I heard about the 22 Nosler the week before the SHOT Show and was very interested to see how it would stack up. As soon as Midway put the barrels, brass and dies up I had my plastic in play. Of course I dawdled and the barrels were sold out so I had to wait about ten days for mine to show up and get built.
The first firings were at the lower end of the scale and I found the brass to be very soft and fired case shoulder movement was about 0.008. The throat is very long with no hope of hitting them from the magazines. Accuracy was abysmal with my first outing but I now had some once fired brass. The STONER barrel from Midway is only 18” so I didn’t expect screamer velocities and I was not disappointed. Case capacity was right on 1.1 CC’s of H20 over the 22X.8 I’ve been shooting for about four years.
With the fired brass I set my dies up for a minimal 0.001 to 0.0015 bump. At the time there was no published data for the 50’s I wanted to try so I got some numbers that looked reasonable as I had some that had been pressure tested in the 22X6.8 at 56,000 or less so I knew I was GTG. With the SAAMI on the Nosler being at 55.000 and the greater capacity and long throat I figured I was in the ball park. I did run them through Quick Load just for some more data points and found they were reasonable based on my observed results previously.
I had the 22X6.8 I’ve been shooting so I just loaded up the same same charges and bullets in it to run with the Nosler. It is a 24” Black Hole 3P barrel so I knew I would expect about maybe 150 -175 FPS greater velocities. The powder choices for the Nosler and it were decent in the burning rates so I figured it would be a good test.
As I was shooting powder/bullet combinations that one could not just grab out of a loading manual I thought I should run the comparison of the two hot rods against a 556 loaded to top pressures using listed powder charges in from Western Powder. I was lazy and just grabbed the TAC data for the 50 and 77’s knowing full well the 50’s were a good match and the 77’s would be a bit slower than if I had chosen a different powder for my set up but I thought I’d wing it and see what happened. I had an 18” and a 24” upper with Black Hole barrels ready to go.
I used CCI’450’s in the Noslers and Remington 7 ½’s in all the rest. No crimping was done. All rounds were magazine fed. Temperatures on the test days were in the mid 70’s. All speeds were recorded using a LabRadar showing muzzle velocities. All barrels were 1:8 twist.
The 22 Nosler groups on the 50’s ranged from a best of 1.478 to worst of 4.952. For ten varied charges the average was 2.2305. Swiping was decreased greatly by the slight shoulder bump but they did not disappear completely. Primers were not overly flat but I don’t believe the charges could go up much. All were loaded to 2.300.
The 77 grain groups ran from a best of 1.212 to a worst of 4.897. Average for ten groups was 2.459. I did get some swipes and several showed rim damage even though I was running down on the edge of being under gassed. All were loaded to 2.300.
The 22X6.8 groups with a 50 ran 0.701 and a worst of 1.097. Average was 0.912. The 77’s shot best of 0.744 and a worst of 1.960 with an average of 1.180. I’ve shot the same bullet previously using Benchmark with an average around 0.90.
The 556 loads, as mentioned, were straight from the Western powder company. All were loaded to 2.260. Primers across the board looked good with slight rounded edges present. No swipes or rim damage was noted.
The 18” barrel put the 50’s in at 1.110 to 1.342. Average was 1.208. The 77’s were 1.350 to 1.486. The average was 1.401.
The 24” 556 loved the 50’s at 0.883 to 1.223 for an average of 0.99. The 77’s were running 0.824 to 1.112 for an average of 0.968. This barrel has shot previously with 50’s and does about 0.85 day in day out.
Above is a compilation of speeds for the various rifles. The extra barrel length of the 22X6.8 showed an average gain of 333 FPS on the 50’s and 220 FPS on the same same loads. A bit higher difference than I would have predicted. I have a 24” 22 Nosler Black Hole barrel scheduled for delivery in the next few weeks so I will revisit the speeds and groups with it.
Personally I believe the real eye opener of the test was the top end loadings of the 556. While it was maxed and the others were not in the 18” tube I know what I would be going for. The 77’s suffered in the 556, in my opinion, by the powder choice. Some Varget or AA2520 might have been a real eye opener.
Draw your own conclusions from the data and hopefully this will give you something to think about on your cartridge choices.
