Just got back from the range. did a bit of grouping. I've noticed for awhile now that the 63 gr sierras were seeming to do better than my 55 gr loads. So i took 14 different 223s of mine out to the range with a supply of 55 gr loads using nosler BT, hornady vmax and sierra 55 gr plus a bunch of 60 and 63 gr loads from sierra and hornady. I fired 5 shot groups from each rifle with a variety of ammo. With the exception of 1 sako, all of them did better with the heavier bullet. some did lots better, some just a bit, but better was the general trend. While this is interesting, it gives me 2 problems. FIrst I've got to go clean 14 rifles, and 2nd I've got about 800 rds of 55 gr rounds loaded.

A question ;Did you fire 3 groups of #5 rounds each from each rifle and what was the average range distance and Temperature ?. What was your time lapse between each round fired ?.

Simply curious is all .

63 gr Sierra's compared to 55 gr what bullets? What were/are the loads also?

Larry Gibson

I've found that .22 cal twist rates have a huge effect.

My AR will group 69 gr BTs in a half-inch but not 55 gr HPs; best is about 3 inches.

My light-barrel M70 22-250 shoots 55 gr HPs really well but not the 69s.

Wish it was the other way around...

Oddly enough, both of them group 60 grain Noslers pretty well.

My 1 in 16 twist hornet does pretty well with 60gr Hornady spire point's. Not too bad with 55gr Hornady spire points either, but does better with hot loads. Very Hot! I have stayed with the 55 grainer because it is flatter shooting (350mm drop at 285m) but did find the 60 grainer to be harder hitting. The 55gr Hornady also happens to be a perfect fit for the hornet case neck. (These are very heavy bullets for a hornet).

My mini-14 on the other hand did not do well with the Hornady 60gr SP's - it did best with Hornady 52gr match bullets which did not expand at all but sub-MOA accuracy was more important to me. Those same 52 grainers do not do well in the hornet.

i did my shooting at 200 yds, temp was about 50 and a bit of wind, but it was from my back. All the loads were with remmy 7 1/2 primers and H335 powder. Bullets were a variety that i had on hand. with 14 different 223 rifles, twist varied from 14" to 7" and everywhere inbetween. all the groups were 5 shot and each rifle fired at least 6 different groups with different loads.I'd fire a group with a particular load though each rifle, so the barrels had quite a bit of time to cool Don't really know what to attribute this to, but it sure got my interest up

butchloc, did you take note of which bullets shot how in each rifle? It would be interesting.

didn't really get that much into individual loads, but the overall winner was 63 gr sierras. among the 55 gr the nosler BT and sierra blitzking were about the same.