.223 1 in 9 bullet weight

H

hounddawg

New member
I am getting ready to do another budget build rifle. The stock barrel will most likely be a 26" 1-9 .223 Rem. This will be my first 1-9 barrel and I am thinking 69 gn's with 24.0 - 25.5 Varget, Lapua, and CCI 400's.

Any other suggestions? I am looking for magazine length preferably but will single feed if necessary for accuracy. I have a bunch of 62 gn blems and some Hornady flat base 53 gns on the shelf but I am thinking those Nosler 69's I have about 800 of should work pretty well.

Shooting will be done 100 - 300 yards, target only
 
I have a Savage 12FV with a 26” barrel and 1:9 twist barrel. The rifle loves 55gr Vmax and 75gr BTHP. I primarily shoot the handloaded 55gr Vmax.
 
Thanks, I have most of a box of 75 gn AMax. I figured they would be too heavy for that twist but I will give them a try.

BTW I am buying a used FV,

From what I have seen online it looks like it is a pretty decent shooter straight from the box. I saw some videos of guys shooting the 6.5 CM version out to 1000 bone stock and doing .5 100 yd groups with factory ammo. Pretty damn impressive for a factory rifle at that price range
 
The 69 gr ,either MK or Nosler CC, worked very well for me with 25 to 25.5 gr Varget in a 1 in 9. That is my go-to load for a 1 in 9.

The 75 gr A-Max will not load to magazine length. Magazine length puts the ogive into the neck. I do not know if it will stabilize with a 1 in 9.

While the general advice says 75 gr match bullets may not stabilize in a 1 in 9,I've read where several folks have been successful loading the Hornady 75 gr
BTHP Match bullet in a 1 in 9 . Its worth a try. These are not the A-Max and they load to mag length just fine. The advertised BC is a little better than most others. They are a bit more affordable than most others.

I load that bullet in a 1 in 8. For me, RE-15 outperformed Varget with that bullet. YMMV
 
My FV12 223 likes 55g Noslers, and some testing I did indicated it likes the 53g as well but haven't gotten back to it in a good while. It's at the smith getting the barrel threaded now, so whenever I can get it back from him, and back together, maybe I can resume that train of thought. LOL.
 
I have a CZ527 and an AR15, both of which have 1:9 twist barrels. While both barrels will group around 1" at 100 yards with 55gr. to 69gr. bullets, where they really shine is with 40gr. bullets. 40gr. Nostler Varmageddon bullets reliably group just under a half inch pushed by 26.5gr. of H335.
 
75gr Hornady BTHP work fine in my 1:9 mini 14. So they may be marginal in that twist but can still work.

Hornady 75 gr ELD-M 1.116”, G1 .43, G7 .220
Hornady 70 gr GMX 1.047”, G1 .350
Hornady 73 gr ELD-M 1.056”, G1 .398, G7 .200
Hornady 75 gr BTHP OTM 0.988” G1 .395
Pic below shows these in that order, 75 BTHP on the right.

Hornady 55 gr GMX 0.824” G1 BC 0.245
Hornady 53 gr FBHP OTM 0.705” G1 BC 0.218

Aligning the ogives generally shows how the magazine length may be an issue, though I’ve seen a guy loading 75 ELD to magazine without any crimp and he’s getting pretty good results with that. I think it would be smarter to go with the 73gr that is just short enough to get to magazine length without ogive in the neck.
938c9b6294239b26ecc57a8416a28cc1.jpg


75gr BTHP no tip adjustment average lengths are about 0.988” like this one.

f51ae0c1324bb16f0cb0c53c99832e2a.jpg



Andrew - Lancaster, CA
NRA Life Member, CRPA member, Calguns.net contributor, CGF / SAF / FPC / CCRKBA / GOA / NAGR / NRA-ILA contributor, USCCA member - Support your defenders!
 
Hounddawg,

I'm using 69gr SMK & TSMK in my wifes Savage 110 FP.

I thought i had heard someone mention getting 77gr Bergers to fly well with a 1:9 twist. But i can't recall whom said it. I may try them anyways.

PS. Varget & RL15 work really well for that weight bullet (69gr).
I've found some better velocity, same accuracy, low ES/SD using Alliant PP2000.
 
Thanks guys, I am going to start with those 69 Nosler CC's with Varget since I have a ton of both. This is a used rifle bought as a 1000 yard project gun. The .223 barrel will be replaced before January but I want to get a baseline accurate load before I replace the stock trigger, drop it in a aftermarket laminated stock, glass and pillar bed it, do some bolt mods etc. I have a Shilen heavy 30 inch in .260 Rem barrel with a low round count that will go on as the last step but the .223 will be used as I go along seeing how much each mod affects the accuracy

edited to correct bullet weight to 69 gns
 
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I know where i shoot, 223 is good to about 600 yards.
You can shoot to 1,000 if you like, but you are definitely not going to set any records with 223 in the wind there.
Remington & the Marine Corps shooting teams rent the range for weeks at a time practicing for Camp Perry.
 
