Sierra Bullets

Last updated
Sierra Bullets
Company type Private
Founded1947;77 years ago (1947)
Headquarters,
Area served
Worldwide
Products Bullets
Revenue$10M–$25M in sales
Number of employees
50–100 employees
Website www.sierrabullets.com

Founded in 1947 in California, Sierra Bullets is an American manufacturer of bullets intended for firearms. Based in Sedalia, Missouri since 1990, Sierra manufactures a very wide range of bullets for both rifles and pistols. Sierra bullets are used for precision target shooting, hunting and defense purposes. Available calibers range from .204 (suitable for the .204 Ruger) through to .500 (suitable for the .500 S&W Magnum). [1]

Contents

History

In the late 1940s, three aircraft machinists, Frank Snow, Jim Spivey and Loren Harbor, rented space from Clint Harris in the Harris Machine Shop in Whittier, California to produce precision rivets for the aircraft industry, along with fishing rod guides and rifle front sight ramps. They were having financial difficulties, so Clint Harris invested about $500 and became a 25% owner in the company. He was basically a non-active owner, while the other 3 actually ran the company. Right after World War II, there was a shortage of bullets, especially quality rifle bullets, and so Frank Snow, a competitive shooter and a part-time Sheriff's deputy, began manufacturing match rifle bullets. Before long, they were selling a 53 grain match bullet to the Hollywood Gun Shop. That bullet is now known as the Sierra #1400 53 grain MatchKing. Before long, the company outgrew that facility and rented a large Quonset hut in Rivera, California. They outgrew that facility and built a larger facility in Whittier, California. They also changed the company name to Sierra Bullets. During that time, they bought out Clint Harris. The bullet business continued to grow. About 1963, Sierra moved to a new plant in Santa Fe Springs, California. This plant was about 25 to 30,000 square feet with a 200-yard range built under the plant.

In 1968, the Leisure Group bought Sierra Bullets. The Leisure Group was a publicly held corporation traded over the counter. The name Leisure Group derived from acquiring small companies in the leisure time industry. Other companies owned by the Leisure Group were Lyman Reloading, High Standard Manufacturing Company, Yard Man, Ben Pearson, Thompson Sprinkler Systems, Flexible Flyer Sleds, Dodge Trophies (Which made the Oscar and Rose Bowl Game trophies) and several other companies, including one that made gym sets.

Soon after purchasing Sierra, the Leisure Group hired Robert Hayden as president to run Sierra. Hayden was a mechanical engineer who was working for Remington Arms at Lake City Army Ammunition Plant at the time. He remained the president of Sierra for 42 years, retiring in 2012 when Pat Daly became president.

In about 1972, the Leisure Group began divesting some of its companies. In 1986, it changed from a publicly owned corporation to a privately held corporation. In 1988, the Leisure Group reorganized and Sierra Bullets became a limited partnership owned by BHH Management, Inc. (managing partner) and Lumber Management, Inc. (limited partner). In 1995, the company again reorganized to a limited liability company with the same ownership.

In the early 70s, Lee Jurras, of Super Vel and AutoMag fame, approached Sierra about making handgun bullets capable of being driven at higher velocities than the normal bullets available at that time. While Sierra had only been manufacturing rifle bullets up until then, they started making a .38 caliber 110-grain hollow cavity bullet for Super Vel with several other calibers to follow soon after.

In the late 1980s, California was beginning to be unfriendly to the manufacturing business with new strict regulations and higher taxes. Robert Hayden, who had been the Manager of Operations/President of Sierra since 1969, had been born and raised in Missouri and often returned to the Lake of the Ozarks near Sedalia, Missouri on his vacations. On one trip, he came up with the idea of moving the plant to Sedalia and approached the owners with the suggestion. After consideration of the benefits of moving to a more centrally located, industry-friendly, lower-tax location, the owners decided to move the company to Sedalia, Missouri. The land was purchased and a 300-meter underground test range was built with a 45,000 square foot manufacturing plant on top of it. Seven key people made the move from California to Missouri. Sierra still remains at that location, where they manufacture over 175 different bullets (as of Jan. 1, 2014) for their green box sales and several proprietary bullets for other companies. They employ about 160 people with 5 full-time Ballistic Technicians answering reloading and firearms questions on a daily basis. The company also employs three full-time range personnel.

In 2012, Sierra added 20,000 square foot for manufacturing and warehouse space. [2]

In September 2020, the company bought the Barnes ammunitions business from bankrupt Remington Outdoor Company. [3] [4]

Design

All Sierra bullet jackets are made from gilding metal. Depending on requirements, bullet cores are manufactured using one of four different lead alloys: [5]

Rifle Bullets

Sierra makes bullets for rifles and handguns. The rifle bullets fall into five categories, based on bullet construction.

BlitzKing - Varminter

Varminter bullets are designed for varmint hunting. As such, they are normally smaller calibers, and are designed for rapid expansion, and need to be accurate to hit the typically small targets.

