Home Forums Hunting & Shooting AR and Tactical Rifles Nosler .224" 64 gr. solid base bonded

I would appreciate comments from those who have tried this bullet in ARs.

what is your intended purpose for this bullet?

Nothing more than curiosity at this point; was wondering about accuracy. I've tried many bullets in 1 in 7" Colts, and the Nosler looked like an interesting one.

Way more accurate than you'd think, considering they're so blunt.

Accuracy wise, best anyone been able to manage is about an inch at 100 with IMR-4895.
To date, I've head of no reports of similar accuracy with a ball or other nice metering powder.

If someone has a sub-inch load with a fine powder and these bullets, I'd sure like to hear about it.

25 grains of Varget for us here.

It's a deer-killing machine.

Yep. I'm getting about the same accuracy with 24.5gr of Varget. 10 shots at 100yds.

My results were with 5 shot groups. If your doing the same with 10, I'll have to try some Varget.

I appreciate the input on this so far. It may be a while before I have the opportunity to try the 64 Bonded in an AR, but I have loaded a few test rounds for bolt-action rifles in .223 and .22-250. Hope to try these next week.

Let me also add that this is out of a 20" varmint barrel, 1:8 twist.

well, I may have to try some of these at half the price of TSX bullets. I have killed several animals with the 75 grain swift bullet but in no case not even a little 120 pound buck did I get an exit from the shoulder shot. The swift is not that accurate in my guns and more expensive.

I shot a 200lb boar with this bullet in Noslers factory load. Distance was around 300 yards. First shot broke the onside shoulder and exited midway back in the rib cage. The hog swapped sides while lifting the broken leg. The 2nd shot broke the other shoulder and exited, crisscrossing the bullets wounds. The boar dropped on impact of the second hit. Accuracy was right at 1 moa at 100 yards.

Kills cshit out of 200 lb pigs

We recovered one out of a shoulder shot on a 300 pound live-weight huge buck. Broke both shoulders and lay under the skin.

Other than that, all exits on a variety of angles.

This...

Silver State Armory (a Nosler company) loaded that bullet for a while in .223. It was the most accurate factory load I've ever shot in my three .223's.

I have used a bunch of them over 25.5gr Varget, loaded to 2.250" with CCI 400 primers. Very accurate and kills whitetails and hogs right now.

Ed

Tag

I guess I have to try some, they are at $45 per 100 somewhat cheaper than the 62grain TSX. Wish federal would sell their 62 gr fusion bullet as a component, if they do I have not seen it, that is a very good bullet as well, but cartridges cost's me a dolla a shot . I got plenty over varget, so I guess I need to order some noslers .

Not the final word on accuracy, but a beginning...

fired a few groups to get seating depth right with a CZ .223 and a heavy-barreled Savage .22-250, both with 1 in 9" barrels. Two five-shot groups from the CZ were 1.4" and .9" using Varget, not my favorite .223 powder. Bullet must be seated quite deeply for this rifle, best OAL is 2.18".

In the .22-250, four 3-shot groups averaged just under 3/4" using IMR4064. OAL of 2.35" is good. I think I can improve on the groups sizes with a little work. Have yet to try this bullet in a Colt AR 1 in 7".

You're trying to make a silk purse out of a sow's ear...................that's not a target or match grade bullet; what you have is good for that bullet's intended performance.

If you want match grade accuracy, get Bergers, SMK's or Hornady's match grade bullets.

MM

The 64 gr Nosler loaded with a max charge of CFE-223 along with the 55 gr TSX loaded with the same powder as well as the factory loaded Federal XM556FBIT3 62 grain load hit in the same snuff can sized groups at 50 yards with an Eotech sight.

Haven't hit meat yet with the Noslers.

I used to get tied up in all that too. Ball powder and such. No flaws on that either. Found that as ugly as varget metered on 69s, it just didn't matter much on the paper if it was thrown or weighed.

Of course Audette load development gets you to that point too. Just FWIW.

I don't think a nosler like that could be bad performing. But with Barnes, I just have not seen the need.

My daughter shot lengthwise through a white tail with one, taking out a lot of bone on the way. On hogs, they make a .22 caliber penetrate and perform like something larger. I would feel comfortable taking a cow elk with one if legal.

Jimmy,

How about 1,000 for $135.00 and free shipping? Rocky Mountain Reloading LINK

I have another 1,000 of them on my reloading bench that I haven't even opened yet.

Great folks to deal with! Jake and crew have seen a lot of my money over the past couple of years.

Ed

Do you have to join this site just to look?

