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Ruger American 223 has a 1 in 8 inch barrel. I am sure it will stabalize 60 Gr plus but wonder how it will handel 55 Gr varmint bullets. I read in Handloader that a 1 in 8 inch could tear up a light jacket varmint round. I have decided I need a new rifle with a twist rate for both 55 Gr and heavier for larger game in a pinch and the Ruger American has alot to offer for the price. Any one have experience with this? Did not take me long to talk my self into a new rifle.
50 and 55gr should be no problem. you can run into trouble with the really thin skinned 45gr bullets made for the slower 22 cals, but in general even some of the 45's will work with no issues.
The short answer is 1in 8 is right in the middle for rate of twist..You can shoot 55 or 60+ grain bullets. You may be a disadvantage with a 55 gr bullet at real long range
I have a 22-250 with a 1:7 twist. I have not found a bullet from 52 to 80 g. that it does not shoot well. None of the light bullets have blown up,from too fast a spin.
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The 1-8 should be good for 50 grn up to 70 or 75 grns but on the lighter bullets stay away from the s-x style ( sierras). The 75s should do good to 500 yds maybe even 600 yds. On the lighter bullets dropping velocity a couple hundred FPS may help also.
I should have mentioned that I shoot 55 Gr Hornady V-Max with a charge of 25 Gr 0f H-335. Have a couple hundread rounds 0f that loaded up. Sounds like I should be ok with a Ruger American.
Thanks to all
Art
I can validate the above from my own experience. Key is having a smooth barrel and a well-constructed bullet.Quote:
Originally Posted by AZ Pete
I had a 7" twist 5.56mm test barrel blank which I rechambered to .22-250 and fitted to a Hart 1A benchrest action for test purposes. This was a cut-rifled, industrial-grade barrel, not as smooth as the best target barrels, but comparable for interior finish to M249 SAW barrels being produced at that time (mid 1980s).
Firing 55-grain Sierra Blitz or Hornady SX varmint bullets with 38 grs. of H380 was VERY, SCARY accurate and would give blue smoke trace all the way to the target. Bullets would blow up completely on a single-sheet of corrugated cardboard and scatter backing target 1 foot behind with fine fragment pattern as if you fired a .22 LR rat shot from a .22 revolver. Entrance hole usually had gray spiral streak radiating out from bullet hole.
If you hit a single stalk of alfalfa hay on the way to a woodchuck you got a little gray smoke "puff", but if you hit the chuck he would inflate in the scope like a balloon getting ready to burst and flop down like a slowly deflating balloon. If you picked him up he just gurgled like picking up a gallon of strawberry jam in a leather bag. No exit.
Absolutely ricochet free varmint load, and 1/2 moa accurate!
My tikka 223 has a 1in 9 twist rate shoots sierra 69gr match kings very well .shoots 55gr just as well .
I own 2 different Savage 223 bolt actions. Both have 1 in 9 twist rates.
They work great with bullet weights from 50 to 69 grains. The 69 SMK is superb as well as the 50 grain Vmax. These two cover all my bases for this cartridge.
I tried heavier bullets in them and neither rifle shoots them well. They don't de-stabilize, but they don't group well.
A friend has a Savage .223 factory barreled rifle with a 1in9 twist I believe and it shoots 55 down to 40 grain V-Max surprisingly well.
I watched a shooter at our old range generate some great looking "blue trails of death" with his 22-250 with 55 grain jacketed bullets. When I approached him to tell him about it, he started laughing and said he could see the trails in his scope. Was very humid as was very easy to see the trails. Frank
It's common for service rifles (200, 300, 600yds) to use 77gr short line/mag length bullets & 80gr bullets for the back fence. The 1 in 8's had no problem with 55gr bullets as long as they had quality jackets. Cheap bullets like hornady 55gr sp's are typically used for short line practice. (short line 200/300yd lines)
Got old (eyes) so I sold off the service rifles and went to the 1 in 9 twists for the 223's along with a 1 in 7. The only bullets I've ever had a problem with in the 1 in 7's was the bullets I make/swage. Was pushing the limits of the 22lr cases stretching them too far/thin making 62gr hp's.
