Sierra Bullets Tour

[shooterrdy]

I was able to get in on a Tour at SierraBullets this morning I just want to say that it was very impressive.
The host was very polite and the factory was very busy they have 28 machines running 24/7 crazy how many bullets come off the line, one machine was spitting them out at a rate of 1 bullet per second and they told us most of them are 1 bullet in about .8 seconds.
The guide said that they can still not make the 168, 175 .30 Caliber match bullets fast enough along with 69 grain .223. They have indoor test tunnels and are running 8lbs. of powder per day testing loads. Their test barrels are from many different manufactures but allot of them were Hart barrels. Not sure what barrel was used but one group from a .338 using the 250 grain Match bullet had 10 shots that measured .34 at 200 yd.
Talk about a 1 hole group.

if you get a chance to make it to Sedalia MO make time to swing buy and tour the factory very good group of people
proud to see such great products proudly made in the Mid West.

 

[Sugarbug]

Wow. That is a lot slower than I imagined. Only 360 - 400 bullets an hour per machine. Not saying that's bad. I just imagined bullet waterfalls and beautiful women handing out 5000 round samples.

 

[George63]

Wow. That is a lot slower than I imagined. Only 360 - 400 bullets an hour per machine. Not saying that's bad. I just imagined bullet waterfalls and beautiful women handing out 5000 round samples.

check your math - that is 3600 to 4500 per hour per machine

at that rate, running 300 days will give 800 million per year

 

[Sugarbug]

Rofl. You're absolutely right.

Damn that multiplication.

 

[gaphighpower]

I visited back in 1999.

Sounds like the same tour. Still have all the "samples" of a bullet's production life from round brass disk to formed bullet.

The highlight was going into a room about the size of a two car garage filled with 55 gal drums FULL to BRIM with every caliber of factory "seconds". Back then the only way to purchase them was face-to-face, no mail order. If memory serves I picked up 500 .223 69g for about $35. Made them offer on the entire 55gal drum. Thank God they turned me down as I hadn't thought ahead on how I was going to get it in the trunk of a Buick Skylark.

BTW, those seconds shot every bit as good as the NIB.

 

[Bonjourjr]

Did you stop by their outlet and pick up some bullets? Last time I was in Sedalia I picked up 1k of 175s 168s and 155s for a good price. They sell them shits by the pound. I love it.

 

[allen200]

hmm... road trip!

 

[r2shooter]

Got the chance to go back in April while attending some NRA instructor classes in Sedaila. It was an awesome experience. The underground testing facility that acts as their storm shelter was very impressive. Seemed Redding was the equipment of choice in the loading room.

My 2nd favorite part was the bullet outlet store where you can purchase blemished bullets by the pound. According to our guide the blemished are usually just a discoloration caused when starting up a new run. From what I purchased seemed to be very true, havent found a problem w/any I've loaded so far. Unfortunately at the time they had zero hadgun bullets available.

If you ever get the chance like stated it's well worth the time to go check out if in the neighborhood.

 

[ksthomas]

Unless they've changed recently, the .338 test barrels are most likely Satern's. Hart's got used for the vast majority of the testing, simply because of a long-standing relationship, and the fact that Hart offers the 1.350" OD blanks they use in their machine rests (not everyone offers anything over 1.250"). There's some specialized stuff that called for unusual bore sizes (tight barrels for the 155 grain Palmas, etc), but most of the rest is pretty conventional.

Redding, Dillon, RCBS, there's a little bit of all of them down there. What can I say? I like the Redding stuff, and the Dillon made quick work of some things that tended to get a bit tedious otherwise.

 

[Tx_Flyboy]

To those who visited Sierra's outlet store,

How much are they selling the seconds for?

How much are they selling the 55-gallon drums for?

I dont mind driving up from Texas if i can buy as many 55gallon drums as i want...

 

[Rhyno]

Awesome, I've been meaning to tour Hornady since it's only a couple hours drive but am never there at the right time. They also sell seconds that are from my experience just as good as the real deal, only the last time I went they didn't have very many, and most of it was odd caliber size.

Did you have schedule or just show up?

 

[r2shooter]

To those who visited Sierra's outlet store,

How much are they selling the seconds for?

How much are they selling the 55-gallon drums for?

I dont mind driving up from Texas if i can buy as many 55gallon drums as i want...

You'll have to look on Sierra's website because prices change for current pricing.
You can only buy 300lbs per day or at least when I was there that's how it was.