Home Forums Reloading Varmint Rifles Speer TNT 50 grain in .223?

Not if you bounce them in front of the prairie dog, and they come up as shrapnel....tears the crap out of them...

sends sage rats into airborne parts. I've bounced them 8 to 10 feet in the air after being hit... especially if their mound is behind them... they bounce off of that, and go flying into the air in pieces.

Hence my reference to Red Mist above....

They’re very accurate in every rifle I’ve shot them through ( probably 10 22 cal rifles and 3-4 in 6mm). Probably 20-25 years ago I used them a lot more than I do now. 2 years ago we went out to shoot pdogs in SD. I took a very accurate 223 varmint special in 223 shooting 50 tnt’s and a pac nor barreled 223 shooting 50 vmax. The VS was every bit as accurate as the pac nor gun, but out in the wind my hit percentage was quite a bit better shooting the vmax’s. MD is right about the tnt’s drifting noticeably more. I also don’t think they are as explosive on varmints as the vmax. I shot quite a few coyotes with them 25-30 years ago out of a 223…. They killed very well but did shoot a few in the rear end as the ran away…. They usually needed a finishing shot… but that wasn’t the fault of the bullet. I still buy them. They’re very accurate and very cheap. But I think BT’s and vmax’s are butter pdog bullets.

They worked very well in the 1-12" twist of my last 700 VS. They don't do so well in my AR with a 1-8" twist. They hold together to hit the target, no keyholing, but the accuracy isn't great. (so .. get closer? :)) I might be a little hesitant to use them on coyotes, they might be too fragile. Guess try 'em and see? For coyotes I'm mostly shooting 60 grain VMAX or, better yet, 60 grain ballistic tips, in .223.

My last .22-250 .. 700 LVSF, 1-14" twist .. lived on 50 grain TNTs and 50 grain Hornady SX, both with the same load .. 37.5 grains of Varget. That is **hot** but at 37 grains the groups had gone from around 0.2" for 5 shots to around 2" for 5 shots so .. guess we'll live with hot. I tried a lot of combinations and I could not get under 2" with any other load so .. shoot it or sell it. I shot it. No problems with case life but I couldn't reuse the primers .. shock, huh?

That bullet is the preferred bullet for both of my 222’s. Group extremely well and like a bomb on prairie poodles out west.

I recently purchased several thousand TNT's for both 224 and 243 but haven't had the opportunity to test them yet. All the reviews I've read though are overwhelmingly positive in terms of accuracy and performance so I'm optimistic they will work well...and at a fraction of the cost of Nosler I've killed many, many thousands of P-dogs with the 224 Nosler 40gr BTs in 223 and 22-250, so the TNT's have big shoes to fill! Of the many varmint bullets I've tested, the VMax has also done really well (although not as good as the Nosler's) which are also much more economical then Nosler these days.

From an accuracy stand point I think the vmax, bt’s and TNT’s are all superbly accurate. I just let the rifle pick which one it likes. But could say the same thing about most sierras too. Honestly I think about any “name brand” 22 cal bullet will shoot tiny groups if the rifle is up to snuff and a guy “tunes” the load a bit. Some bullets are more “dramatic” on impact and some are a little tougher but they’re all pretty lethal on varmints.