[IMG]https://i.imgur.com/tHQqhA5.jpg[/IMG]
Nothing special, nothing more than the test target used to do a ladder test with the free home swaged bullets, free mixed nato range brass & a $250 savage axis with no mods/used as sent from the factory.
[IMG]https://i.imgur.com/S8ceYpm.jpg[/IMG]
The 1 in 9 m4 gas guns had no problem with those 62gr bullets pictured above & was nothing for the 1 in 9 savage to do moa with them. The 1 in 7 m4 gas gun had problems with them so I opened up the home made re-rim die a little to make the 22lr cases/jackets shorter/thicker. Now I swage 58gr hp's for the 223's and have no issues with the 1 in 7's anymore. I've ran several 52gr to 55gr commercial jacketed bullets in the 1 in 7 and never had a problem, same goes for the 1 in 8's & 1 in 9's.
On a side note:
I made dies to re-rim 22mag cases to use as jackets for the 30cal's. That went horribly wrong, the jackets were way to thin & blew up going down range with traditional riffling. I didn't have any micro-grove bbl's to test therm in.
Like was said ive never seen even a 1 in 7 twist destroy a bullet. Maybe in a 22250 or 220 swift but 223 is mild compared to them. Ive got 1-9 1-8 and 1-9 ar15s if I could have only one it would be a 1-8 twist.
I have seen numerous 7 - 9" twist .223/5.56s spin Hornady 50 and 55 gr SX, 50 gr Sierra Blitz's (not to be confused with the Blitz Kings) and Speer 52 gr HPs apart shortly out of the muzzle. Many times there is just a puff of gray 30 45 yards from the muzzle with no part of the bullet making it to the 100 yard target. I have seen the holes made from 52 gr Speer HPs at 25m that looked like a peeled banana going through the target.
Unfortunately, because of the faster twists, a lot of the jackets of 40 to 55 gr .224 bullets are now made thicker to withstand the tremendous RPM generated at 3000 - 33400 fps out of 20" AR barrels. What is unfortunate is they do not blow up small varmints like the thinner jacketed HP, SX and Blitz bullets do. That's why, since the Speer 52 HP loaded over 26.5 gr H335 is still my bullet of choice as is a 20" barrel with a 12" twist on my AR. I still use the 55 gr SX in my 12 and 14" twist bolt actions and single shot. In my Savage Competition .223 with a 9" twist 26" barrel I use the 55 gr Blitz King as it is very accurate.
This last summer I used both my 12" twist with 55 gr SX and 9" twist with 55 gr Blitz kings (same load in both) on PDs shooting the same location/town. The 55 gr SX gave noticeably better terminal performance even though with it's 4" shorter barrel it had 100+ fps less velocity.
My son's PSA/FN 1-7" 5.56 carbine shoots 55 gr Vmax better than any other bullet we've tried up to 80 gr Amax.
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my most accurate AR is a 1 in 7 twist. it shoots 60 vaxs a tad better then 55s but im talke tenths of an inch and both do close to 3/4s of an inch at a 100 yards so it doesn't even matter. Cool thing too is at a 100 yards both bullets shoot to the same poa.Quote:
Originally Posted by Texas by God
I thought for years under stabilization is the real problem. My fast twists shoot lighter bullets as well as I can with heavier bullets.
Folks worry to much again IMHO.
I know for a fact a 1:7 twist 22/250 will blow up a 40gr bullet. Never seen a 223 blow apart a bullet though.
I have a couple 7.7 and 8 twist 223s that get shot with a wide range of bullets from 40 to 80 grains. I don't shoot the lightweight through my suppressor until I know they will make it to the target....it has a couple marks from the already mentioned 22/250 and blown apart bullets.
My 1:7 barrels shoot 52gr HPBT and 55gr VMAX very very accurately.
your 1:8 should be fine also