Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles Ammo for slow twist .223

I have a Remington VSSF coming with a 1/12 twist. It'll be mostly for the range and coyotes, but was wondering if anybody is using 55 grain bullets for deer? A do it all bullet for a slow twist .223.

I say bullet, but what I should say is factory ammunition. I've gotten away from hand-loading - just too may hobbies and not enough time.

Thanks

Factory ammo? Does not compute.....

otherwise, if you still gotta.. anyone with a decent 55 grain SP...

if you come to your senses and handload for deer.. 60 grain SP Hornady, 60 gr HP Sierra, 63 grain SMP Sierra or 70 grain SMP Speer... the later is my favorite..

I've gotten good accuracy with Fiocchi .223 ammo. I use the 40gr VMax Extrema but I believe they also sell 55gr. About $22 per 50.

If you can find factory ammo loaded with Hornady 55 gr. soft point, I'd go with that...

As a matter of fact, I can. Hornady factory ammo has become my standard go to anyways. Buds had 50 round boxes for $22, so I bought 5 boxes and will give them a run.

Thanks everybody.

Ive killed everything from gophers to coyotes to deer and hogs with that 55 grain Hornady...good luck!

You'll be fine with that. The older I get, the less reloading interests me. In fact I never really enjoyed it, but it was a means to an end.

The "end" for me was always better accuracy, and better bullets before premium loads became common. I've never gotten accuracy as good as my handloads from factory, but part of that may well be that I mostly gave up on factory way back when, except when I was under time constraints. Now I've got so much crap stockpiled, handloading is the only (acceptable) way out from under it all. Pretty good problem to have, considering the various droughts we've been through. They won't get me now!

It took me awhile to figure out that it don't take much to hit a basketball sized target.

Glad to hear somebody else say that. Like fly tying what began as a hobby gradually turned into a chore. I still reload everything simply because I couldn't possibly afford the amount of ammo I go through if I bought factory...

I haven't yet evolved out of the handloading for its own satisfaction state. I've only been doing it for close to forty years now.

I can't say that I really enjoy hand loading. If one is going to shoot .218 Bee and .219 Zipper, it has to be done. I also craft .243 loads using NP bullets. As long as federal makes blue box .30-30 and .308 in 150s, and as long as Hornaday makes 180 Superformance .30-06, I will not be stuffing them. I have a pretty good supply of Winchester factory loads and Lake City military stuff for the .223. My CZ is 9 twisted, so I may try some heavier bullets for deer.

Jack

Here you go O.P. https://www.midwayusa.com/product/1...ain-gmx-hollow-point-lead-free-box-of-20

The 55 grain GMX will take any deer in the Western Hemisphere.

My family and I have taken several deer with it, and have yet to recover a bullet. The deer don't make it very far after being hit, usually about 30 yards or so.

I had seen a VSSF a few weeks ago and kind of overlooked it for the very reason of it being a 12 twist, even though otherwise it was a very appealing rifle.
But.....
I just mistakenly got a closet queen 12 twist Ruger 77 Mark II for about half the price of the used VSSF, so glad to see this thread. I had thought it was a 9 twist until I got almost all the way there to pick it up, but when I saw the high gloss blue and decent grain to the walnut I went ahead and got it anyway. Also, I had a buddy that shot 62 Fusions and 64 PowerPoints out of a stainless boat paddle Mark II and he always did really well with those. So I thought, what the heck, for less than a new RAR Predator, I’ll give it a go.

Hope yours does better than my Remington 700 Varmint and .223 AI VSSF. Both are 12 twist and would shoot 55's into around 1 1/2" or so with careful handloading. However, I stumbled across a load with 40 grain Nosler BT's which shoot bugholes and I've stuck with it ever since. Absolutely like dynamite on coyotes and anything smaller out to as far as I want to shoot at them, which is quite a ways....

Bob

Geez, only shoots the light bullets well... That’s a bit discouraging. I guess I’ll find out with my old Ruger next weekend. Only ammo I got to try is 4 boxes 55gr plastic tip Winchester that I picked up on closeout , so that ought to give me an idea. And some 64gr mono’s that I wasn’t even going to try.

Oh well. We shall see. Usually takes me two or three tries to get it right anyhow. Probably get an 8 or 9 twist in the end if this one doesn’t do what I want. But I’m sure I’m on the right path with the .223 Rem.

Those 40 BTips will actually do just fine on deer as well. They'll break the shoulder if necessary on the way in.

My Ruger has the slow 1-12 twist. Loves .40g BT and AMAX bullets. Got it for cheap shooting. Can't use it for big game in Colorado anyway, so a faster twist and heavier bullets are ho-hums.

