Home Forums Reloading Varmint Rifles Hornady V-Max or Sierra Blitzking ?

Both the Hornady V-Max and Sierra Blitzking have excellent reputations for tack driving accuracy and explosive kills. Currently I have only been limited to the experience of the V-Max results. I love to push my .223 Remington to its external and terminal limits pushing those small varmint bullets out to 650 yards with my Remington 700 VLS and have seen that the Sierra Bitzking's 50 grain bullet has a slightly higher ballistic coefficient which will translate to fewer clicks and a better chance of fragmentation way downrange. But how is the Sierra Blitzking's "explosiveness" compared to the Hornady V-Max's? If you guys have any experience or knowledge concerning which is more "explposive" please reply.

On prairie dogs, at least, the BlitzKings work just as well as the VMs, my rifles shoot them just a fuzz better than the VMs, too. I generally buy VMs due to the price difference, though. If I could afford them, I'd buy the BlitzKings, but you generally don't find them on sale as often as VMaxes.

In .204 caliber, the BKs jacket is a touch (couple thousandths) thinner, so they open up a bit better, but come apart quicker if the bore isn't very smooth. I get reports of some rifles tearing them apart if velocity exceeds 4000fps by much. I haven't had that happen from my rifles, yet, but as they get worn, it'll probably come to pass.

I wish Sierra would get off their duffs and build a 69 gr. BlitzKing for the .224", for those windy days in South Dakota, now THAT would make me smile!

Have you checked this out with a ballistics program? I just ran a few numbers and with a hot 223 load and a 300 yard zero the difference amounted to less than 2" and 30 fps at 600 yards. And that was being generous with the BC advantage of the Sierra.

He posted that he is a "ballistics expert" so ......

I just ran a ballistic program comparing the two with a 50 yard zero and there was about a 30 ft/s difference and 4 1/8" clicks difference. Like I said above, it will translate into fewer clicks and a better chance of fragmentation downrange. It may not be much more of a chance but I'll take whatever I can get. What ballistics program do you use? I use the JBM ballistics program, I found it to be very accurate when all my inputs are exactly right.

I just whipped the figures into Hornady's free online calculator.

Try yours with these figures: 300 yard zero, 3550 fps (hot 223 with long barrel and 50 grain bullets), 1.7" sight height. I used the default 59 degrees F and 29.53 in. hg settings. Compare .242 and .248 for the BCs. And that's generous for the Sierra since according to Sierra the BC drops to .243 not long after the launch.

I used only 3400 ft/s for my test, 3550 ft/s sounds really hot even for my Remington 700 VLS. But remember, you may have been generous with the Sierra Blizking, but the Hornady V-Max's B.C. goes down also. Anyways, do you anything about these bullets terminal ballistics?

4 1/8 inches or 4 1/8 MOA. If 4 1/8" how many clicks will you save at 600 yards?

Sorry about the vagueness, what I meant to say was, I would save 4 clicks that are 1/8 MOA at 600 yards, definitely not much but it is something. Sorry about the confusion.

Braxton

I just used 3550 as a round figure similar to Nosler's top reported speed. It's pretty hot.

About the BC difference, I'm sure they both change with speed. But over the biggest part of the velocity range the Sierra is only .001 better than the single Hornady specification. I'll have to let those who have actually shot them way out there talk about measured drop differences.

I can't give you any meaningful terminal comparisons. The V-Max will explode a hard dirt clod at 300 yards though.

I prefer the Blitz Kings, but my wallet is more attracted to the V Max price, between the two....

actually my wallet likes Bulk 55 grain Hornady SPs the best.. or the Varmint Nightmare box of the same bullets from Mid South....

Hard to ignore the price differential, but at 650 yards, I'd be more concerned with accuracy than terminal performance. Gotta him em first, right? Suppose the V-Max shoot's .40 MOA and the BK shoots .60 MOA. That's a difference of 1.3 inches at 650 yards. If your shooting squirrels, that's the difference between a hit and a miss, assuming your wind and elevation calls are correct.

If your shooting past 500 yards and are twisted fast enough, don't overlook the 75g A-Max.