Tag

Ed they say 62 grain premium bonded bullet? I am going to give them a call and buy a few.

I trust Ed's word on the performance of those.

Have it on the list to buy a 1000 at some point to load up for just plain cheap reserve ammo.

Jimmy,

I visited RMR's facility in Lewiston back in June and saw the pallets of case after case of these bullets. All the boxes were marked Federal Fusion. Tough not to empty a bank account when you're standing in a warehouse full of bullets and brass at below wholesale prices.

25.5gr of Varget with CCI BR-4 primers in Hornady, Federal, Winchester, Fiocchi, or Remington brass and this bullet is a very accurate load in all three of my .223's. All have 1:8" twist with Wylde chambers, and one AR has a BHW polygonal rifled barrel.

BTW, I have yet to recover a bullet from any of the deer or hogs I've killed with it. Of course, I'm not trying to shoot end-to-end, either.

Ed

Ed, is the jacket on these bullets extended far enough forward so that the lead point is protected enough that they will feed well in an AR w/o damaging the tip?

MM

Yes, on both the Federal Fusion and the Noslers. The Federal fusions have a very small (tiny?) lead meplat while the Nosler is very definitely a small flat point.
You really can't see the lead from the side on the Federal and just a little bit on the Nosler.

I have probably shot 500-600 of the Federals and have not had a single issue with accuracy. The rounds that I have downloaded after hunting show no signs of tip damage.

According to literature I've found on these 62gr Fusions, they are the bullet of choice for a lot of LE snipers as they do a great job of penetrating light barriers, particularly auto windshields, continuing on a straight path, and yet still expand. The LE application is why they have a cannelure.

Sort of like shooting through a mud covered gristle shield on a boar, breaking rib(s), then trashing the lungs and leaving the carcass. Or, breaking both bones on a ~175lb boar's foreleg, then passing through the skull from under the jaw and out the top of it's head, leaving a quarter size exit hole. That was a coup de gras shot after I had spined it and it flopped over on it's side, belly towards me.

Ed

Thanks.............that's the info I was looking for.

MM

I went to Cabelas Saturday looking for some bullets. Just wanted to look local before I tried some of those Noslers. They only had the 62 gr. TSX, which I just haven't found a very accurate load with.

Now I have some of these Fusion bullets on the way, really appreciate the heads up APDDNS. Will be shooting them from a 1 in 8" wylde too so hope that recipe gets me close. Bow season is over for me, hope to try these on a late season doe tag.

Will the Federal Fusion open up quick enough to drop a yote quickly?

Why would you want to when there are so many great & much cheaper yote bullets?

I prefer a all around bullet, if one will perform well on yotes and up I am happy, the 65 grain sierra BTSP has done well to this point,

In my experience, yes. It's all about placement. You certainly aren't going to get big exit holes, but every one of the coyotes I've shot with them have gone down pretty quickly.

I killed a coyote here at ~150 yards, through the body behind the shoulder and, at the shot, the coyote dropped, got back to it's feet, spun around a couple of times and fell over dead. Another one I shot though the body just keeled over and didn't move. Same with the bobcat I shot with them.

I was shooting that Sierra 65gr SP before I got these and the effects were roughly the same. This one is a little more accurate in all three of my rifles, but not by much.

Ed

I've had very good luck accuracy-wise with the 65 Gameking in two 1 in 7" Colt ARs with H4895 powder. Several times I've done comparisons with the 69 MatchKing trying to decide which is most accurate. At 100 and 200 yards I can see no difference. Beyond 200, I suspect the MatchKing would do better.

That is a good bullet in my custom Mini-14.

DF

Think I'm gonna try a few of those 62 gr. Federals.

Thanks, Ed.

DF

I loaded some 64 BSB up with TAC and at 25 gr. got 2975 fps and two 5 shot groups were 3/8 and 5/8 in. This was in a 24" Heavy barreled DPMS. This load also shot 1" out of a 16" barreled m4 version dpms. I have not used it on anything but paper.

I was at a friends ranch when I worked up the load mentioned above. When I got to the 25.5gr load and we looked at the group, my friend said "Quit now. You have your load."

My group was much like yours.

Ed

I've had problems getting the 64 BSB to group in .223, .22-204 and .22-250.

SPS recently offered blem factory .22-250, 64 BSB ammo. I ordered a box just to see how Nosler factory BSB ammo shoots. I see they're now sold out of that item.

My .22-250 has an 8 twist Shilen barrel.

Terminal performance is reportedly great with that bullet.