I will respectfully agree to disagree on that one. I would never use .223 BT's for deer sized game on a bet. I've seen what they do to rock chucks, rabbits, ground squirrels, and other thin skinned game and they are so explosive they sometimes don't even go all the way through a rock chuck. The hole they leave are also impressive, but would translate to huge amounts of damaged meat IMO. Besides, I have better tools for that job. I don't know, maybe we have bigger deer here, but I doubt it. Seems like the deer I saw in North Dakota a couple weeks ago were getting pretty fat on all that grain they were eating....

Bob

I have a CZ 527 with a 1:12 twist. I handload and use factory ammo as well. My handload is the 50 gr. Nosler BT and 25 gr. Varget. I've since been using the Hornady Steel case 55 gr. BTHP. Both the hndload and the factory load shoot to nearly the same point of impact and are sub .5 moa loads. I've killed several mouflon/barbado sheep with the Nosler load on our lease in west Texas. All have been shoulder shots and everything has been literally pole axed. I haven't launched the Hornady loads at a critter yet, but when I do it will be a head shot.

I was able to get in on a culling shoot for deer and very successfully used Federal Premium with 60 gr Partitions and 55 gr Bear Claws, Winchester with 64 gr Power Points, and standard Remington 55gr pointed soft points in the green and yellow box. These were all shot from a plain Jane Remington 700 ADL with 1:12" twist.

The Remington's were my second least favorite as I had to shoot twice more with those than the others. To be fair, I shot them toward the end when the remaining deer were more skittish and ideal shot angles were not offered as often nor as long. I would have been better served using them first.

My least favorite were some 55gr Barnes X-Bullets by PMC or Eldorado or some such company. These were early production and they did some funky things in the deer. They didn't always open up and often veered off course making for some practice in tracking and recovering animals from people's yards who did not gree with the culling operation. The newer tipped versions seem to have rectified this problem but I haven't tried anything smaller than 7mm yet.

I was not a proponent of 22 center fires on deer based on some experiences with buddies but that hunt moderated my position. I am not a fan but know that the 22 center fires are capable with proper bullet choice and bullet placement. I just can't bring myself to trust it as a good choice for at least some of the hunting I do.

If you can get them to shoot in your particular rifle, the 55's and above would be my choice also, especially in the hunting designed bullets. However, in my rifles they just aren't going to cooperate and the 40's are like a laser, so I stick with them for now. I have other tools for larger game so it isn't an issue to me. Nosler makes some awesome bullets, but design parameters matter and the 40 BT's aren't designed as hunting bullets, they are designed as varmint bullets and as such are extremely fragile and explosive. I remember a rock chuck hunt over a wheat field where the chucks were at the far end of the field at around 300-400 yards, depending on where they would pop up. Several shots that day would hit the grain heads of the almost ready wheat fairly close to where the chucks were located. The bullets would completely come apart and wouldn't even bother the chucks, sometimes allowing for a follow up shot. On further inspection, you could see where the bullet had hit the rock around the chuck and it looked like specks of pepper sprinkled on the rock. Not a bullet I would trust to take down deer sized game, IMHO. The chucks we did hit that day were practically blown in half. Keep in mind we were pushing them in my 22-250 at around 4200 fps ahead of a load of Varget and even the 223 AI was pushing them around 4000 so they were like a little nuclear warhead on a mission.

Bob

Yeah, if I'm out hunting a big buck, the .223 isn't my first choice. Kansas has a 1 buck limit, and I usually fill my buck tag early in the 2nd or 3rd week of September.

However, we do have a generous bag limit of does and a lengthy season that coincides with my favorite time to coyote hunt.

So I'm mostly talking about a target of opportunity, should a doe wander within range, while I'm out calling coyotes.

I have a Rem 700 in .223 with the Bull barrel and a slow twist. I do handload and found that the 62g bullets were not close to being as accurate as the 40g NBT that others have mentioned. I now only shoot those 40g through it for varmints and deer due to the improved accuracy with them. Also the velocity is up there and with a healthy dose of RL-7 I can can 3900 fps out of my shooter.

If I were to looking at the available ammo for your rifle I would tend toward the lighter and shorter bullets and see if that gives you the accuracy that you want for your applications. Usually the shorter bullets can be stabilized better with the slower twist rates but every rifle can and sometimes is a different animal.

55 Horn.. or the 63 Sierra, 64WW or 70 gr Speer. I have used all but the latter...

I've seen very good accuracy with the Sierra 65 GK in a 1 in 9" CZ .223. The 63 Sierra and 64 Berger FB Varmint also did well. Poor results with the 64 Winchester. Couldn't get this bullet to shoot well in a 1 in 9" Savage .22-250 either. The 64 Nosler Bonded Base was only slightly better .

