Heavy, Blunt, & Slow .223's - Load & Twist Rate Questions

[Bigslug]

Going to be picking up a 700 Police in .223 with a 1-9" twist pretty soon.

Thinking about NOE's 70 grain round nose GC mold for velocities that are way down the scale, as well as speeds that are a little more the norm for such things. I'm basically pondering this as a low-noise .22 LR alternative. I toyed briefly with the idea of a Hornet, but in my particular situation 5.56 brass is easy to come by.

I know that the VLD match 70 and 80 grainers need a faster rate of twist to stabilize, but I'm thinking a blunt, round nose flat base slug should be fine at 1-9"

Your experiences and preferred powders would be appreciated.:drinks:

[725]

75 gr A-Max key holed for me @ 25 yards with that twist. Managed very good accuracy with a 70 Speer RN, however. (Lots & lots of bearing surface.)

[pretzelxx]

I also wanted a slower fat 223 bolt gun, wife said one of each boolit size is good enough. But interestingly enough, I can persuade her if I put a cow print on it... I'm going to follow this for further info on what loads you might come across.

[Jack Stanley]

I think the Savage Axis in that caliber has a one in nine . I got reasonable groups with Lymans 225462 .

Jack

[Screwbolts]

I believe last years Cast Boolit national match was won with a savage 223 1x9 shooting a 80 gr boolitz from a custom mold.

For 22 lr velocity I use either NOE 55 gr RCBS clone or the BRP 47 gr RF cut for Hornets. NOE offers this mold now also.

My 1x9s are currently stabilizing the ACE Nato 75 gr Heavy, my current WW alloy ready to shoot from this mold is 78 gr. This is with 20 gr of my lot of surplus RE 15. I have not cronied this load yet.

Ken

[Bigslug]

I found and played around with a couple of twist rate calculators online. There seems to be little question that 1-9" will work for a .75" long 70 grain slug at above-supersonic speeds (1450fps seems to be a happy number), and some discrepancy over whether it will work below 1200fps.

I guess the next question is what propellants are good for running a .223 that slowly?

[Jack Stanley]

I have worked a little with Bullseye and 700-X and got good results for the little bit I do with fifty-five grain bullets .

Jack

[Doc Highwall]

According to Speers reloading manual the 70 grain bullet will stabilize in a 1-14" twist and they have loads for the 22-250 with this bullet in one of their manuals that goes down to 2000 fps if I recall correctly.

[Larry Gibson]

No need for that heavier bullet for a "as a low-noise .22 LR alternative". Any of the standard available cast bullets of 40 - 55 gr will suffice very nicely. In my own 3 bolt guns of .223 persuasion and 2 single shots with 9, 12 and 14 twists I use the 225438, the 225462 and the 225415 over 2.5 - 4 gr of Bullseye in well fire formed and NS'd cases such loads.

Larry Gibson

[Bigslug]

Any of the standard available cast bullets of 40 - 55 gr will suffice very nicely.

Yes they would, IF I wanted to shoot them. Think Aguila .22SSS, only a little bigger.

[andrew375]

I use a Savage M12 that is 1 in 9. Best cast bullet I use in it is the NEI 71gr. gc. 10 gr. of VV N320 gives groups well under moa at just under 2100 fps.

With jacketed I've used the 75gr Hornady match and A-Max and the 80gr. SMK and Berger VLDs. Interestingly all the last three are the same length; which is what counts when it comes to twist rates, not weight. The only caveat I would add is that they are only just stabilised under normal atmospheric conditions. A couple of years ago I was shooting at a 1000 yards with 75gr A-Maxs on a cold murky day and the air density was enough to require sights to be elevated a further 100 metres on both my Mosin and K31 (I don't know what that is in minutes). Anyway after putting a significant elevation increase on my Savage sights I finally "got on" but all I got was a random scattering of shots rather than a group. Then a message arrived from the butts informing "whoever is shooting a .223, all your bullets are going through sideways". At that I packed up the .223 and put six consecutive V bulls with the Mosin. Later that year I was back at a thousand under normal conditions (if you call 24+ minutes of wind normal) and the bullets flew fine. If in doubt use the 69gr. SMK