I had a chance to get to the range today, when there was actually a brief break in the weather, so that I wasn't shooting in a down pour...

I was able to test 5 different loads with the 36 grain Barnes Varmint Grenade bullets...

This was done at 100 yds with a Ruger 77 Mk2 VT and the scope was a 6.5 x 20 Simmons, set on 8 power...

The following loads were tested...

1. Blue Dot: 14.5 grains
2. Benchmark: 28 grains
3. IMR 4895/ 27 grs
4. Reloader 7, 25 grs
5. IMR 4198, 24 grs.

All primers were Winchester Small Rifle
Brass was used Lake City

Temp was in the low 40s, no wind.. semi sunny..( break in rolling weather fronts)...

All groups could be covered by a quarter...

tighest group goes to the IMR 4895 load..

tied for second were the Blue Dot and IMR 4198 loads...

The the largest groups were Benchmark and RL 7...still coverable by a quarter....

Bottom line point is, that if someone is looking for an accurate load with that bullet, all the above charges were more than accurate enough for sage rats/gophers at 300 yds, and easily prairie dogs at 400 yds.. if one can manage the trajectory....

I did not get a chance to chronograph these loads.. however all loads were set at what is listed as max for each powder, OR what was listed as max for a 40 grain bullet in the 223...( or a little extra, like in the case of RL 7)

slowest velocity would have been the IMR 4895 load.. but also the most accurate...

all would have been exceeding 3400 fps and been as high as 3800 fps, according to stats..

someone with quick load may be able to verify that...OR not...

with these loads, they certainly weren't giving groups as small as possible with the same loads using 40 grain bullets ( V Max, Ballistic Tip or Sierra 40 gr HP)... however, they were more than accurate enough for varminting out to 300 yds and beyond fairly consistently...

NOTE: this rifle has a one in 12 twist on it...

cheers
seafire

Thanks for passing along the info.

A rough estimate of MV using QuickLOAD:

1. Blue Dot: 14.5 grains = 3,342 fos
2. Benchmark: 28 grains = 3,823 fps
3. IMR 4895/ 27 grs = 3,513 fps
4. Reloader 7, 25 grs = 4,009 fps, 60,260 psi.
5. IMR 4198, 24 grs = 3,821

Data I'm missing to make a more accurate model:

The water grain capacity of spent brass from that rifle. I used 30.9 which is data from my .223. This usually has a noticable impact on both pressure and MV.

The COL of the cartridge. I used 2.26" COL.

Fitch

I don't have all the data I'd need (missing the water grain capacity of your spent brass

Fitch..

Thanks for running that...

I will have to load some more cases with those loads, to get the water capacity of the spent cartridge..

This was the 10th reload on that lot of brass...
so when I got home, I tossed them into a plastic waste basket I have for bad brass.. when it fills, I take it over to the metal recycling place in town, and whatever I get for it, goes into seafire jr's boyscout accout...


For those that are interested in the velocity/accuracy combination load.. that will be IMR 4198 at 24 grains.. especially if the MV is 3800 fps plus... that and IMR 3895 had the tightest two groups...

I'll have to play with that RL 7 load some....

you volume of 30.9 for H20 volume of the spent case looks pretty darn close to what I have seen in the past for that brass in that rifle, just haven't looked at it afterwards with those loads.. I usually don't get that high tech..

When I called Barnes the tech said their test data showed:

"IMR4198, COL 2.192, start 20.5g, Max 22.5g, 3796 FPX in 24" barrel."

QL predicts 3589 for that load, which is about 5% lower than they measured. They wouldn't give me a pressure. On screen 22.5g shows ~42,000 psi- a pretty light load for a 60,000 psi cartridge. 24g shows about 50,000 which still isn't bad. Leaves some margin for powder variation, COL variation, and hot days, etc.

I'm going to try the IMR4198 load myself.

Fitch

Seafire2

Thanks for the load data on that bullet.