Repointing/Meplate trimming?

[Rookie]

Anyone doing much of this? I went to the Hoover website and saw the picture of the repointed bullet. Seems to make sense. I know that DTACS are repointed and they shoot well for me. Friend of a friend is repointing his 105gr Hybrids in 243 and apparently getting great results.

I dont know squat about it though. Whats the difference between repointing and meplate trimming? Do you need both of Hoover's products to produce the optimum result? Are Hoover's the best? Any better made out there? How long does it take? Can you use a drill rather than the hand crank?

 

[DocB]

Re: Repointing/Meplate trimming?

Rookie,

If you are going to do it, you have to sort bullets by ogive length before doing either operation. Usual order is sort by ogive length, meplat trim, then point. I've heard of some folks doing a second meplat trim after pointing, it hasn't had a noticeable effect for me.

Meplat trimming is squaring the point, or meplat of the bullet. Pointing closes up the hollow point to between 0.010" and 0.020" depending upon the caliber of the bullet. Trimming usually shrinks groups but decreases BC, pointing the bullets increases BC. Do both and you've got a bullet which will usually shoot about 1 MOA higher than before with smaller groups.

Folks who do this are already sorting, uniforming, and maximizing the consistency of their brass and powder charges as well. Getting your ammo from 1 MOA to 1/2 MOA is usually pretty easy. Getting from .5 MOA to below .25 MOA usually requires a good gun and consistent ammo. Figure out how much work you want to put into the process before getting started.

Sinclair and Hoover sell their own stuff to do both tasks. John Whidden sells a good pointer. H. Pitts here on the hide used to make a meplat trimmer I use. Uses a 3/8 end mill in a drill to square the meplats.

HTH,
DocB

 

[Rookie]

Re: Repointing/Meplate trimming?

My 243 usually shoots .3 to .5 moa with my handloads now. Not sure I wanna do all that measuring and sorting plus meplate trimming and pointing to get to .25 moa. Maybe down the road....

 

[Tpb10505]

Re: Repointing/Meplate trimming?

Here's a pic of my results using the MCR trimmer and bevel. The one of the left is pointed, and the one on the right is trimmed/beveled giving a much more uniform meplat (though not as small). I ended up with a .9" group at 250, so I'm going to keep at it even though its considerable work to do so...

 

[Deadshot2]

Re: Repointing/Meplate trimming?

One benefit to meplat trimming occurs during the loading process. I use an MCT trimmer and it gives me a uniform dimension from Ogive to bullet tip. No more hair pulling when measuring OAL.

I sort my bullets first using a "comparator" that measures the base to ogive dimension. Then trim the meplats. Gives me uniform seating depths along with uniform OAL's.

As for the reduced BC, it's about 5% when one is taking the minimum amount off the meplat. A small sacrifice to gain bullets with a uniform BC. With my 175's that have a BC of .505, when trimmed they're still better than my 168's (.462)

 

[MALLARD]

Re: Repointing/Meplate trimming?

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: Rookie</div><div class="ubbcode-body">My 243 usually shoots .3 to .5 moa with my handloads now. Not sure I wanna do all that measuring and sorting plus meplate trimming and pointing to get to .25 moa. Maybe down the road.... </div></div>

are you shooting .3 to .5 moa at a 1000y ? how many shots in a group ?

 

[Rookie]

Re: Repointing/Meplate trimming?

Mallard, 5 shot groups at 100 yards.

 

[weichu133]

Re: Repointing/Meplate trimming?

Sinclair and Hoover sell their own stuff to do both tasks. John Whidden sells a good pointer. H. Pitts here on the hide used to make a meplat trimmer I use. Uses a

3/8 end mill in a drill to square the meplats.