I am about to start getting things going with my Savage in .223 and I am wondering what would be the ideal bullet weight on a 1 n 9 twist?


Thanks !

Justin

I've had great luck with 50 grain up to 68 grain bulllets in my 1:9" twist barrels but others have told me of good results with 40 grain up to 70 grain bullets.

What's the best?

The one that shoots the most accurately in your gun.

I have been shooting Black Hills 52gr MHP but I am kind of wanting to shoot some 60-70's. The 52's aren't showing me the groups I was expecting out of the gun and I am kind of wanting to lean towards the heavier weight to buck the wind although it will be minimal with such a small caliber.

I have a few Savages and Steven's 1-9" that shoot the 60 gr. Sierra HP's pretty well with a stiff charge of RL10. There a flat base bullet.

Any bullet will work well in a 223 with a one in 9 except the really fragile bullets.. like Hornady SPSXs....

So far those are really the only bullets that I have vaporized in mine..

V Maxes hold up well to faster velocities, as do most of the other 'fragile' bullets that I have tried...

Even the SPSXs will work.. you just have to throttle their velocities down to under 2500 fps or so...

I ended up getting some 69gr mbthp Sierra's to try out


We shall see how they shoot!

Justin

Bugle..

I've been playing with the 80 grain Sierra Match and the 75 grain A Maxes in my Savage...

I have got some 80 grain A Max on order via Graf and Sons...If you want your Savage to really reach out there, give those a try!

I have a savage 10fp in 223 and it shoots anything I put in it very well.
With those 69 sierra's you may want to try r-15,25gs give me 2933 fps and 25.5 gives me 2996 fps out of 24 in barrel.I have shot more 3-shot one holers with the 25 grs.wsr primers.
H322 -22.5 grs and benchmark - 23 grs does very well also.Below is how it shoots 40 and 55 gr BT

Thanks guys!

Seafire - I will give those 80's a try after I see what the 69's will do!

Thanks for the info Owens! I was thinking about trying some H335 with them but who knows

My cooper .223 has a 1/9 twist barrel, it shoots 50gr very well but realy shines with 75gr Amax and 24.5 H4895 (3000fps) or 24.5gr of varget. The 75s blow up very well on varmints, and have a high BC.

Thanks seafire and cooperman,Think I will give those 75 a-maxes a try too.I don't varmit hunt anymore,haven't in several years,I used a bow then,but do kill a lot of paper every week.Our range just goes to 300 yds so I am limited there too.
Buglemin,lets us know how the 69's do for you.I have never used the H335 so don't know anything about it,but maybe seafire has.

Thanks for the help

I may have to try those 75gr A Max's as well with the Varget load

I use 24.4/IMR4895/69 grain Sierra HPBT's, out of my 1-9, and it shoots them very well. If I were you, I would expect my rifle to shoot 69's well, and hope it will shoot 77's or 80's.

Jerry

Just loaded up some of the 75 a-max to try tomorrow with varget H4895,going to start out with the h4895 and work up because the 8lb jug I have is the bulk powder and it is a little faster than the factory cans.
Will let you know how it shoots.

With the heavier bullets.. 69 grains and up...

My best results have been with Varget, BLC2, W 748, IMR 4895... IMR 4064 (that and Varget are the first two I reach for) H 380, and Reloader 7...

H 4895 can sometimes be good but results are too inconsistent in all of my experiences.. way too finicky...

H 335 is not bad.. but if it and BLC were sitting on the same counter, I'd reach for the BLC 2 anytime...

An often over looked pair of bullets for accuracy also are the 68 grain Hornady Match and the 75 grain Hornady match...If you are just shooting paper, the 75 grain Hornady HP match is actually consistently better at accuracy than the 75 grain A/Maxes are....

At the top of my list right now to get some and try are the Hornady 80 grain A Maxes.. they have the length of the 90 grain Sierras.. and are supposed to be able to stabilize with a one in 9 twist like in the Savages...

It also looks like a dandy bullet to try on deer in my book...

RL 15 has been disappointing to me in the heavier bullets in the 223 and 22.250.. it usually is a first class choice.. but not here.. Varget and IMR 4064 are the most accurate in my rifles...

however, even with those 1 in 9 twists, don't leave out the good old standbys of the 52 and 53 grain match bullets of both Sierra and Hornady... and if you have a champaign budget ( I don't.. ) Berger offers a target shooters disneyland of choices that are great in 22 caliber and 6mm....

40 and 50 grain V Maxes and Ballsitic Tips also can really produce some fast but accurate loads with Benchmark right at 28 grains for the 40s and 27 grains for the 50s......and they will be explosive when they hit those prairie dogs...

but they won't be real fur friendly! on coyotes or foxes...

with 55 and 60 grain bullets.. 21.5 grains of IMR 4198 are really accurate....
All of Sierra's and Hornady's bullets are real accurate with this charge....

a great and overlooked bullet for target work and varminting is the 60 grain Sierra HP....it has proven to be as accurate, if not moreso, than the 69 grain match in a batch of my 223s!!!!

Reloader 7 is also a very very accurate powder for bullet weights between 40 grains and 80 grains....stiff charges with the lighter bullets can give both some accurate and fast velocities... I go as high as 28 grains of RL 7 with 40 grain bullets when using Rem or Winchester brass and ignite it with a small pistol primer....( work up on that one.. but MVs are at 4,000 fps with a 40 grain b/tip or Vmax) 26 inch barrel results...

