Home Forums Reloading Varmint Rifles Barnes 36gr Varmint Grenade in a .222

This weekend I loaded up 50 rounds of .222 rem with Varmint Grenades and 25gr of benchmark. Has anybody tried this load? I loaded these with my Grandfather but I know he has a reputation for liking hot loads. These will be for my Rem 788 in .222 and I don't want loads that blow the primer out like I have had before with his .223 loads.

No issues. BUT WORK UP ANYWAY FIRST......

I've run 25grs. of B-Mark with 50's with boring regularity, 26.5 with 40's. The 36 Barnes is about like a 45 jacketed, length wise.

They won't be super fast, but decent.
They will be hotter than SAAMI loads for the 222, but it isn't loaded hot at all in deference to single shots and single lug rifles; your 722 will easily handle the pressures. I'd still work up.

Thanks HawkI, the .223 loads I was speaking of would flatten the primer, blow a hole in them, and smoke would roll out the back of the bolt. They would actually kick a little bit and they shot high compared to the previous loads we had shot that day. We only fired a couple of them and then decided to switch to another box. Problem was that the trigger would no longer function. So you all, hopefully, can understand my apprehension. I am just learning to reload though and to waste his knowledge would be a shame.

I`m no help with the 222 but, when loading the 223 I`ve found some regular SR primers are prone to pierce at pressures that don`t show any problems when others are used. The Rem 7 1/2 is a hard cupped primer as is the CCI mil-spec. Federals 205m has shown heavy cratering in 2 rifles, and the Reminton 6 1/2 also appear excessively flattened and often crater with what should be mild/normal loads. My Winchester High Wall shaves a nice clean ring from every single primer with a load of 25gr of Benchmark and a 50 gr ballistic tip when useing Federal 205m. No flattening is evident, go figure...
It has come to the point I use Rem 7 1/2br primers almost exclussively in my 223 any more.
You may want to keep it in mind the next time primers pierce or crater heavily with your 223 loads, and try a different primer.

Actually I do believe they were CCI's.

Resurrecting an old thread.

I recently purchased a a Rem 700 BDL- DOM is Feb 1967.

It came with 100 rounds of old hand loads dated back to the late 70's and early 80's. Not sure of I want to trust in someone else's old hand loads.

Currently I have 100 new Lapua .222 Rem Match cases.
The rifle has a 1:14 twist.

My stock of bullets for this rate of twist is:

36g Barnes Varmint Grenades

40g Nosler BT's
50g Nosler BT's
55g Nosler BT's

52g HPBT Matchkings
52g Berger FB Varmint
52g Hrnady Amax

55g Hornady Vmax


Although I have never loaded them, Dennisinaz tell's me that the flat base bullets are a pain in the arse to load due to problems trying to seat them.

Any of you .222 shooters have any recommendations ?

I currently have the following rifle powders on hand hta may be suitable for this cartridge. I really don't want to buy more powder if I don't need to.

H4198
H322
IMR8028
Tac
IMR4395
IMR4064
CFE223
H380
Shooters World Tactical
Shooters World Match

So, what has worked best for you ?

I'm not so much concerned about milking out every FPS of velocity as I am about getting the very best accuracy. My thoughts are, if I can accurately hit what I'm aiming at that the bullet will do it's intended job.

Don't know why flat-base bullets would be a pain to load in properly chamfered brass.

H322 and, especially, H4198 are classic powders in the .222, and 8208 and TAC work pretty well with heavier bullets. But I recently tried those plus some newer powders as well, and LT-30 was the clear accuracy winners with lighter bullets, and LT-32 with 50-55 grain bullets.

Thanks John.

I've looked at the LT30 & LT32 powders.

I'm hoping that I can get decent accuracy from what I have. If not, I may need to invest in a pound of each and see what kind of magic they can work.

Anyone else ?