Looking for a .223rem load: ~70grn Bullets/Powders

Varminterror

Varminterror

New member
Thinking about trying something new after a long time on the same load with my wife's Savage 12 Varminter (Old style, BVSS, not the VLP-DBM). Looking for some help finding some starting points, powder/bullet combinations that have worked for guys.

This means 26" tube, 1:9" twist (not ideal for heavy weights, but I've had a few good strokes with 69 and 75grn loads in the past in 9 twists).

Currently running 50grn V-maxes that have treated the rifle well with a few different powders just over 3400fps, looking for a little more weight and better BC to do a little more work down range 0-600yrds.

The heavy loads I've used in the past were on targets or p-dogs, so I'm looking for a little help figuring out a bullet/load that will be good for coyotes.

Looking for 69-75grn bullets and loads that will be good for coyotes, looking for .300+ BC's, hoping to stay over 3000fps, but at least 2850+.

Ideally will get into a mag length COAL so I'm not stuck single loading, but the Savage allows pretty long loads so I'm thinking it shouldn't be a problem (obviously can't load them in my AR's without sacrificing speed).

Specifically looking for speeds and killing performance from different bullets, 69grn SMK, 75grn A-Max, 70 or 75grn Berger VLD's, any others worth looking at?

Running Remington Brass (2-4 firings on about 500 of them) right now, it's all I got in any substantial quantity, obviously can't get anything else right now. Have Rem 7.5's, CCI BR's, 400's, and 450's, and Win WSR's, enough to get me through until the rush lets up (hopefully), so matching up a primer shouldn't be a problem.

Opinions on whether a 70-75grn pill vs the 50grn pill is worth the trouble at 600yrds are fair also I suppose, since I'm sure I'll get a few anyway.

Thanks yall!
 
I don't mean to get off track, but a longer range coyote gun/load often leads to the 243. Just throwing it out there as an easy solution.
 
Originally Posted By: muskrat30 I don't mean to get off track, but a longer range coyote gun/load often leads to the 243. Just throwing it out there as an easy solution.

No doubt. We have a couple .243's, both in standard and WSSM flavor (wishing now that the bolt .243WSSM would have been a 25, but that's another story). Just looking for a little more air time with her favorite benchgun/coyote rifle.

She doesn't have any real complaints from the 50grn V-max's to be honest, other than knowing a 70grn pill will carry almost twice the energy, drift less, and maintain a higher impact velocity at 600yrds, even though it would start out slower.

Always nice to "get to tinker" when looking for a new load with a good one on the shelf, rather than 'need to tinker' to find a load the rifle likes in the first place.
 
The 70 and 73 Gr Berger TARGET are rated for 1-9" twist. I don't know how much speed you can get out of those, but they should spin em.

Eta...Hodgdon H 4895 or H322 may get you to 3k. Just keep an eye on pressure.
 
h4895 my friend.

70 bergers work good, 69 nos hpbt is the hammer of thor on yotes and the 69smk...well, to me it doesn't mean "sierra match king" anymore....I call it the 69 smackdown.
 
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H4895 should get you above 3,000 fps pretty easily with that 26" barrel. I shot 69 Noslers on paper some with great results, but never shot any coyotes with them.
 
Been wanting to try something similar to this in My 700 VTR. It has 22" barrel and 1x9". What kind of OAL you guys using with these longer bullets?
 
With the 69 Noslers in a Savage 1x9 I got very good groups at 2.335 and 2.270 both. Shot several .3's with both lengths. Best group was .188 with the 2.335. These were 3 shot groups.
 
That is what I would do. Find a good node and then you can adjust OAL to fine tune. I was shooting a max load according to Hodgdon's website, but you need to follow the usual procedure of starting below that. Two grains lower might be a safer starting point. Hope it works out for you.
 
My plan right now as I'm cooking mine up is to start 0.01" off the lands, find a powder and charge it likes, then work COAL in and out to find the sweet spot without over pressuring. My estimation is that I'm going to need to leave a bit of a jump to keep my pressures down since I'm asking a lot of the little case for velocity with these long/heavy pills.
 
I got to digging around in my loading notes last night, and saw my load i used for the 69 gr. Nosler HPBT, and it was 23 gr Varget at 2.25 COAL. Thi was a load i tried for my DPMS Sweet 16. It shot lights out, i believe it was under .5MOA, ill dig around for the picture. But i neer did try them out hunting. I have a fe bullets left, might have to try them out in my VTR, and do a little tweeking from there.

EDIT: FOUND IT

67sggj.jpg


sdnua8.jpg
 
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A few votes for the H4895, but unfortunately I've been out of H4895 and haven't been able to find any on a shelf lately. Have a few pounds of IMR 4895, any qualms about using that up? I haven't played with the two to see the differences, but have generally understood that they're virtually the same, maybe a little faster for the IMR?
 
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