I bought a box of the Sierra 65 gr. GameKing to play with in a 1 in 9 twist 223. Being a little on the heavy side for a .224 bullet, I thougth I would start with N540 that shoots so well with a 69 gr. MatchKing. I couldn't get any load to shoot sub MOA. So after looking at the Sierra data for the old 63 gr. SMP, I tried N133 and found a load that shot three straight 5 shot groups what went in the low to mid .4's using 23.3 gr. of N133 with a CCI BR-4 primer in Winchester brass @ 3067 fps average for the 15 shots. Just goes to show, don't quit on something that don't work at first. I would have never tried it, if I hadn't looked at the manual. I know N133 works very well with the lighter bullets. Just thougth I would share it with the fourm memebers.

PaPa 260

Thanks for the share!!
I've had good luck with N133 in my 223's with lighter bullets, in the 50 grain range.

I have been using the 65 gn Sierra GameKing since they came out. Sierra said to use the 63 gn data and also told me that they were made from the 77 gn Sierra MatchKing jacket.

I have never had the accuracy from the 65 GK as I thought it should and this is from a variety of 1-7 through 1-12 barrels. I think a 223 in a good bolt gun with a premium type barrel should at worst cloverleaf at 100 yards, but I get roughly 1" groups give or take. The same guns will one hole 69 gn Sierra MatchKings. I have used Varget, IMR 4064, H335, and RE-15.

I wanted to build a light 600 yard coyote killer and use the 65 GK's, but have more or less gave up on them and will use the 69 SMK. The 65 GK should be a decent deer killer inside 200 yards, 300 tops. a 3 inch group at 300 is vitals; a 6 inch group at 600 is not.

That was what I was getting, 1 MOA give or take a little until I tried the N133. Like I said I would have never tried that powder with a 65 gr. bullet if I hadn't read the manual. I knew N133 would make a 50 gr. class bullet sing. Before you give up on the bullet you might try the N133 load. I am going to use it as a coyote load as well.

PaPa 260

It is nothing new for me to test 12 to 15 different powders in a bullet cartridge combo to see what will shoot best...

Some of the results that I have found are far from what is often considered a potential combination at all...

most load data now favors whatever is going to get the shooter to use the most powder, to burn up that pound of powder as quickly as possible..

back in the 1950s, when powder was dirt cheap, many folks in society back then still had the old depression ideas of economy and efficiency..

we've lost that as society has replaced that with the concept of bigger, better, faster..

This is interesting to me because I have always thought that the bullet was the most important component in determining accuracy.

Do most of you all continue to try to get a bullet to be accurate after the first couple of powder tries? I usually test different bullets with the same powder until I find a bullet that the gun likes.

I most generally, well almost always keep changing powders and primers till I get a bullet to shoot the way I want it. I suppose changing bullets is another way of going about it. The only bullet I have ever quit on was the Hornaday 129 in a SWEET shooting 260. I could not get that bullet to shoot sub 1 MOA. I went to the 120 gr. Nosler BT and instantlly got sub . 5 MOA with 2 different powders. Got the same results with the 120 gr. Sierra with the same powders. So yes, my load developments are centered around the bullet I want to use.

Papa 260

I also use the 65 Sierra SPTBT in a 1 in 9" twist barrel.

Try 23 grains Benchmark or 25 of Varget. Both loads sub MOA in my rifle.

quote:

This is interesting to me because I have always thought that the bullet was the most important component in determining accuracy.

I agree with this, and I think most of us would agree with this. However, many times you are picking the bullet based on what you will do with the rifle. The .243 is a good example of this. If you are deer hunting with that cartridge, you will want a 85+ grain (and maybe heavier) bullet not a varmint bullet. So you'd be apt to try different powders to get a heavier bullet to shoot rather than different bullets.

LWD