Greg
PS: THIS WAS NEVER INTENDED FOR ACCURACY TESTING BETWEEN THE BARRELS. GROUPS WERE ANECDOTAL.
The first firings were at the lower end of the scale and I found the brass to be very soft and fired case shoulder movement was about 0.008. The throat is very long with no hope of hitting them from the magazines. Accuracy was abysmal with my first outing but I now had some once fired brass. The STONER barrel from Midway is only 18” so I didn’t expect screamer velocities and I was not disappointed. Case capacity was right on 1.1 CC’s of H20 over the 22X.8 I’ve been shooting for about four years.
With the fired brass I set my dies up for a minimal 0.001 to 0.0015 bump. At the time there was no published data for the 50’s I wanted to try so I got some numbers that looked reasonable as I had some that had been pressure tested in the 22X6.8 at 56,000 or less so I knew I was GTG. With the SAAMI on the Nosler being at 55.000 and the greater capacity and long throat I figured I was in the ball park. I did run them through Quick Load just for some more data points and found they were reasonable based on my observed results previously.
I had the 22X6.8 I’ve been shooting so I just loaded up the same same charges and bullets in it to run with the Nosler. It is a 24” Black Hole 3P barrel so I knew I would expect about maybe 150 -175 FPS greater velocities. The powder choices for the Nosler and it were decent in the burning rates so I figured it would be a good test.
As I was shooting powder/bullet combinations that one could not just grab out of a loading manual I thought I should run the comparison of the two hot rods against a 556 loaded to top pressures using listed powder charges in from Western Powder. I was lazy and just grabbed the TAC data for the 50 and 77’s knowing full well the 50’s were a good match and the 77’s would be a bit slower than if I had chosen a different powder for my set up but I thought I’d wing it and see what happened. I had an 18” and a 24” upper with Black Hole barrels ready to go.
I used CCI’450’s in the Noslers and Remington 7 ½’s in all the rest. No crimping was done. All rounds were magazine fed. Temperatures on the test days were in the mid 70’s. All speeds were recorded using a LabRadar showing muzzle velocities. All barrels were 1:8 twist.
The 22 Nosler groups on the 50’s ranged from a best of 1.478 to worst of 4.952. For ten varied charges the average was 2.2305. Swiping was decreased greatly by the slight shoulder bump but they did not disappear completely. Primers were not overly flat but I don’t believe the charges could go up much. All were loaded to 2.300.
The 77 grain groups ran from a best of 1.212 to a worst of 4.897. Average for ten groups was 2.459. I did get some swipes and several showed rim damage even though I was running down on the edge of being under gassed. All were loaded to 2.300.
The 22X6.8 groups with a 50 ran 0.701 and a worst of 1.097. Average was 0.912. The 77’s shot best of 0.744 and a worst of 1.960 with an average of 1.180. I’ve shot the same bullet previously using Benchmark with an average around 0.90.
The 556 loads, as mentioned, were straight from the Western powder company. All were loaded to 2.260. Primers across the board looked good with slight rounded edges present. No swipes or rim damage was noted.
The 18” barrel put the 50’s in at 1.110 to 1.342. Average was 1.208. The 77’s were 1.350 to 1.486. The average was 1.401.
The 24” 556 loved the 50’s at 0.883 to 1.223 for an average of 0.99. The 77’s were running 0.824 to 1.112 for an average of 0.968. This barrel has shot previously with 50’s and does about 0.85 day in day out.
Above is a compilation of speeds for the various rifles. The extra barrel length of the 22X6.8 showed an average gain of 333 FPS on the 50’s and 220 FPS on the same same loads. A bit higher difference than I would have predicted. I have a 24” 22 Nosler Black Hole barrel scheduled for delivery in the next few weeks so I will revisit the speeds and groups with it.
Personally I believe the real eye opener of the test was the top end loadings of the 556. While it was maxed and the others were not in the 18” tube I know what I would be going for. The 77’s suffered in the 556, in my opinion, by the powder choice. Some Varget or AA2520 might have been a real eye opener.
Draw your own conclusions from the data and hopefully this will give you something to think about on your cartridge choices.
Greg
PS: THIS WAS NEVER INTENDED FOR ACCURACY TESTING BETWEEN THE BARRELS. GROUPS WERE ANECDOTAL.
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