I have been thinking about trying the 35gr V Max's in my 222 but I have not heard much about it performance on varmints and is it accurate. Has any one used them on small game or have any good loads they have used with this bullet in a 222 Rem. Thanks, Dale

Dale,

My first impression of the bullet was that it had the appearance and BC of a brick......

If you need a 35gr. bullet, try the JRP bullets.

BTW.....my favorite varmint bullet in the 222 is the Nosler 40gr. Ballistic-Tip........at about 3770fps.

Hope this helps,
Kevin Gullette

I tried them in mine but never achieved any acceptable degree of accuracy. However I do shoot them occasionally in my .22 Hornet. Mostly when hunting groundhogs when I know the shots will not be past 100 yards or so.

They do perform well on shots if kept on the sunny side of 100 yards. They also seem to be very sensitive to even the slightest crosswind.

It's the only bullet I've tried that failed to be accurate in my Sako75 in .222Rem. Accuracy of 2" for 5-shot groups and no real "feeling", the patterns felt very arbitrary and gave little help for improving the loads.

But MY GOD, they were fast...

/HerrBerg

[ 11-19-2003, 15:17: Message edited by: HerrBerg ]

I have shot a bunch of them in 22 Hornet. They are accurate and give outstanding terminal performance on critters up to prairie dogs and young chucks. Velocity out of the Hornet is still too slow for dramatic downrange performance on the big chucks, but they still work well enough for instant kills out to 200 yards or so.

In a .222 the velocity advantage should give more dramatic results on the bigger critters at medium range.

I like the 35 VMAX a lot!

They are a brick, no doubt but they need to be to fit Hornet throats. I shoot them exclusively in my Browning Micro Hunter into about 3/4 inch, better every once in a while. I think these are best saved as a Hornet bullet, not much else.

Thanks for the replies guys. It looks like 3 negative and one positive on the VMax. I think I will pass on trying them. The 40gr noslers shoot well in my gun, but I have not been able to get over 3300 fps with them out of a 22" barrel. If I could get over 3500 fps with the 40gr I would not even think about the 35gr's. Kevin, What powder are you using to get that high a velocity ? And what is your barrel length? Thanks, Dale

Dale, if you are moving to the 40 grainers don't overlook the 40 gr. V-Max. I find them to deliver sub half moa with either VVN133 or IMR4895 in my Sako 75 Varmint bolt rifle.

Good luck.

Dale, just to complete my sentence it should have read "in my Sako 75 Varmint bolt rifle in 222 Rem. caliber"

Good luck

Forget the 35's, go with 40gr VMax. Very accurate and deadly in both of my 222s. Work up an accurate load and go blow some fur!

Dale,

I shoot the 40BT's out of my 40XBR 222 with N130 powder. The barrel is 24" long. I did replace the firing pin spring with a 32 pound Wolff gunspring, to help a little with primer cratering. I'd start at about 20 grains of N130 and carefully work up.

Later,
Kevin Gullette