Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Predators and Varmints Weekend bullet performance review...

Had the opportunity to do some hunting this past weekend with the newly aquainted AR I had quickly worked up an acceptable load for to finish out this calling season...

The load is 25.2 H4895 under a 60 grain Vmax in .223. Without a chrony and an 18" barrel I expect this load to be doing 2,900-3,000 probably closer to 3,000. I fully expected this load, having been shooting Vmax's for a few years at random critters at various speeds, to be very unfriendly to fur.

Friday night jackrabbits at ranges from 50-150 yards were the primary testing medium as the critters were not responding too well to the call like this whole year has gone in my neck of the woods. The jacks were ugly and were gutting. Pretty amazing actually as they were somersaulted. My buddy was thrilled with the aerial acts through the scope as he shot them.

So, Saturday night was different as we were on a different ranch and I was hoping for some different testing media. It worked. 5 grey fox were shot with this above load at ranges from 60-100 yards. All were pass throughs and not one exit wound was bigger than a quarter with most being dime sized. That said, all were hit behind the shoulder and results may be different if the shoulder was directly hit. I was pleased as we sell our fur. Needless to say all fox were bang flops.

I hope to test this bullet more on larger critters the remainder of this year but on a sample size of 5 I remain optimistic that this combo may be good on fur regardless of past experiences or others' feedback...

Thought some might want to know...

When I was shooting my AR .223 for called coyotes, the 60 gr. V-Max was my "go-to" bullet. Not only was it accurate, but it provided the surest anchoring stops for me from all the .22 caliber bullets I had used prior. Regarding fur damage, so much depends upon angle of the shot, what the bullet hit inside, ect. You know this. Sometimes on broadside shots I had the classic exit and quarter size hole. Othertimes if I hit a shoulder or ribs, I had a considerably larger, more gaping hole. Many times that hole was on the entrance side with no exit. Facing shots never had an exit, as you would expect. all in all, I had fewer runners from this bullet than the 52/53 gr. Sierra/Speer hollowpoints, or the several 55 gr. softpoints I used. The heavier V-Max anchored coyotes better.

Thanks MOGC...
This is my first experience with this particluar bullet and I have not really tested it yet but initial performance was very suprising in a good way...

We'll see what lies ahead in the next few months and see how they do compared to the 60 grain Ballistic tip that will get the go around sometime this year or next...

Originally, the 60gr. V-Max was the bullet used in the .223 TAP offerings. I had bought some older TAP ammo and noticed the familiar red plastic tips as I also load 50gr. V-Max's in my varmint loads. The dealer had some newer TAP loads that had gotten away from the V-Max's.

I think the V-Max's are great SD/HD indoor rounds however, given their construction and less potential for complete wall penetration.