First off, some of you may remember me from several years ago as Ol' Sarge. I've been reloading from more than 30 years. I've owned a NEF Handi-Rifle in .223 since 1988 but had never shot anything less than 55 grain bullets in it. It will usually put five Winchester Supreme Ballistic SilverTips into one little hole and try as I might I have yet been able to get any handload to do better. I've been shooting 55 grain Nosler BTs with H335 at about 3,200 for quite a few years. They usually go into about an inch. It wears a Leupold Compact 2-7 and rides in my truck most of the time.

Last summer, however, I found out it's not a very good high volume prairie dog gun. I mounted an Eagle Eye Optics 6-24 x 50 on it, and since I didn't have time to test handloads before I left, I bought a bunch of Winchester 45 grain hollow points which chonographed at 3,348 and went to western Kansas. I shot over seven hundred rounds stopping to let the barrel cool and clean it after every couple hundred rounds or so. While I hit almost 70 percent on the little vermin out to 300 yards or more and made as many hits out to 450 yards and beyond as my partner with his .22-250, it was not without some problems. First, shooting a break action off sandbags is a royal pain as I had to lift it off the bags to break it open. Second, when the shooting got fast and furious, the action would get hot and expand and it was difficult to break open.

Last summer my wife bought me a older pre-accutrigger Savage Model 12. I installed a Timney trigger and mounted the same Eagle Eye Optics scope from the NEF and got busy testing some 40 grain handloads for it. I wanted to use light bullets since most shots would be around 250 to 350 yards and I wanted to flatten out the trajectory as much as possible and minimize misses caused by range estimation errors. Viewing two prairie dogs through a high powered scope on flat terrain which appear to be standing side-by-side may actually be 30 yards or more apart. I figured a 40 grain bullet at over 3,650 fps versus a 45 grainer at 3,325, or a 55 grainer at 3,200 might make the difference between an hit and a miss at extreme ranges.

I tried test loads with 40 grain Nosler Ballistic Tips and Hornadays V-Max using three powders I'd always had good results with using heavier bullets. First I tried H4198, H335 and BL-C (2). Groups averaged from 1 to 3 inches at starting loads and from 2 to 4 inches at maximum charges. The more powder I used the bigger the groups got. Horrible! Velocities were also well below published speeds.

I next tried some powders especially formulated for light bullets that I'd never used before and the Savage really woke up. Both Hodgdon Benchmark and Alliant Reloader 10X turned in groups about half the size of the previous powders at starting loads and the faster I pushed them the better they shot. At maximum charges the load with the Hornaday V-Maxes and Benchmark powder reached 3,734 fps and put five shots into 7/8 inch while the Nosler Ballistic Tips and Reloader 10X shot into 1 inch at 3,680. Velocities were well above what the reloading manuals showed. The groups were not very good, but considering my previous attempts, not too bad. Maybe it's one-in-eight twist rate doesn't like light bullets. I thought about giving up on 40 grain bullets and trying some 55 grainers. However, since the faster I pushed them the better they shot, I thought I'd go up in 1/10th grain increments and see what happens.

At only 2 1/10ths grain more the V-Maxes and Benchmark went through the chrono at 3,827! With that huge an increase in velocity I'm betting the pressure level spiked big time. Plus, the group opened back up to over an inch. The Noslers and Reloader 10X clocked 3,797 fps and the group shrunk a lot. I'd put five shots into less than 1/8th inch. Just to make sure it wasn't a fluke I tried ten more and put them all into less than 1/8th! Then, I had my son shoot five and he put the first three shots into the same little hole and the next two only slightly enlarged it to just under a quarter inch. That Savage shoots after all! I loaded up 850 rounds and went to Kansas again where I fairly slayed the prairie dogs, shooting a little over 80%. I now have two videos and will be making some more soon and compiling them into one. I'm also in the process of loading up 2,300 rounds for my next trip.

On a side note: I found a few interesting and unexplainable things during this testing session. I tried every load in both guns and the Savage produced velocities 90 fps faster than the NEF using the Winchester factory loads while turning in an average of 40 fps slower than the NEF on all handloads. The Savage shot the Hornadays an average of 80 fps faster than the Noslers, while the NEF shot the Noslers an average of 35 fps faster than the Hornadays. Also, while the Savage was particular about the powder and powder charge, the NEF shot nearly all of them into about the same 1 inch group, the one exception being the Ballistic Tips and Benchmark powder, which wouldn't group under 4 inches.

In the next to last paragraph the powder charge increase should read 2/10ths, not 2 1/10th.

Is there an edit button around here somewhere?

I have 2 rifles rechambered to 223 Ackley and found that the one with a 12" twist would not shoot the 40gr Ballistic Tips very well so I went to heavier bullets. The other one has a 14" twist and shoots good groups with the 40 gr. bullets.

I picked up a Remmy SPS Varmint in 223 and have had good luck with 40grain Nosler BT's using
RL-7. That's a combo that Seafire2 recommended and have I been happy with it. The load is above max book and I found in this shooter that the max for it was 1 grain lower than in another 223. Like you said I found that the faster I pushed these pills the better they grouped. I ended up with 3925fps and groups from .4-.8 depending on me.

It's worked out to be devestating on coyotes and I'll try it out on rock chucks this spring.

I have .223 rifles in various twists. Those with 1-14 and 1-12 don't seem to have any problem with 40 grainers (my preferred Prairie Dog bullet). Those with tighter twists do better with heavier bullets. This isn't guessed at info, but actual target results. I would suspect your 1-8" twist to be the problem. I've also found the 1-14" twist to not be the best for a number of 55 gr and heavier bullets. That's why I have about six different twist rates.

I have a mod 10fp that I have had for years and it shoots about anything very good from 40 gr up to 75 gr.But it has a 1:9 twist.
40,52 and 55 gr bullets it like benchmark,with 60 gr and 69 gr it likes H322 and 2015,75 and 80 it likes varget.
I didn't know savage offered a 1:8 twist barrel on the 223,but have seen them offered from shelin in 1:8.I know this year the 223 was offered in 1:9 0r 1:7 twist,I think.I have one ordered in 260 with the 1:8 twist barrel but looks like its going to be awhile before I get it.
My 10fp shot very well out of the box but I did bed it because the forearm was so flemzy.