I have shot my .223 at 600 in practice to see how it groups and do some wind practice. Also banged a 18 inch gong at 800 just to see if I could but I don't shoot .223 in competition any farther than 300. I use 77SMK's or 80 Bergers in a 1 - 7 twist barrel and they get blown around enough. I just want to shoot this 1 -9 to see if it is worth keeping as a stand by or to sell it
 
I've heard several people mention shooting the 77's in a 1-in-12 and some said it worked fine and some said the groups got too big. That may be due to twist tolerance error or it may be some were in colder conditions than others or had shorter barrels and got less velocity and spin. Either way, it seems marginal and is probably reflecting upper limits. The same may apply to the 69-grain match bullets. Warm weather, good shooting; cold weather bad shooting.
 
plugging numbers into the Berger bullet stability calculator and using the numbers from my other .223 with the 77 non tipped match kings I would have a SG of 1.47 using my current powderpuff load and if I wanted to kick it up to 2800 I could get it above 1.5. On the 69's I am up to 1.6 easy. As you probably know anything above 1.5 is stable. I will do some load testing on the stock barrel before I switch it out to the Shilen just for fun. Be interesting about what I can do with the stock barrel. With my criterion .223 I can get consistent 5 shot .5 MOA or below out to 200 and .75 MOA and below out to 300 and 10 to 20 shot groups below 1 MOA out to 300

edit - goal is to see if I can get groups as good if not better than these at 200 - 300 using the stock Savage barrel after modding the action, aftermarket stock, aftermarket trigger. This is the Savage factory heavy barrel so there is a fair chance it may be a shooter
 

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I had to go back and look and I messed up. I was remembering 12" twist results and not 9". I'll fix my post. Quite a difference.

Actually, 1.5 is an often-cited estimate of the optimal stability number to try to get to. Higher or lower shoots less accurately according to some, but Harold Vaughn, former head aeroballistician for Sandia National labs liked 1.4 better. Other past authorities have liked the number as high as 1.7. A Sierra tech summed it up for me once. He said "1.4 to 1.7 for precision target shooting; 1.3 to 3.0 for "hunting accuracy".

Anything above 1.0 is stable and won't tumble, but the bullet can be yawing badly enough at that point that it is not enough to guarantee accuracy. At numbers between 1.0 and 1.3, you tend to see groups spread out some. Below 1.0 is where you get actual tumbling.
 
Marco Califo said:
1:9 is good for 36 gr. to 75 gr. (Horn. 75 gr BTHP, not the AMAX)
Click to expand...

Some people claim the AMAX won't work in 1:9, They have worked fine for me in a 1:9 Colt.

Hornady at one time at least thought 1:9 was OK for the 75 AMAX:

75amax.jpeg


And while it was never a design consideration, the AMAX is a pretty good varmint bullet. Not as explosive as a VMAX or Sierra Blitzking, but not far behind it.
 
I used to have a Savage model 10 in .223 with a 1-9 twist. The most accurate bullet that gun ever shot was the 69 gr SMK. It shot some pretty impressive groups but I never shot it past 400 yards.
 
1:9 twist for .223 will handle a wide range of bullets. Those 69grainers should work just fine.

If you have some 50's laying around, those are the schizzle for oranges, lemons, limes, eggs and ground squirrels.

My go to load for years has been Winchester brass, Nosler 50g ballistic tip, 25.6g H335, CCI 450 primer......I've had a few 1:9, .223's that have liked that load.

Good luck, have fun!
 
Some people claim the AMAX won't work in 1:9, They have worked fine for me in a 1:9 Colt.
Click to expand...
I realize we are dealing with two different parameters. One is whether the 1 in 9 twist will stabilize a 75 gr A-Max.
I don't doubt your experience that a 75 gr A-Max will stabilize from your 1 in 9 in Colt.

I recall my own experience buying 75 gr Hornady A-Max bullets and discovering they don't work out loading them to magazine max OAL,,roughly 2.260, + or -

At a seated length of 2.260 ,the ogive of the bullet is down inside the neck.

IMO,thats unacceptable for magazine feed.

You CAN load them longer,and they can be used single round loading.

I'm not pointing this out for the sake of argument.I'm just letting folks know if they spend their money on 75 gr A-Max bullets,they won't be able to load them to magazine length.

I do use,and like,the 75 gr Hornady BTHP Match bullet. I use mine in a 1 in 8,but several folks have written it works in a 1 in 9 just fine.They load to magazine length just fine.


FWIW,the Hornady reloading manual has a page or two specifc to AR-15 match loads. That's where I found the recipe for RE-15 with that bullet.

I really wanted Varget to equal RE-15 with that bullet,as I use Varget for other things. Less inventory.

IMO,RE-15 beat Varget through the chronograph enough I went ahead and ordered a stock of RE-15.

YMMV
 
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