Lee 55 grain Bator boolit in Mossberg MVP

[seaboltm]

Picked up my Mossberg MVP today in 223. I will not go into a lengthy review of the rifle as that has been done elsewhere. I will say it seems well made. The bolt seems to be the only weak spot. The scoop that slips down from the bolt head to pick up cartridges from AR magazines is thin and small. Plus it is held in by a 1/16 inch roll pin. The bottom of the bolt head is milled flat so the cartridge scoop has a place to ride. That leaves the bottom of the bolt face very, very thin. I would think twice about fast cycling steel cased cartridges, but I don't shoot that junk. Other than that, no complaints. Like the Stevens 200 and low end Savage stuff, there is a plastic trigger guard and magazine well, but Tromix has aluminum solutions to that issue, if its an issue at all.

I removed the A2 flash suppressor in order to install my 10" can. I did not know exactly where to start, but after searching the forum I found a load of 2.5 grains of Bullseye over a 55 grain cast boolit that the poster said was subsonic in his rifle. I cast some Lee Bator boolits, sized them to 225 in my Lyman lube/sizer. For good measure I coated them with some Alox. Nothing wrong with a belt and suspenders I suppose! The boolits were water quenched wheel weights.

I seated the Bator so that only the round part was left showing, meaning most of the boolit was in the neck of the case. No crimp was used. I touched the Bullseye off to find the load was definitely supersonic in the MVP as I was rewarded with a CRACK! Not good since I live in town. I was shooting from 20 feet into the trunk a huge live oak tree that is long since dead, so it was safe, but I can't have that much noise.

Backing down to 2.2 grains I had no crack. Noise was about like an air rifle pumped almost to max. I backed down to 2 grains of BE. Noise was about like an air rifle with 5 pumps. Quiet indeed. It was very windy today so I did not set up the chrony. Thats for another day. No leading by the way, but the BE powder combined with that much lube sure did dirty up the rifle, and the can.

[GabbyM]

Interesting.
You might want to try just a light coating of BLL. Which is Lee Alox mixed with Johnsons floor wax.
Since the amount of lube used in a 22 rim-fire should be all you need. My 222 runs very clean. But it's going 2,400 fps.

With the right mold in plain base I see no reason why a guy couldn't just cast, tumble lube then shoot at those low velocities. Skip the size operation and gas check. My Lyman 22 mold drops just a couple tenths if any over .225". I size and check them at .225" but they don't actually get reduced in size.

I bought a Bator mold last summer specifically to load lower power rounds for my 222. There blunt RN being easily distinguished from my other cast bullets. Have a bunch of 700x so was thinking 5.2 grains or so. 1,800fps or a little more perhaps. 15 grains more bullet than a 22 rim-fire magnum. No can allowed in Illinois, yet.

[richhodg66]

The Bator (and the Lyman 225438) worked fine in light loads in the Hornet without the gas check at 25 yards for me. using 1.5-1.8 grains of Bullseye, it was squirrel head accurate at 25 yards.

I liek the 45 grain NOE WFN for such loads now as mine is all cavities plain based, but you could do it easily in a .223.

I have an MVP Predator too, haven't tried cast in it yet, but that was one of teh selling poiints, with detachable mags, one could load a mag with jacketed loads and a mag with small game cast loads if points of aim would work for the different ranges.

[GabbyM]

Rich dog:

That mag swap could work if you can get all loads shooting to same Point Of Aim.
My CZ-527 in 222 or my USA made FN-M70 in 30-06, Not made in USA anymore, seam to shoot any load to the sights. Other calibers don't do that off my rack. But I think this may be more an anomaly to the rifle than the caliber. Barrel harmonics is the thing. Basically you never know until you test it out. 222 Rem and 30-06 are both fine long neck cases to work with . My favorites. But if the edge was meaningful we'd not have all these other cartridges.

I used to have a load of 4.5 grains of Unique under a 40 grain Hornet J bullet from Sierra in a 223 that would shoot to sights in my heavy barrel M-700. Standard 224 Varminter bullet would stick in your barrel but the hornet bullet is soft. I use cast bullets now. Those little charges are pretty quiet from a long 24 or 26 inch barrel.

[seaboltm]

Broke out the F1 chrony this afternoon. 2 grains of BE in the 16" MVP with a suppressor gave me an average of 1000 fps with a standard deviation of 18 fps. Not bad at all. However, there is a caveat. I am over lubed big time. I noticed velocity falling on every shot after the third shot. I could see soot on the ejected cases. Upon inspection, it was not only soot, but lube too. I could feel the excess lube between my fingers. So after about the 7th shot I ran a dry bore snake through the bore, and velocities immediately returned to the first shot velocity. Throwing out the two shots before cleaning I get 1008 fps average with 13 fps standard deviation. So I have reached my goal of a subsonic load that is very reproducible. I think I may skip the lube/sizer step and just use the BLL, which is what I used the first time, not straight Alox.

[bangerjim]

I use 2 to 3 gn of any fast powder laying around and a tuft of Dacron to keep the powder back against the primer. Nice light loads that are not very noisy. Definitely will NOT work in an AR15 which most seem to use.

That is my standard <5 cent/round substitute in my Mossy for expensive 22LR's these daze.

banger

[runfiverun]

sounds like a good start.
I'd probably change to something like clays to get the dirty burn under control

[richhodg66]

My thoughts on teh MVP were that a guy could carry essentially three of those five found mags. One with a plain based with 2 grains of Bullseye for a squirrel load, one with a heavier cast bullet at 2000 FPS or so, coyote load, and one with a quality jacketed bullet at full velocity, deer/manstopper load. I put a Leupold scope on mine instead of the cheapie the rifle came with, pretty sure I could work up those three loads and put what the differences in numbers of clicks on the scope adjustments were to return to zero for each load.

I haven'ttried cast in .22 centerfires except the Hornets and the .22 High Power. My other .223 is a 30 year old Savage 110 which would have the slower twist that might be more conducive to cast accuracy. I'll have to give this a try soon.

[seaboltm]

Broke the MVP tonight. Took it apart for a cleaning. Knocked the plastic magazine well off the side of the table with my elbow. Hit the wood floor and cracked a whole corner off the magazine well. Luckily I found:

http://www.tromix.com/mossberg-mvp-parts.html

I will be ordering aluminum replacement parts tomorrow morning. Hope they start making parts for the 308 soon.

[bangerjim]

That will teach you to clean the darn thing too much! If it ain't broke, don't take it apart to clean it! HA....ha!


Glad you found a replacement part.

banger

[trixter]

I am glad you are having fun with your MVP. I bought mine about 2 years ago. The deciding factor for the purchase was that it would use the 30 round magazines. I use it primarily for target plinking, I like the rubber squirrel spinners and paper, and sage rat/squeek hunting. I also bought a Bator mold and love shooting them. However I do not load them as short as the OP. I have had good luck with 9gr Unique. YMMV.

[seaboltm]

If you have the MVP Patrol in 223 you really need to look at the Tromix replacement magazine well. Very well made. Magazines fix much better. It was drop-in for my factory synthetic stock. I bought their aluminum trigger guard while I was at it. The plastic on the factory piece is very thin and very brittle.