64 gr Nosler BSB in the 223 and the 220 - results

After some fiddling around, I found the magic load with that bullet in the 223. On top of 25.1 gr of H335, my best group yesterday was 1/2 inch, and even better - it prints about 3/4 inch higher than the load for the 40 gr Nosler BT. I don't even have to mess with the scope to use the new bullet. That'll do. As for the 220 Swift, I was happily surprised to find that the bullet did stabilize at 100 yards, though I haven't found a tight group yet. Tomorrow I'll try some warmer loads. If I get a good grouping load, I'll move out to 200 and 300 to see if it'll be stable at that range. I'm doubting it, but we'll see. I'm loading the bullet in the 220 over IMR 4064 and I'm presently about midway between min and max. That powder worked great for the 63 gr Sierra SMP.

Good deal.

Heck just go straight to 300 yards with it and see what it does.

I still need to pick some of these up to try out.

At one time I was really interested in this bullet for hogs and HD. Since I don't handload I would be stuck with the factory loads and from what I have read about the SSA and Winchester loads accuracy was pretty poor, as in 2-3in at 100yrds. Those are 5.56 pressures though.

Good to see if I ever do start handloading this bullet is in fact a great performer given the right loading.

I finished the load workup on the 220 Swift with these new bullets. I used IMR4064 and started at minimum and worked my way up in half grain increments. I got about 1 inch groups, which was disappointing, until I got to the 35 grain max. AND THEN IT SHOT 3 ROUNDS IN THE SAME HOLE. No kidding. The group was roughed out enough that you could tell it was 3 bullets, but still one hole. OOOOO BABY!

So I loaded up some more (all neck sized with a Redding die, if that's of interest to anyone), got the big target and went to the hay field. Propped the target up at 254 yards on the readily available wooden pole and let loose at the 1 inch bullseye. The shooting position wasn't ideal and was a bit wobbly, but not too terribly bad. I put 5 rounds into 2.5 inches. Nice round group. Coulda done a lot better I believe, if I had been shooting from a rock solid bench.

So yes, that darn bullet will stabilize in my 220's 1 in 14 twist - at least to 254 yards. As soon as the hay gets baled again and I have good target support, I'll try it out to 400. That's about as far as I'll likely be shooting at pigs and coyotes. I do not plan to use the bullet on deer.

Just an observation regarding this bullet is that in both the 223 and the 220 I got ugly groups until I hit the magic one. I've never seen that so extreme before with any other bullet. So if you are going to use it, don't quit till you get to max, or close to it.

I need to go to the ballistic website now to see if the colder air in hunting season will make the bullet more or less stable. It's about 80 degrees here right now. That's info I probably will need. I can blame a miss on that - if I miss....

They literally turned my 0.3" rifle with a 1x9 twist into a shotgun.

30378, what I didn't talk about is that all I got was shotgun groups with AA2230 and Varget. I went to the powder magazine and reached for IMR 4064, but decided on H335 instead. And all I got was shotgun groups till I got to 25.1 grains and then the groups went from miserable to great. That was with the 223. Same story, but even worse with the 220, though I stuck with the 4064. All I got was 1 inch groups until I got to the max of 35 grains and then....3 in one hole. That's what I meant about never having seen such extremes before with any bullet. I can't even try to explain it, but I did finally get what I wanted.

Glad it worked out, They should be a great bullet.

Now all I need is a large pig...for bullet testing purposes. Unfortunately, I haven't had a pig on a game camera in a month or two. I guess they all went over to Fireman's place. He was fussing about pigs recently.

Good post. Shows that with a relaxed twist and a bullet on the cusp of being too heavy for the twist ya gotta stomp on the gas pedal to make em shoot.

I highly doubt I will be shooting pigs with any .22 cal bullet. I'm so ticked at their existence on my land that I'm gonna carry a 7 Rem Mag loaded with 180 gr. Bergers and hope I flip them off their feet like in the movies or at least open them up like a watermelon.

Come to think of it, I need to get my friend's 338 Lapua Mag running...