Small pistol primers actually seem to lower pressures and increase accuracy in some of my 223 loads.. that was passed on as a tip from someone else.. and trying it out has worked benefits...at least so far with CCI and Winchester Small Pistol primers.. with Remington's 6 1/2 the results weren't as good and a few primers had their cups pierced, so I don't recommend those on stout loads...

just passing on some observations here...


seafire

Great info there seafire as usual.I did get to try the 75 a-maxes to day and was surprised how well they shot.I loaded up 6 with the varget at 24.5 grs and 3 each with the H4895 because the jug I have is a little hotter.Shot 3 of the varget at 100 and 3 at 300yds got 1.164 in at 300.You can see what I got at 100 below.
I tried some H322 with the 69 gr and it did almost as good as R-15 does.

Might also take a look at the 65 JLK Low Drag, BC of .397. That'll get u out there aways too.

www.swampworks.com

Let my buddie shoot some of the H322 and 69 sierra's load at 300 in his 26 in barrel savage.He pulled the firdt one but the next 5 made a good group.I got a tad less than an inch out of mine.

My Savage also seems to like the 68 and 69 grain Match bullets fueled with 22.5 grains of H 322...

I haven't been working with it for a long time.. but I have sure been impressed with some of the results...

I've recently started working with a 20" 1 in 9" Twist DPMS Panther Bull 20 Fluted. So far I have tried 4 different loads (two that were left over from a different .223). Those loads are



40gr. Nosler Ballistic Tips / 26.5grs. Benchmark / Federal Gold Medal Match Primers / LC Brass - Average Velocity = 3316 FPS / 1" 5 shot 100 yard groups

50gr. Nosler Ballistic Tips / 25.5grs. Benchmark / Winchester Small Rifle Primers / LC Brass - Average Velocity = 3205 FPS / 1.25" 5 shot 100 yard groups

55gr. Nosler Ballistic Tips / 25.5grs. H-4895 / Winchester Small Rifle Primers / LC Brass - Average Velocity = 3090 FPS / 5/8" to 3/4" 5 shot 100 yard groups

55gr. Sierra Hollow Point Boat Tails / 25.5grs. H-4895 / Winchester Small Rifle Primers / LC Brass - Average Velocity = 3096 FPS / 3/4" 5 shot 100 yard groups



The above target was shot with the 55gr. Sierra Hollow Point Boat Tails at 100 yards from the Bench in the above photo. Yep I pulled the last shot (the high bullet hole) and knew it when the trigger broke. The other 4 measure .659" center to center. (The coyote is on a piece of typing paper to give you an idea of the size.)

I haven't tried anything heavier as yet, but plan on trying some 69gr. Sierra Matchking Hollow Point Boat Tails in the not to distant future.

Larry

I too am useing a DPMS Bull fluted (24") with Nosler Ballistic tip 55gr. So far it's quarter size groups at 200 yards...I'm amazed.

quote:

Originally posted by Fjold:
I've had great luck with 50 grain up to 68 grain bulllets in my 1:9" twist barrels but others have told me of good results with 40 grain up to 70 grain bullets.

What's the best?

The one that shoots the most accurately in your gun.

Ditto in my 12VBSS roger

seafire have you tried any of the nosler 69 gr match compition bullets? we tried some tuesday in 2 different savages but wouldn't group like the sierras.I am sure they will shoot but will probably take a differant load or amount,or maybe differant primer.
I received a box of the 80 gr a-maxes,will try some with varget next week to see how they do.

Owensby,

I have shot some Nosler Match bullets in 69, 77 and 80 grains and all have shot well thru both my Savage and my Pac Nor Barreled 223 that I got before the Savage...

The Pac Nor was on a Ruger, but when I got the Savage, I had the barrel put on a Ruger 243 and had it rechambered to 22.250....

That shot the 69 grain Noslers also as well as it does 69 grain Sierras...

Here is a link to how that project turned out...

http://www.imagestation.com/album/pictures.html?id=2090634171

It shoots the Nosler's just fine...

H 322 seemed to work well in the Savage for both the 69 grain Noslers and the Sierras.. a sleeper bullet in that weight area is the 68 grain Hornady Match HP...and as with Hornady, always cheaper also!

The 22.250 likes the 68 grain Hornady's also!

quote:

Originally posted by Buglemintoday:
I am about to start getting things going with my Savage in .223 and I am wondering what would be the ideal bullet weight on a 1 n 9 twist?


Thanks !

Justin

55grn Sierra Blizking and 69grn Sierra Match perform really good in front of ADI BM2 in my Steyr Pro Hunter.

69grn Nolser Custom Competition also in front of ADI BM2 shoot really well for my son in his Savage 10FP

Just bought a DPMS AR15 so now I have 2 guns to reload for, hurray!

seafire have you tried the 80 amax yet,if so what powder did you use?
I got to try three 3-shot groups this morning useing 24.5 grs of varget,and got,.675,.495,.409.Think they did really well in the savage at 100 yds.

Ownsby,

like you.. Varget and 4064 are winners with the charge of 24, 24.5 and 25 grains in my 12 BVSS...

25 is getting a little warm using a mag primer, so I recommend Small Rifle, if not small pistol primers...

i been using accurate 2230and 2015 with 50 grain ballistic tips in my savage and the best group so far measured .45 of an inch in my savage at 100 yds. accurate 2460 with 53 grain sierra match is showing promise

quote:

Originally posted by Buglemintoday:
I am about to start getting things going with my Savage in .223 and I am wondering what would be the ideal bullet weight on a 1 n 9 twist?


Thanks !

Justin

Try asking the question the other way around.
(in several parts)
a)what will you use the rifle for?
b)What bullet best serves that purpose?
c)What twist rate is best for that bullet?

In that sequence I didn't have any issues with getting a 223rem rifle with a 1:12 twist rate.

I shoot only 40, 45 and 50gr bullets in the 223, usually propelled with Benchmark.

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