6:00 bullet is my handload with a 77gr SMK.
I won’t be able to shoot these until sometime next week. I’ll be interested in seeing how they perform in my various 5.56 rifles.
I don’t know the velocity of SSA’s load, so I can’t say. I’m getting about 50 fps slower than a real Mk262 load, but that is a good sacrifice for me to be able to run stick powder instead of ball.
Markm,
Which powder are you using with the 77gr load? I’ve been happily using Varget but it’s a bit scarce lately.
We run XBR for high pressure loads, and H322 for Target loads. 21.6-21.8 gr of H322 is 2640 fps out of a 20" HBAR, and 23.4 gr of XBR is about 2740 out of the same barrel.
Markm,
Thanks! I’ve got some H322, I hadn’t looked at XBR, seems to be an improvement over Varget. I’ll put it in my “wish I could find some” list.
XBR isn’t impossible to find. Pappabear grabbed some 1 pounders at a local shop, and an 8 up a Brunos here in AZ.
I managed to find two stores with some in stock today. Curious as to how it will do in .223. But really intrigued about Hodgdon’s data for .45-70 with 350gr bullets at 2,150fps. 
I believe they offer both. If you look at their website they have 2 77gr OTM products:
SSA 5.56mm 77 gr. Sierra OTM (MK 262 Clone) http://shop.ssarmory.com/ammunition/5-56/ssa-5-56mm-77-gr-sierra-otm-mk-262-clone.html
and
SSA 5.56mm 77 gr. SSA OTM (MK 262 Clone) http://shop.ssarmory.com/ammunition/5-56/ssa-5-56mm-77-gr-ssa-otm-mk-262-clone.html
I finally got some range time in today. The SSA loads look to be sub 3/4" at 100 yards from my 20" rifle while the IWI loads are closer to 1/2". Luckily they both hit to approximately the same POI as my Varget reloads.
Thanks to markm for the XBR suggestion, I only tried fifteen rounds with that powder but groups were 3/4" or smaller for each five shot group and XBR is almost as easy to measure as a ball powder. Methinks this powder will bear some further load development.
I believe I’ll be buying some more of the SSA 77gr ammo on my next trip to Cabela’s.
If you can get some Wolf or Tula primers, they’ll help XBR run even better.