DF

Thanks that sounds good and about what I expected, The Sierra 65 BTSP will probably stay my go to bullet in my bolt action at least till I use them up then I may try the Fusion, ordered 1000 Fusions for the ARs,, I have alot of everything but bullets for them.

Used to be able to buy Sierra 60 flat base HP. Extremely accurate in our ARs to 200 no problems. Never shot much with it other than a few javelina and a coyote. Fairly decent HP

Still tend to prefer barnes for do it all situations, but have had good luck with lots of bullets in the AR as long as we are talking heavier bullets... 55s I've never shot.

Jeff,

If the Fusions had not come along, I would have been using the SGK 65gr SP or the Barnes 62gr TSX.

My Rock River AR really likes those 62gr TXS loaded up to 5.56 pressures with the max load of TAC.

Ed

Went to BassPro last night to pickup some Varget to try with these bullets.

They wanted $40.00 per pound, so I told them to GFY.

I guess the new test loads will have to wait until I make it to Sportsman's.

OUCH! Do you have any CFE-223? If so, try 25.5gr of it. My RRA AR likes the Barnes 62gr TSX with this load for a little over 3,000fps. Max load for the 62gr TSX is 27.0gr of CFE-223.

Ed

Ed,

I've tried a long list of powder with them. CFE-223, IMR-8208, H335, Benchmark, Tac, LT-32, H-322, W748, and N133, and IMR-4895.

So far, only thing that shot close to an inch was IMR-4895. Considering the similarities between 4895 and Varget, I thought it might be worth trying.


However, I do have some 69gr NCC begging to have some CFE-223 lit behind them. Might be fun to see how that works out?

I'd try a new barrel before I tried a new powder!

The Nosler 64gr BSB is probably the best bonded 0-200 yard bullet you can get. There's not an animal in NA that I wouldn't shoot with them.







Yes. I have killed to just shy of 400 with the 62gr Fusions from a 10.5" barrel. One of the best multi purpose bullets available.

Barry,

The barrel shoots great with other bullets. Actually it shoots great with most bullets.

It just doesn't like the combinations I've tried with this one bullet.

Interesting thing, I was in a LGS today, looking for some more .308 168gr TTSX and got to talking with one of the guys who works there. He has the exact same issue with one of his five .223 rifles. Nothing but 4895 will get him anywhere near 1 MOA in that particular rifle with anything over 50gr bullets.

(He tried really hard to sell me one of three brand new Browning .223's on the rack that they can't get rid of, even at their cost because they all have 1:2" twist barrels. No one around here wants a .223 that won't shoot 60gr+ bullets).

Ed

The 62 Barnes TTSX is the best AR bullet I’ve used as far as accuracy goes.

Thinking about buying a 1-6 or 1-8 for one of my AR's and shooting a pig with the 64 gr Nosler Bonded, the only Barnes' I have loaded are 55 gr TSX's, bet they'd work too, but, also bet the Nosler would have a heavier splat penetrating punch than the buzzsaw Barnes.

We've killed a few with 50 and 55 gr NBT's in AR's, I'm not sure why people think they need a magical bullet.

That said I've also used Barnes TSX in 55 and 62 grs and they do work fine. This 64 gr bonded bullet will work too I'm pretty sure.

No majik needed here, just need to know the penetration will be there on odd angle shots, I still hunt thickets at times and often fire into ham or last rib hits on my way to the vitals, and have never used a cartridge as small as a 223 on a regular basis.

1x7 or 1x8. I don't think you want a 6, they are specialized, though my 6.5s shoot 52s just fine amazingly...

50 and 55 NBTs I wouldn't trust for penetration in some shots on some animals. That said if you konw your bullet and how to place it all will be fine. Its how I kill most hogs with subs in a 22 lr with a can... where most folks think you can't kill a pig without a big gun. Heck even the ones over 200 and over 250 every now and then still die...

OOPS, should have been a little clearer Rost, I meant rifle scopes in 1-6X or 1-8X.

oh chit... ROTFLMAO... I totally missed that one! Merry Christmas!

Do the 62 RMR Fusion bullets stabilize okay in a 12 twist?

I've not had any trouble with the Nosler BSB in that gun.

I have no idea if they will stabilize in a 1:12" twist. Both of those bullets work great in 1:8" twist.

PM me an address and I'll drop some in the mail and you can try them out before ordering.

Ed

Merry Christmas to You and Yours as well Rost.

This. My daughter used this load with authority on a juvenile deer hunt some years back. Bullet exited with meat on the table.