Well, I finally pulled the trigger and bought a RCBS Rock Chuckar kit last week. Purchased the Hornady reloading book and got the Speer book with the kit. Last night, I ordered the Nosler reloading book and the Sierra book, too.

Additionally, I ordered 4 different 55 gr bullets to try. 1) Sierra Blitzking 2) Nosler Ballistic Tips 3) Hornady V-Max and 4) Speer HPBT.

These will be placed into Winchester Brass with CCI 450 primers.

I'd like to buy 2-4 different powders to do my initial load research. With all the powders available, I don't know where to really start. The gun is a Ruger Mini-14 Target rifle with a 1 in 9" twist.

Thanks in advance!!

Accurate Arms 2230 is a good choice. Many use and love BL-C(2). Hodgdon H322 is a good powder for accuracy versus general usage. I use BL-C(2) almost exclusively. Sierra MatchKings and Hornady V-Max are good bullets. I use MatchKings almost exclusively.

Mini-14s are OK guns but as far as accuracy goes, they ain't top shelf. An AR-15 with a good barrel will shoot rings around a Mini. It's because Ruger doesn't put the money into its barrels that the makers of aftermarket barrels willingly do. This is because there is a great market for aftermarket accessories for ARs versus the market for Minis.

Best place to buy powder is Powder Valley in Winfield, Kansas.

Do a search for Steve's Reloading Pages for oodles of reloading information. Megatons of really good stuff there...

RL-7. Start with around 23 g and work your way up.


Good luck

Varget and WW748.
Peter.

H335:



As usual, start low & work up.

Regards,
hm

Curious as to why one would purchase #4 different 55 grain projectiles ?. Two perhaps paper punchers and hunting but 4 ?. All of the same weight Most curious .

Graybird ; I'm not criticizing , I simply was curious as to why no other weight projectiles were purchased .

H 335 BLC-2 are excellent powders as is Varget 4198 and Bench Rest .

Shoot Straight Know Your Target . ...

quote:

Originally posted by Dr.K:
Curious as to why one would purchase #4 different 55 grain projectiles ?. Two perhaps paper punchers and hunting but 4 ?. All of the same weight Most curious .

Graybird ; I'm not criticizing , I simply was curious as to why no other weight projectiles were purchased .

H 335 BLC-2 are excellent powders as is Varget 4198 and Bench Rest .

Shoot Straight Know Your Target . ...

Mainly, I did it to see which bullets the gun liked best. Then, I thought I could go up or down, regarding weight, with that particular bullet. Basically, it came down to comparison purposes. I thought if I varied the weights of the bullets initially, it would be like comparing apples to oranges. At least this way I would have a constant weight and the bullet type would be my variable. If I had different bullets and weights then, I would have two variables and not really know which of those two variables were providing the result, good or bad.

I've used H-335, Win-748, Varget but I really like BL(C)-2 the best.

For 55gr I use either H335 or Varget. Both give about the same performance for me. I prefer Varget but I use whatever is available locally.

For 75gr bullets I use RL-15

This is for an AR15

If you've already decided on using magnum primers, you might as well use a ball or spherical powder for which those primers were designed. Stick with regular primers when loading extruded propellants. It's all that's needed, really. You don't need magnum primers to fire in a semi-auto.

Actually, I agree with Graybird's initial decision to stick with 55 gr bullets of different manufacturers. The 55 gr is a good weight to use in a 1 in 9 twist, and will still allow for decent velocities. The Ruger Target Mini 14 is supposed to be a big improvement over the original ranch rifles (which I sometimes think were designed to "herd" coyotes, rather than "hurt" them.
Another good powder to try, if it is available in your area , is Ramshot TAC. It supposedly even has a copper fouling inhibitor and is very clean burning. And while I am not sure any of the powders really need small rifle magnum primers, (well, maybe H-335, Win 748 or H-380) I don't think they will hurt anything as long as you work up gradually and watch for signs of high pressure.

H335.
The question is why NOT four different kinds of bullets in 55grs? If he narrows things down to only 55gr bullets --which is an excellant choice for the .223-- he only has several dozen different kinds to try instead of several hundred.

h335, rl-7, varget

My 3 favorites for the .223 Rem and wildcats based off of that case are H335, H335 and H335 -- in no particular order...

I have good success with H335, Varget, Benchmark and BL-C2, for bullet weights ranging 52gr-77gr.

quote:

Originally posted by stillbeeman:
H335.
The question is why NOT four different kinds of bullets in 55grs? If he narrows things down to only 55gr bullets --which is an excellant choice for the .223-- he only has several dozen different kinds to try instead of several hundred.

stillbeeman,

Could you elaborate a bit more?

The primary use for this gun/loads will be prairie dogs hence my selection of bullets. As to be expected, the reasoning for going with the 55 gr bullet is the 1 in 9 twist and I wanted a little heavier bullet for bucking the wind.

Any recommendations appreciated!

Thanks,

graybird, I've shot a whole bunch of P dogs. Using 22-250's with standard twist barrels and 55gr bullets. Shooting in Wyoming so you can imagine dealing with the wind was part of the game.

The heavy bullets and fast twist for the .223 came into being when the USA reluctantly kinda admitted the .223 was a piss poor combat cartridge. And they first tried a heavier bullet which a standard 1/14 or 1/12 twist barrel wouldn't stabilize and so they tightened up the twist to 1/9 or so and still ended up with a piss poor combat weapon. IMO, the .223 is an excellent cartridge when you let it do what it does best. And trying to make it into a 600 yard P dog rifle isn't it. I don't believe the heavier bullets --60&70grs vice 55grs-- really give you that much of an edge that a little practice wouldn't negate. Part of the fun of our P dog shooting was doping the wind. Of course, some days you just didn't shoot or hunted for wind pockets that had a few dogs.
Right at present, I have 3 .223's and a single .222. They all have 1/14 or 1/12 twist and I think of them as 250 yard, maybe 300 yard varmint rifles. All of them will shoot sub .5" 5 shot groups consistantly. And those are not cyberspace groups but measured groups in factory matches and such. I hope your 1/9 does as well.
IMO, if you want to shoot a 70gr bullet 700 yards, buy a .243 or .260.

Although I have used other powders, I would suggest starting with Varget.

After using other powders, i a going back to Varget because it works well in so many different cartridges.