32 vs 39 Grain SBK's

[Malazan]

Anyone have a theory on which one groups better?

[Jim White]

If everything is optimal they both group very well. Some 12-twist barrels don't like the 39 (all of mine do).

[Hotshot]

It has been discussed many times on this and other forums, the 32's have problems with tumbling or even breaking apart before they get to the target. I got great groups with both those bullets, but when 32's started to tumble on me I went to 39's exclusively-no more problems. Recently someone mentioned 39's were keyholing from their rifle on this forum. I've never had that problem.
Buy 100 of each and try 'em. Don't forget to show us pictures.

[WnMag]

39,s have worked well for me. 32's didnt group as well. I am not reloading yet, so I wont rule them out. My 1-12 Kimber groups nice with the 39'SBK from HSM.

[Malazan]

39,s have worked well for me. 32's didnt group as well. I am not reloading yet, so I wont rule them out. My 1-12 Kimber groups nice with the 39'SBK from HSM.

Thanks, that is what rifle I'll be reloading for, a Kimber 84m Varmint

[p5200]

Has anyone had experience with both bullets with hand loads in a CZ 527 Varmint in Kevlar? The 39grn. do good in mine I just received some 32grn. but haven't had a chance to try them yet. Thanks!

[WnMag]

Malazan , a buddy of mine is about set up and dang near ready to reload. We are going to do a lot of load testing, for his REM.700 and my 84M. I am new to this cal. so i dont have much brass yet I am ordering a thousands rounds from HSM. Figure that will give me a good brass start.

[bow shot]

My Savage VLP likes both, BUT spit out more than occasional tumblers with the 32's. But I got 0.3" groups with the 39's

I should say that it does equally well (accuracy) with 32 and 40 gr VMax, with no tumbling .

I went kinds nuts-o wtih dirty barrel/clean barrel tests, seating/charge/primer changes and all that stuff, and in the end settled on it that even though I had this irrational fixation to MAKE 'em work, it just want' gonna happen.

Others do fine with 'em, that's for sure.

[Rick in Oregon]

Both the 32gr and 39gr SBK's are the two most accurate bullets in all my .20 caliber rifles. My Sako M75V in 204R thrives on either, same for my Cooper M21 MTV, both rifles shooting both weight bullets in the consistent high .2's - low .3's.

But my Cooper M38 VR in 20 Vartarg really shows how much she loves the 32gr SBK:



A while back I did a test of both bullets while shooting my Sako 75 Varmint 204R in a stiff full value 3:00 wind in the field while shooting squirrels. The idea was to test wind deflection at 100 yards between the 32gr and 39 SBK. As you can see, not alot of difference, at least at this short range:



IMO, both/either bullet is fully as accurate as the other, but what irony (for me)....Nosler is right here in town, and all my .20 cal rifles would rather shoot Sierras. What luck.

[Silverfox]

When Sierra first started making the .204 caliber bullets (must have been the end of 2004 or first few months of 2005) I ordered the 39 gr. bullets first and began testing them during the spring of 2005, in early April. My Savage 12VLP in .204 Ruger absolutely loved the 39 grain Sierra BKs. The 32 gr. Hornady V-Max bullets also shot accurately out of the same rifle. So I thought it ought to do great with the 32 gr. Sierras too--WRONG!!!!!

During the month of May 2005, I spent a lot of time testing various powders, powder charge weights, seating depths, primers, etc. with those 32 gr. Sierras and found a couple different loads that were farily accurate--not as consistently accurate as the 39 gr. bullets though. While I was working up these loads I had quite a few of these 32 gr. Sierra bullets go through the 100 yard target paper sideways like these targets below show:





I also had some pretty tiny groups like these:





I loaded up about 100 of them and used them on one of my prairie dog safari trips out to the Miles City, MT area. It was extremely windy during my 3-day outing and those little 32 gr. pills got tossed around pretty seriously in the wind. The 39 gr. Sierras seemed to defy the wind so I decided to sell off the remaining bullets out of the 1,000 of them I had purchased initially. I still had a few loaded rounds that I used in some North Dakota prairie dog towns and out of the last 10 or so that I shot, about every third one was tumbling and hitting the ground halfway to the prairie dogs I was shooting at. Those are the only bullets I have had tumble out of this Savage 12VLP.

I did have a 39 gr. Sierra BK that was a weird looking bullet. I wonder how this bullet would have performed at 3,850 fps????



I sent this same photo to Sierra and they shipped out a full box of 39 gr. bullets to me.

[Rick in Oregon]

SF: This just illustrates just how finicky all rifles can be....some shoot the 32SBK into bugholes, some 12 twist rifles keyhole them....we never know until we try. With prices going up all the time though, trying is getting expensive.

By the way, I've got an exact twin to your improperly formed 39gr SBK on a shelf at my bench.....now I'll be sending it to Seirra to see what happens at my end.... Wierd how this type of imperfection was not picked up at Inspection & Packaging.......someone asleep there?

[Gube]

My experiences with the 32 gr BK's mirror Silverfox's. Lots of tumbles and hitting of the dirt well before the target in my VLP. I did get the tumbling to stop but only when powder charges were at minimum. It made no sense for me to use them at those reduced loads, when the 32 V-max and noslers were nice and accurate at max charges. The 39 BK is still my overall favorite. I guess I could go back and do some testing with them in the BTVSS and T3 as these have not yet seen any 32 bk's.

[Rick in Oregon]

Gube: On the issue of the 32 SBK's tumbling.....why do you suppose that the only guys I hear of tumbling 32's are from Savage owners?

I don't get it, and I'm not picking on Savage either.....just seems weird that the only complaints on tumbling 32SBK's all come from Savage owners. Barrels are barrels, and I don't see how one manufacturer could have this problem with the same 12 twist all other makers are using. Any ideas? (Don't own a Savage and never will, but it just seems pretty strange to me.......)

[Fred_C_Dobbs]

Silverfox, your 39-gr SBK must be kin to my 32-gr Nosler. This has been sitting on my reloading bench for a couple of years now.



The gray color comes from me tungsten coating it.

I have a Savage 12 but I don't shoot 32-gr SBKs. My 32-gr Noslers, however, exhibit no keyholing, 100-400 yards. Can't speak for the one above 'cuz it never got fired.

[Gube]

Gube: On the issue of the 32 SBK's tumbling.....why do you suppose that the only guys I hear of tumbling 32's are from Savage owners?

I don't get it, and I'm not picking on Savage either.....just seems weird that the only complaints on tumbling 32SBK's all come from Savage owners. Barrels are barrels, and I don't see how one manufacturer could have this problem with the same 12 twist all other makers are using. Any ideas? (Don't own a Savage and never will, but it just seems pretty strange to me.......)

Rick: You are correct in the fact that most of the "tumbling" woes with the 32 sbk's are with savage barrels. Not really sure why this is the case . Possibility may be because of a "rough" bore. I remember a while back, I started having accuracy problems with both of my savages (mostly with the VLP) with all of my loads. This was attributed to a "carbon ring" build up when I switched to a cleaning regime of using ONLY wipeout . It took a lot of "elbow" grease and JB's bore paste to get rid of that self induced problem. It is possible that the carbon ring was partially there when I was testing the 32 sbk's. I still have about 20 of the 32 sbk's loaded and plan on putting those through my T3 to see what kind of results I will get. Testing never does seem to end does it?