finally got my hands of some of these bullets 36 gr .224 with a sintered core. They do explode. I shot some pop cans full of water in front of a piece of 1/8" masonite. Shot 22 K hronet, 218 mashburn bee, 221, and 222. in each case the pop can was blown up, and the masonite behind was spattered with fragments. There was a hole thru with the 222, but a tree directly behind showed no solid bullet. It seems that the bullets all blew into fragments. the length is the same as a 55 gr HP, so they can be loaded out further than a 40 grain type bullet. They are supposed to take high velocity, so the next tests are in a swift and for accuracy. so far so good, this looks to be a richocet proof bullet that should blow a PD to smitherenes

Thanks for the report. I loaded ammo last night for my Kimber SVT and Rock River AR. Will report when I get to the range with it.

Aaron

Butchloc, what loads are you using for the 218 mashburn bee?

Butchloc,

I would be interested in your accuracy tests.

Thanks for taking the time and effort to test and report.

Jim

Have any of you tried these on fur animals? I was thinking they may be just the ticket for saving fur. Nate

yea. I'd like to hear a little more on them also.

I posted this on another thread having to do with the .221 Fire ball but it actually fits better here so sorry about the re-post.

Yesterday at the range my buddy and I were at the range with his CZ 527 .221 (we both have one, love it). He had both the 40 Barnes and 40 V-Max loaded up in loads that were identical except for bullet to use as a comparison.
First, at least in his rifle the 40 V-Max was much more accurate which could of course be a barrel preference deal.
Second he had two heavy plastic bottles with water in them and screw on caps on em that he set at 100 yards. I spotted while he shot both bottles dead center at about 3550ish fps, one with each bullet. The Barnes bullet tore open the bottle and ripped a 1/2 inch wide 3 inch long tear in the back spilling the water. The V-Max sprayed water four feet into the air tearing about a two inch wide section of the plastic bottle all the way out and knocked the bottle about 6 or 8 feet left. The difference was dramatic!
The accuracy disparity can be explained in the old rifle didn't like em column but the with both bullets hitting the same place in the same medium with such vastly different terminal performance there's only one explanation, we both walked away even more committed to the Hornady V-Max's then we were before.
I know sometimes one rifle loves a bullet while the other hates it and I also know the two shots fired at two water filled bottles is a long way from a thorough test but I also know that my one viewing of that incident sure left me with a distinct opinion.
Maybe they like more velocity to come unwrapped?

Not sure which Barnes 40grn he was using but I believe the Varmint Grenades only come in 36 grn.

Your right Ammo Troop, he gave me some to try and I just looked, they are indeed 36 grainer's.
I think I'll try the same test and see what my rifle thinks of em.
How much are they compared to the 40 V-Max's?

about the same price. I haven't blasted anything with fur or feathers with 221 or smaller, but the 22/250 sure made a cloud of feathers out of a crow

I would think those Varmint Grenades would be quite explosive. I have used the V-maxx and soem Hornady 52 grn match loads in my 22-250. They both worked very well. The match loads seemed to pretty much turn things inside out. Really. They also gave that nice solid thwap! upon impact. When I used to own a 6mm I used the 70 grn TNT's. They were rediculous. They were truely explosive in when they hit.

I have to confess I'm biased. I shoot a lot of small caliber wildcat rounds in .17 and .20 caliber. If it weren't for Hornady I'd a been throwing rocks at things for a long time.
combine that with really fine accuracy, explosive performance and a most competitive price and it all adds up to my being really loyal to Hornady.
Sure not saying there aren't a lot of other fine products out there but Hornady always been there for us small caliber guys. It's the old "ya dance with the one that brung ya" deal.
I just built a Wildcat on a 40X Remington that was a 6MM BR, Blew the shoulder forward .100 and out to 40 degrees on the 6MM BR case and necked it down to .20, it's called a .20 Dasher.
Using a 40 grain .20 caliber V-Max at 4,200ish+ this is a 100 yard 5 shot group.



No more than they cost now that ya can get 250 round boxes and the way they smack rats I've become a real loyal customer.

I've had great luck with Vmax and with the SXSP by Hornady out of my 223 and my AR. I can't wait to try the Varmint Grenade.

Good Day
Looking for loads on 36 gr Barnes Varmit Grenades
anyone putting them in 221 Fireballs.
Think this will be a great bullet for the Fireball
Thanks

I have not tried them in the .223 or the hornet yet. I have loaded some for the 22-250. 39 grains of Varget, Win case, CCI BR primer seated .010 off the lands of my Cooper. They group at around 5/8 inches and are really explosive at 4025 fps. I have not done any load development except a couple of work up powder charges. This load is very mild in my rifle. I shot a couple of PD's and a couple of Ground squirrels with them. Really nothing left of the ground squirrels and heavy damage to the PD's as well. I don't think you would get an exit wound on coyotes or foxes either.

A friend of mine was saying that the Varmint Grenades he tried where 3/4 inch at best. He has some scary accurate rifles and loads all of his own ammo. I will try to get the load data off of him. I believe he was shooting them thru his .223 AI.

I also wanted to chime in as another loyal Hornaday bullet customer. The .30 cal 168 grain A-Max bullets are one holler’s in my M70 Heavy varmint .308 Win. And they are devastating on coyotes. Clear past 400 yards. It is always fun to drop them in on PD's out around 600 to 700 yards.

I finally got my hands on some of these new Barnes 36gr Varmint Grenades.
For all the hype I personally don’t think they are all what they are cracked up to be.
I went to the range today and took my 22-250, I have a load for it with a 50gr Hornady V-Max that shoots almost a one hole group @ 100 yards. I loaded these new Barnes bullets with several different loads of Varget, Starting load was 36.5 which worked out to be the most accurate load, the COL is 2.420 which is the same for the 50gr barnes (if I remember correctly it is 20 thousandths under (Stoney point messurment)). 4 of these just barely egged the hole out with one just under a ½ in. below the group. I was pretty happy with that, but when I did the water bottle trick I was less that enthused.
The Barnes bullets put a small hole in the front and ruptured the back, The Hornady 50gr V-Max totally destroyed the bottle. If I can get my computer guru to take some pic’s I will post them later. My kid sure knows this *&^&% better that I do..
I will load a hundred or so to take on this year’s pdog trip and will try them there to see if there is any noticeable difference.
I don’t know if anyone else has tried these yet but I think I will stick with the V-max and Speer TNT since Barnes discontinued the Varmin A tors.
The Barnes bullets did push the bottle back towards me by about 6 feet were as the V-max just exploaded the bottle so there may be something to this, well the long and short of it is I will try them on pdogs to see how they work and next year I will try then on coyotes to see if there is any pelt damage.

If anyone else get any different results, I would like to know how they did. I don’t know what the muzzle velocity is on any of these loads as I don't have a coronagraph.

WOW I think I just found a knew toy, Man my wife going to kill me, She said if I buy one more thing for shooting or pdoging she’s going to go back to her moms . MAN I’m going to miss that 4x4 pickup.

I've got some loaded up for my 224 wby. Now if could just convince a coyote to come running in to the Foxpro, I'll let you know how fur friendly it is.

Shot some varmint grenades last night. My AR didn't like them but my Kimber SVT shows some promise. Best group was around 2/3". Will do some experimenting with powder charge and bullet seating depths. I think they will shoot.

Looking forward to trying them out on game.

Aaron