GameKing

The GameKing is line of bullets designed for hunting. They are a boat tail bullet to reduce drag and wind drift. They are designed more heavily than the varmint bullets for better penetration and expansion on larger game than varmints, such as deer and boar.

MatchKing

MatchKing is Sierra's line of competition bullets. They have a design that gives a high ballistic coefficient and good accuracy. They have been used by many competitors to set world records. [6] [7]

Pro-Hunter

The Pro-Hunter is a flat-base bullet with a special jacket to provide deep penetration and maximum expansion on large game such as elk.

Handgun Bullets

The Handgun bullets are in two groups, based on bullet construction.

Sports Master

The Sports Master is a handgun bullet with a hollow-point to facilitate good performance for hunting and defense.

Tournament Master

Tournament Master bullets are full-metal jacket and designed primarily for competition and recreational shooting.

Other products

Sierra also provides reloading manuals and reloading and ballistics software.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Table of handgun and rifle cartridges</span> Small arms cartridge data

This is a table of selected pistol/submachine gun and rifle/machine gun cartridges by common name. Data values are the highest found for the cartridge, and might not occur in the same load.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">.218 Bee</span> Cartridge

The .218 Bee is a .22 caliber centerfire rifle cartridge designed for varmint hunting by Winchester in 1937. The cartridge was originally chambered in the Winchester Model 65 lever-action rifles, which may have ultimately led to its lack of popularity. The cartridge is named for the bore diameter of the barrel in which the cartridge is chambered rather than the usual practice in the United States of having the cartridge's nomenclature reflect in some way the bullet diameter.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">.22 Hornet</span> Rifle cartridge

The .22 Hornet or 5.6×36mmR Hornet is a varminting, small-game hunting, survival and competition centerfire rifle cartridge commercially introduced in 1930. It is considerably more powerful than the rimfire .22 WMR and the .17 HMR, achieving higher velocity with a bullet twice the weight of the .17 HMR bullet. The Hornet also differs significantly from these in that being a centerfire cartridge makes it reloadable, and thus more versatile. It was the smallest commercially available .22 caliber centerfire cartridge until the introduction of the FN 5.7×28mm.

The .17 Remington is a rifle cartridge introduced in 1971 by Remington Arms Company for their model 700 rifles.

The .221 Remington Fireball (5.7x35mm), often simply referred to as .221 Fireball, is a centerfire cartridge created by Remington Arms Company in 1963 as a special round for use in their experimental single-shot bolt-action pistol, the XP-100. A shortened version of the .222 Remington, it is popular as a varmint and small predator round while also finding use among target shooters. It has application as both a pistol round and as a rifle round.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wildcat cartridge</span> Custom cartridge for firearms

A wildcat cartridge, often shortened to wildcat, is a custom cartridge for which ammunition and/or firearms are not mass-produced. These cartridges are often created in order to optimize a certain performance characteristic of an existing commercial cartridge, or may merely be intended as novelty items.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">7mm-08 Remington</span> Necked down .308Win

The 7mm-08 Remington is a rifle cartridge that is almost a direct copy of a wildcat cartridge developed around 1958 known as the 7mm/308. As these names would suggest, it is the .308 Winchester case necked down to accept 7 mm (.284) bullets with a small increase in case length. Of cartridges based upon the .308, it is the second most popular behind only the .243 Winchester. However, the .308 is more popular than both. In 1980, the Remington Arms company popularized the cartridge by applying its own name and offering it as a chambering for their Model 788 and Model 700 rifles, along with a limited-run series within their Model 7600 pump-action rifles during the early 2000s.

Varmint hunting or varminting is the practice of hunting vermin — generally small/medium-sized wild mammals or birds — as a means of pest control, rather than as games for food or trophy. The targeted animals are culled because they are considered economically harmful pests to agricultural crops, livestocks or properties; pathogen-carrying hosts/vectors that transmit cross-species/zoonotic diseases; or for population control as a mean of protecting other vulnerable species and ecosystems.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">.22-250 Remington</span> Rifle cartridge

The .22-250 Remington is a very high-velocity, short action, .22 caliber rifle cartridge primarily used for varmint hunting and small game hunting. It is capable of reaching over 4,000 feet per second. It does find occasional use by women and young children for deer hunting because of its low recoil. Some jurisdictions prohibit the use of cartridges smaller than 6 mm for deer hunting. This cartridge is also sometimes known as the .22 Varminter or the .22 Wotkyns Original Swift. Along with the .220 Swift, the .22-250 was one of the high-velocity .22 caliber cartridges that developed a reputation for remote wounding effects known as hydrostatic shock in the late 1930s and early 1940s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">.220 Swift</span> Rifle cartridge

The .220 Swift (5.56×56mmSR) is a semi-rimmed rifle cartridge developed by Winchester and introduced in 1935 for small game and varmint hunting. It was the first factory-loaded rifle cartridge with a muzzle velocity of over 1,200 m/s (4,000 ft/s).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">.222 Remington</span> Centerfire rifle cartridge

