223 Black Hills Ammo for Bushmaster Varminter

easternhunter

easternhunter

New member
I am looking at trying some black hills remanufactured ammo in my Bushmaster Varminter. (1in9 twist). any suggestions. I will use this mainly for yotes and the occasional ground hog, fox and whatever offers a shot. I was looking at the 60 gr. V-max but then a friend suggested that I go larger in grain. Anyone have any luck with the 1 in 9 twist with say a 68 grain to 77 grain bullet.

Thanks in advance for your help.
 
I've had great success with the 60-V Max with both accuracy and terminal performance on coyotes. I've also had good results with the 68 and 69 MK's. The 77's may not shoot well in the 1-9 twist, but the only way to know for sure is to shoot them.

Byron
 
We shoot the 75 grain BH match ammo for High Power competition in 20" 1-9 twist service rifles. It works out to 600 yards. No idea what it would do on a coyote but it makes real nice holes in paper targets.
 
I am shooting Black Hills 55 grain soft points and FMJ's out of my Varminter and they are shooting GREAT! I opt'ed for the soft points for yotes to save fur...The Vmax does some real damage...
 
I also use the 60gr VMax Black Hills (blue box)out of my 20" HBar Bushy, they shoot great, however the 68gr match (blue box) round does group just a little better. I am under the impression that match ammo is best suited for punching paper and the VMax is for hunting smaller thin skined game. Not to sure what match ammo would do to a fox, but I would think that it would leave a huge enterance hole and not give much penetration.
 
I dont have a bushy 1-9 I have a Shaw 1-8 and I shoot the blue box 68 hp's with good success last 5 shot group @ 100yds was 0.824

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I wouldnt be afraid to try at least their cheep Stay way away from the Wolf a friend that owns a gun shop gave me a box and I shot a 3.5 inch group /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/crazy.gif
 
I would say you should get a different twist barrel if you want to shoot the heavy bullets. Sabre Defence makes a 1:7 twist and should do the trick for you.
 
The longest bullet a 9" twist usually will shoot is the 70gr VLD. Once in a while I will see a 9" shoot the 75VLD but not normally.

Jack
 
The 75 grain BH match ammo isn't true VLD. It is called "length tolerant" and is loaded specifically to run properly thru the AR magazine for rapid fire feeding. We tested it in 3 or 4 AR's with 1-9 twist 20" barrels and it has shot fine to 600 yards so far. A 16" barrel might lose just enough velocity to keep the bullet from stabilizing. Service rifle shooters use 20" barrels. A couple of guys have told me that their 1-9 twist service rifles don't like the heavier bullets and they shoot 68 or 69 grain loads out to 600 yards. Must be some sort of Voo-Doo involved.

If anything, the match ammo would probably be less likely to expand than V-max style ammo.

We played with some V-max bullets in my .243 Win. rifle and had a problem with the bullet disintegrating (or blowing up) after going thru a sheet of the soft insulating backer board that you typically put up at rifle ranges to staple your target on to.
We have a pit area so that a shooter can safely shoot at a target and a scorer can run the target down to mark and score. The V-max bullets were going thru the target and backer board but disintegrating before getting to the impact berm. There would be a hole thru the target but the scorer would see a puff right after the target and nothing would hit the berm.
 
Has anyone read anything about the Bushmaster Predator, 20-inch (1-8 twist). With a 1-8 twist, how heavy of a bullet would you need to be throwing? I just bought a V-Match (20-inch) and topped it with a Leupold 3-9 PR. I'll take it out ot the bench this weekend.
 
Quote:
Has anyone read anything about the Bushmaster Predator, 20-inch (1-8 twist). With a 1-8 twist, how heavy of a bullet would you need to be throwing? I just bought a V-Match (20-inch) and topped it with a Leupold 3-9 PR. I'll take it out ot the bench this weekend.



With a 1-8 twist you should be able to run bullets between 60 and 80 grains accurately. Like was mentioned several times, you need to test it in your specific rifle cause sometimes particular rifles just don't like the same things that other rifles like.
For a 1-8 twist I would probably run the 75 A-max bullets if pelt damage isn't an issue.
 
I've heard a lot of talk about the v-max's not being fur friendly, splashing along with other stories. I've shot lots, and I mean lots ot coyotes with the 60 v-max's. Most were DRT with minimal fur damage. I've also killed a couple dozen bobcats with the 60's with excellent results.

On the other hand I have a friend that has had horrible results with the lighter v-max's.

It's my theory that the slightly longer, heavier, slower 60's have found the sweet spot for delivering what I desire.

I tried the 69 MK's for a while and liked them as well but felt the v-max's delivered more hydrostatic shock. The 69's also often made large exits. For the record though, they performed much like any other hunting bullet I've shot. They have a soft core and a thin jacket, just like most hunting bullets in 223.

I'm a fan of heavy for caliber bullets but only to a point. I believe you can go to heavy just as you can go to light. This opinion is concerning hunting bullets where terminal performance is every much as important as accuracy. Punching paper at 600 is an intirely different game.

This is one of the beauties of the 223 and AR-15 rifles. They offer you a lot of vesatility, bullet choices, plus accuracy. They can be set up to perform many task equally as well as any other design ever developed.

Byron
 
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Byron,
Good advice. I picked up a Bushy Varminter Special after reading a lot of your's and other people's comments. I absolutely love it. Already killed lots of prairie dogs with it, but I used lighter bullets. I'd like to try the 60 grain V-max. Do you hand load or buy factory rounds? If you handload, do you mind sharing your recipe?

Thanks for all the help!
 
One more time on the barrel twist for AR's. 1 in 8 barrels have no trouble shooting bullet weights from 40 to 80's. I have rifles that will shoot 40 gr 10-shot averages from 1/2 to 3/4 inches. It will do the same with 77's or 69's. This is with factory ammo.

1 in 9 twist barrels are finicky with factory ammo in my experience. Generally, they shoot 1 or 2 factory loads well but the 1 in 8's generally like 4 or 5. For the 1 in 9's, would recommend BH's 52, 55sp, or the 60 V-Max. One of these should do the trick.

Don't limit yourself with a 1 in 9 twist barrel. The 8's will shoot them all and in most cases much better. I would stay away from the 7 twist barrels as most of them are hit or miss too.

I have not had any trouble with the V-Max bullet performance. Recently shot a cat at 52 yds with a 55gr V-Max with small exit hole. Shot yote 6 min's later at 122 with no exit from the same rifle. Out of my AR this bullet was running 3450 fps from my new wildcat round. Both bang flop!
 
I contacted black hills about this when I was building my rifle. I wanted to shoot Mk262 since that is what I shot in Iraq and I am quite confadent in it. At the time I was getting a 1 in 9 and they told me that there 75 grn will stabilize OK out of a 1 in 9 but the 77 needed at least a 1 in 8. As for 80 grn, I think a 1 in 7 would be much better.

Since you already have a 1 in 9 I would suggest useing something in the 60 grain range as it is better in my opinion to shoot bullets that are more suited for the barrel than one that is borderline. I feel you would gain more accuracy doing this.
 
The 80's are a single load round for the AR's and not very practical except for match shooting. I use them in my bolt guns. Some 9 twist barrels don't want to shoot the 75's at all I have heard but have not had this experience with them. I have not seen the 75's shoot very well in the 9 twist rifles I have used but they did not tumble.
 


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