Will the .224 caliber Hornady 55 gr. VMAX stabilize in a 1 in 14 inch twist .222?

I shot all types of 55 out of my 250 when it had a 1-14 and it shot all of them great.

Yes, it will! Best 3 shot group at 100 m in my Sako is 7 mm. Good Luck!

Hey'
I shoot them in my 6mmBR,1 in 14 twist.Group very well.
1geejay
www.shooting-hunting.com

I have to be honest in that I have never tried the 55 grain V-Max at .222 Remington velocities.
I have fired thousands of them in 22-250 Remingtons with 1 in 14 inch twists and they shoot quite well.

This is my favorite varmint bullet in my 22-250's and they are very accurate and very destructive on small varmints while dropping coyotes with authority.

This is not to say all plastic tipped 55 grain bullets will work. When the first 55 grain Nosler Ballistic Tips hit the market I had to rush out to try them. Try as I might, I could not get them to shoot worth a damn.

I called Nosler and they readily admitted that they were really too long to stabilize in a 1 in 14 twist barrel. They wanted to know where I lived and when I told them that I lived in CA at only 300 feet elevation, they where sure that was part of the problem. Nosler claimed that if I tried them at three or four thousand feet elevation they would be fine. Much to my surprise they were right. I took some to South Dakota that summer to shoot prairie dogs and they worked fine at 3500 feet elevation. (I only took a hundred as I recall, relying instead on a couple thousand 50 grain Sierra's for most of my shooting.)

I have also had a real problem with the Sierra 55 grain BlitzKing bullet. In two different 22-250's that wear Hart barrels they are not stabilized at all. Some of them go through the target tumbling, leaving classic keyholes. All of them make oblong holes instead of round ones in the targets. The same bullets in a couple of stock Remington barrels shoot pretty well. All these barrels are 1 in 14 inch twist.

For 222 Remington velocities I think I would try any of the 50 grain versions of plastic tipped varmint bullets.

R F

A 1-14" twist is probably not sufficient to stabilize a 55gr bullet. That is not to say that it can't be done...or even done well. I suspect that most bullet manufacturers would tell you that a 14" twist would be alright if you were using a .22-250 or .220 or similar, but it's pretty iffy from a triple deuce.

Heck, give it a shot and maybe you will like the results. If that doesn't work then I would think that 40-50gr plastic tipped bullets would be the choice.

Thanks for the replies. I will load up a dozen and see how they shoot. The SAKO AI rifle I bought them for does well with the 50 gr. VMAXs and IMR 4895, but the barrel seems to be eroding rather quickly. I thought the flat base of the 55 gr. VMAXs might prolong my barrel life.