Home Forums Reloading Varmint Rifles For P. Dogs and Gophers and the ,223 what wt. bullet!!

I have thousands of 50 Vmax and 50 gr. Blitzking bought before I retired 20 years ago.. But I have been shooting 40 gr. Vmax in my .223's... I am about to make a short order with Midway, and thought of picking up a few thousand 40 gr. Vmax.. I like the performance I get with these, but kind of wondered how folks felt about the 50's... I did have some trouble with bullets bouncing across the fields when I shot them out of my .222, never noticed it with .223.. What wt. do you favor for the .223?????

I like 55 gr VMAX. However, a friend gave me some 2nds that were 50 gr Blitzkings. Those things shot amazing with some Benchmark. I could get used to more of them if the price came down to the VMAX arena.

At the end of the day, all my pdog hunting is done with a 55VMAX. For the price, they are hard to beat.

223 and 40 gr Nosler BT or V-Max is a perfect match for PD's. I prefer the 40 Nosler BT because I use the same load for PD's and coyotes. The Nosler is less explosive than the V-Max so if you are strictly going to use the V-Max for PD shooting they are great for that.
I have shot both 50 gr V-Max and 50 gr Blitzking out of my 223 and they both worked well but they create a bit more recoil making it more difficult to see close in hits.

drover

I shoot a ton of 50s... I always bought them in the Zmax form...

WCH the 40s you like are just fine and frangible enough. For 50s I like Speer TNTs...very frangible and I often find them by the 1000 cheaper than Vmax. Accurate too.

WyoCoyoteHunter: I have been "worrying" about ricocheting bullets while Colony Varmint Hunting for over 50 years now.
The worst offending, ricochet prone, bullet I have ever used (in 22 caliber) was the amazingly accurate Sierra 52 grain HP/BT MatchKings!
I mean those things were/are as hard as nails - fine at the range but banned by me and anyone that Hunted with me, afield.
I've posted before about the dairy farmer who had to put down one of his best producing cows because of a bullet wound and the offending bullet was a 52 grain Sierra HP/BT MatchKing.
He had dug that bullet out of the cows wound after it was put down and showed it to us Colony Varmint (Rock Chucks in this instance!) Hunters with a stern warning about field safety!
Anyway I found the humble little 50 grain Sierra "Blitz" bullets to be extremely frangible in my 222's and 223's as well as being VERY accurate and lethal on Varmints like Prairie Dogs and Rock Chucks.
I still use these humble bullets in a several of my 221's, 222's, 223's and in my 224 Weatherby (for a while).
They are "cheaper" than many other bullets also.
Years ago I had a "custom" Varmint Rifle made up to shoot the 40 grain Nosler Ballistic Tips. The Rifle was built on a Remington 700 action and has a HEAVY 25" Shilen stainless steel barrel on it.
It weighs 13 pounds 15 ounces with Jewell trigger and a Leupold 6.5x20 variable scope on it.
It shoots the 40 grain Nosler Ballistic Tips extremely well! And I can watch bullet impact through the scope - no ricochets with this bullet!
These bullets are pricey but again they DO NOT ricochet.
These might be worth a try.
Several of the ranches I Hunt Ground Squirrels on do not allow centerfire Rifles on, but some do, and I take this Rifle along from time to time in case a Badger or Coyote shows - now and then I plink a few Gophers with it as well.
Good luck with whichever you choose.
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy

The answer is simple and effective, nothing will outperform the 40 VMax or Varmigeddon in a 222, 223 or 222 Mag and of course H335 powder...

53 V max

40 Vmax here.

Same here Tom! I only buy them in the 1000 bullet bulk box....at about 10 cents a round...
and they are as accurate as hell.... along with explosive....

I love to bounce them right in front of sage rats.... they turn into Shrapnel....cut the rats to pieces
with parts going all over the place in all directions...

plenty of red mist that'a way...


plastic tip bullets, I've settled on 40 grain and 53 grain VMaxes and Varmaggeddons.
in 22.250, 53 VMax and Varmaggeddons.

yea..

forgot about the less expensive 53 gr Varmegeddons

I've shot a lot of dogs with both the 50 and 55 grain bullets. I used to buy bulk in whatever Midway had on sale and I've shot Hornady, Nosler and Sierra plastic tips. They all shot well but the Sierra was slightly more accurate. I found the 40-45 grain bullets to be plenty explosive on dogs but were affected by the wind more. I doubt any of these will be a bounce hazard. I've shot at and missed a few dogs by being a little low, hitting at the top rim on the mound. I first thought these to be kills but investigating proved them to be misses with copper fragments in the dirt. I've even shot a few Varmint Grenades but never find these on sale. I shoot a lot of BL-C2 and there is about a 1 grain difference in pressure from Arkansas to the hot sun in Texas/Oklahoma.

I shop shootersproshop dot com for Nosler seconds. 50 grain Ballistic Tip Varmint over Benchmark gives me 3400 FPS and astonishing accuracy.

Factory seconds are priced close to BOGO.




P

My absolute favorite. Effective and accurate.

I use the Sierra 50 Blitz in everything from the .222 through .220 Swift. Very accurate bullet in every rifle I've used it in.

I don't have prairie dogs where I am, but buy bulk bullets on ocassion - Hornady 55 gr. or Bulk Win 50/55 gr. bullets - when they are on sale. These work great on coyotes, groundhogs, foxes and pests like skunks, feral cats, etc. I like 40 gr. VMaxes too, but I haven't found enough of an accuracy difference hunting these animals to warrant spending the extra money. I have bought some Varmageddon bullets to try, and still have about 1500 Zombie 40 gr. VMaxes.

I just bought 1,000 HRN-2266B - 55 gr. Hornady for $99 USD ($129 CDN)

They are more for my 225. I have approx. 15,000 - 50 gr. FB homemade 224 bullets made from 22 LR cases, but they are only shot from my 222s.

40's are my favorite in the 221 and 223.


I shoot 50's in the 22-250.

I would go with 40 grain VMAX if you gun is accurate with them. In my guns (so far) they have been almost as accurate as the ballistic tip ... no noticeable difference in the field ... and a little more explosive.

I wouldn't stock up on 'em, but if you want to try a box or two for fun, the little stubby 35 grain VMAX can be fun at short range.

Tom

The 35 grain VMax reminded me of this..

the 35 grain NTX lead free version... 35 grains, but the length of the 50 grain V Max...
and it can be rocketed in the 4400 fps range....due to its weight...

35-gr. VMax. They don't look like they'd be accurate but they are. 200 yds to 400 yds is our main window, and the 35s rock there.