Home Forums Reloading Varmint Rifles 223 - 64gr Nosler Bonded Performance

Anyone shooting the Nosler Bonded Performance 64gr bullets out of their 223? I heard they had good expansion and weight retention so I bought a box to try out of a Howa Mini Action. It is a 1:9 twist. Do you think it will handle the heavy bullet?
Hoping for good groups as I would like this to be a round for my young son to use in deer season next year.

Have you looked at the Federal 62 or 64 gr Soft points? They are the Speer Gold Dots and do very well in a 9 twist 223. I bought several thousand from rmrbullets. i think they were 13 cents? vs the 40 or 50 cents for the noslers.
I load them in my nephews 12 twist .22-250 for deer and a 20" 9 twist 223 i carry around with me.
They shoot very well from a 16" AR in 7 twist and another in 9 twist.

https://www.rmrbullets.com/products...-premium-boat-tail-bonded-soft-point-new

If I don't have any luck with the Nosler's I will look into those Federals.
Thanks for the info.

Of course there is always a chance your rifle won't "like" them, other than that have no fear.

They are $20.95/hundred at Shooters Pro Shop now.

Ive shot them, and killed deer with them. They shoot reasonably well and even stabilized in my 1 in 12 twist so I know a 9 twist will do the trick. Terminal performance on my sample of two was to my mind excessive....which you may read to mean they'll work for damn sure! I could never get itty bitty groups out of them, in four different rifles, but others have not had that issue so I'd sure give them a go!

A buddy of mine had the same terminal experience with them. He went back to Hornady 55 SPs. I've had the same accuracy experience (lack of) in 2-3 rifles myself so I've never hunted with them.

Pretty much why I quit them too...


Oddly enough the closest thing Ive seen to that terminal performance was also a bonded bullet..the old 55 gr. TBBC when you could get them...

I wonder if the new 70gr Accubonds will perform similarly?

I tried them in four bolt-action rifles; a 1 in 12" Ruger .223, a 1 in 9" CZ .223, a 1 in 14" FN Mauser .22-250 with Lilja barrel, and a 1 in 9" Savage .22-250. Not very impressive results in any of the rifles, but twist rate didn't seem to matter much. I guess they're accurate enough for hunting. The closest I got to a 1" five-shot group was 1.1" in the CZ .223.

I tried them in four bolt-action rifles; a 1 in 12" Ruger .223, a 1 in 9" CZ .223, a 1 in 14" FN Mauser .22-250 with Lilja barrel, and a 1 in 9" Savage .22-250. Not very impressive results in any of the rifles, but twist rate didn't seem to matter much. I guess they're accurate enough for hunting. The closest I got to a 1" five-shot group was 1.1" in the CZ .223. Worst was 1.7" in the Savage. The other two were both 1.6".

I'm guessing they'll be OK...at least in a .223 because velocity will have slowed down a tad.

I'm going to give the 70's a try in my T3 Hunter. 1-8" barrel should spin them enough to stabilize, don't you think?

I would certainly think so....report back when you do please!

223 Nosler 70 gr AB's ?

Kool

Will do.

Tikkanut, I have several different bullet weights that I'll work up loads for in my T3 Hunter. The new kid in town will be the 70 grain Nosler AB. I'll be real interested to see if it can compete with the 62 grain TTSX.

I would try the 62 Barnes, it rips hell out of pigs.

I agree. Someone here was saying the 55 does such a good job, he doesn't use the 62's any more.

I am a fan of both, for sure. Been shooting the 62s in a .223AI but frankly cant tell the difference in terminal performance. Just started with the 62s cause I got a deal on a pile of them...

We've had great terminal performance out of the 64BSB on even very large deer.

Accuracy for us is 5 shots in 1.25". Plenty good for deer hunting.