All with a 1 in 12 twist?

That’s what I was thinking when I went ahead and got the older Ruger with the 1:12 twist. I know my buddy used to shoot 62 Fusions and 64 PowerPoints out of his without any complaints.
And then I found this
http://www.gunsandammo.com/ammo/pair-barrel-twist-rates-ammo/
which kind of confirms the same thing.

I’m going to go ahead and pick up a box of each, 62 fusions and 64 PowerPoints, and see what happens. Nothing to lose and everything to gain. If they shoot good enough I’ll try and find some of the Fusion seconds, maybe some 53 TTSX, and the old Lee Classic Loader, and call it a day. I don’t have anywhere to shoot more than 300 yards anyway. And it’s not likely that I’d ever attempt a shot that far on a game animal with a .223 either.

My m- Seven with 1/12 twist wouldn't shoot either of those. The heaviest bullet that it would shoot was the 60 grn partition.It would shoot those into 1.5" groups.

I wonder if a 2” more barrel length would make a slight difference... or is it three and a half. My Ruger, and I’m pretty sure the OP’s VSSF, both have 22’ barrels. I might have to load hot, settle for 55’s. Or as the final option try and trade up into something newer with a faster twist.
I’m going to give it a shot regardless.

Hornady doesn’t list this ammo or the bullet on their website, but Academy has the American Whitetail with 60 grain Interlock bullets.
https://www.academy.com/shop/pdp/hornady-american-whitetail-223-60-grain-centerfire-rifle-ammunition

Actually, mine has a 26" barrel. Got it set up with an Athlon Midas scope from Doug but haven't got to shoot it, yet.

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Oh yeah, right. I was thinking of the LVSF.

I haven’t shot my Ruger yet either. Hoping for some sub-100 temps soon. Figure I’d get a better idea what it could do then.

I've got one of those Rugers but mine is the 20 inch Ultralight. Mine shoots the 50gr Barnes TTSX over TAC into just over 1/2 inch. It shoots about the same with the 63gr Sierra over Varget. Best I've gotten from the 55gr Hornady SP is about an inch, also over Varget.

If everything between 50 and 63 grain shoots between 1/2 and 1 inch, I’ll be real happy with it.

Or if just two or three do, I’ll be fine.

Try H335 in some of your loads. My 12 twist 22.250 loves Varget, but my 223 dotes on H335.

Same here

After decades of handloading I always get a laugh when I hear a guy say "loading is fun" nope.....

It's a chore

This thread reminds me I need to overhaul my wife’s 12-twist Vanguard Ute 20-inch to lighten, suppress and AI.

It does very well w many deer worthy .223 factory loads. I’m 4.5 years from retiring and looking forward to piddling at the reloading bench for fun again.

I have a good friend who has killed a lot of animals and his favorite 223 ammo is Black Hills Ammo 55 S.P.

Years ago I used several Speer 70 grain Semi-Spitzers and they worked well in a 1-12 twist.

Finally got the .223 Sendero out to the range today. Turns out the gun loves the Hornady 55 grain bullets - thank you, ingwe.

Tuned up and ready to slay some 'yotes tomorrow. And I have an antlerless deer tag in my pocket, so...

5 shots @100yards

Sweet rig and nice shooting, hell of a group for any factory load..............but, that Gem of a rifle will probably shoot it all.

What did you think of the new glass?

Yeah, I was surprised or maybe I should say shocked that it shot so well out of the gate. Not thrilled with the trigger - I'll get around to replacing it with a Timney or Trigger Tech eventually.

The Athlon Midas, ya' know, it's a great value for $339 bucks. But I'll swap it out soon. Nothing wrong with it, just I've just grown accustomed to FFP scopes and the cross-hair is too fine for my liking. When the illumination is turned on it really washes the reticle out trying to shoot those red target dots. On the plus side the illumination is daylight bright and there shouldn't be any bright red coyotes out in the woods.

Bringing this back up. I was calling coyotes this afternoon when this doe popped up at 70 yards. I still have a doe tag left, so....

The 55 grain Hornady soft point passed through completely. She ran about 20 yards and dropped. My first deer with a .223.

Thanks for the tip on the Hornady ammo, ingwe!

My kids rifle is a 1/8 twist but we do use 55gr bullets for deer. My son and daughter both shot deer this year with 55gr ttsx, Nosler brass, CCI primers, and H4895 powder.

Nice work!!

I've killed a bunch of deer with those same 50 pack Hornady 55's. Never a problem. In fact they've worked so well I can't see much sense using anything else.