The .222 Remington or 5.7×43mm (C.I.P), also known as the triple deuce, triple two, and treble two, is a centerfire rifle cartridge. Introduced in 1950, it was the first commercial rimless .22 (5.56 mm) cartridge made in the United States. As such, it was an entirely new design, without a parent case. The .222 Remington was a popular target cartridge from its introduction until the mid-1970s and still enjoys a reputation for accuracy. It remains a popular vermin or "varmint" cartridge at short and medium ranges with preferred bullet weights of 40–55 grains and muzzle velocities from 3,000 to 3,500 ft/s (915–1,067 m/s).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">6mm Remington</span> Rifle cartridge

The 6mm Remington rifle cartridge, originally introduced in 1955 by Remington Arms Company as the .244 Remington, is based on a necked down .257 Roberts cartridge using a .24/6mm bullet. Known for a combination of high velocity, long range, flat trajectory, and accuracy, it is suitable as a dual use hunting cartridge for both medium-sized big game and varmints. When used in the less common earlier slow twist barrels, it offers exceptional range for varmint applications. While not as commercially popular today as the .243 Winchester, the 6mm Remington enjoys a slight ballistic advantage and continues to be popular with handloaders and custom rifle builders.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">.224 Weatherby Magnum</span> Rifle cartridge developed by Roy Weatherby

The .224 Weatherby Magnum (5.56×49mmB) is a sporting cartridge that was developed in the 1940s by Roy Weatherby, and commercial ammunition was produced starting in 1963. At the time it was the only belted magnum varmint cartridge. It is a proprietary cartridge with no major firearms manufacturers chambering rifles for it other than Weatherby. It was originally called the .224 Weatherby Varmintmaster when it was introduced alongside the Weatherby Varmintmaster rifle, but the rifle was discontinued in 1994 and the cartridge was renamed.

The .260 Remington cartridge was introduced by Remington in 1997. Many wildcat cartridges based on the .308 Winchester case had existed for years before Remington standardized this round.

The .17 Remington Fireball was created in 2007 by Remington Arms Company as a response to the popular wildcat round, the .17 Mach IV. Factory loads drive a 20 grain (1.3 g) bullet around 4,000 ft/s (1,219 m/s). Velocity is close to the .17 Remington but with significantly less powder, and therefore less heat and fouling. Both are important issues to high-volume shooters such as varmint hunters.

The .22 Bench Rest Remington cartridge, commonly referred to as the .22 BR Remington, is a wildcat cartridge commonly used in varmint hunting and benchrest shooting. It is based on the .308×1.5-inch Barnes cartridge, necked down to .22 caliber, lengthened by .020 inches and with the shoulder angle increased to 30°. It was first developed in approximately 1963 by Jim Stekl, and in 1978 Remington standardized the dimensions. It is renowned for its high velocities and excellent accuracy.

The 6×45mm is a rimless, bottlenecked cartridge based on the .223 Remington or 5.56 NATO cartridge necked up to .243 (6mm). The cartridge is also known as the 6mm-223 Remington or 6mm/223.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Varmint rifle</span> Term for small-caliber firearms for hunting small animals

A varmint rifle is a small-caliber precision firearm or high-powered airgun primarily used for both varmint hunting and pest control. These tasks include killing three types of pests or nuisance animals that spread diseases or destroy crops or livestock:

The 7mm BR Remington, commonly called the 7mm BR or the 7mm Benchrest Remington in long form, was a cartridge developed by Remington for the Remington XP-100 single-shot bolt-action handgun. The cartridge was developed for the Unlimited Class in the sport of Metallic silhouette shooting. Later it was introduced in the Remington Model XB-40 single-shot bolt-action rifle, which was specifically designed for the benchrest shooting community.

The .277 Wolverine (6.8x39mm) is a wildcat cartridge. It is a multi-purpose mid-power cartridge with increased ballistic performance over the AR-15's traditional .223 Remington cartridge. The use of a modified 5.56 case means that at minimum, only a new barrel is needed to convert any 5.56-based firearm to .277 Wolverine.

References

  1. History: Sierra Bullets - A Tradition of Precision, Sierra Bullets. Accessed 22 June 2009.
  2. "Home". sierrabullets.com.
  3. "Remington Auctioned Off to Seven Bidders in Bankruptcy Court". 2020-09-28. Retrieved 2020-09-28.
  4. "Sierra Bullets To Acquire Assets Of Barnes Bullets". 2020-09-28. Retrieved 2020-09-28.
  5. "History of Precision: Sierra Bullets". Sierra Bullets. Retrieved 27 February 2014.
  6. Kreider, Claude M. (Nov 1953). "Bullets Strictly for Bull's-Eyes". Popular Mechanics: 128–130. Retrieved 22 September 2010. Thus were born the famous Sierra bullets, which now hold many world records for accuracy.
  7. Sniper: The Skills, the Weapons, and the Experiences, Adrian Gilbert, p. 143