Home Forums Reloading Varmint Rifles 75 Eldm advice in a 1-8” Tikka

Looking for recipes for my Superlite .223.

I have Varget, H4895, Benchmark, and TAC. I use CCI 400 primers. I call load long, into the lands if need be.



Thanks,


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Tag

I have a Tikka 1-8" twist 223 also.

Playing with 65 gr SGK first, but would also be interested in 75 gr data.

Ain’t much to tag into just yet. I shoulda posted in Hunting Rifles.

I’ll post my experience as I go along. So far, I’m using Mountain Tactical mags so I can seat into the lands. Using the Sharpie method I get square marks at 1.931” BTO, which corresponds to a COAL of 2.467”. I’m going to start with Varget.




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With the 75 amax I've had good accuracy with 25grains of varget or rl15.
24 grains of tac has done well too

The best velocities came from 26 grains of leverevolution and accuracy was excellent as well

Are the Amax and Eldm similar enough in bearing surface to use similar recipes?



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I shot 5-600 of them last spring between two Tikka's. BC's look great, but I never tamed them. Thought my gun needed bedded! The norm was finding what I thought was a sweet spot with a 1/4" group and the same load would shoot 3/4" the next time out with everything being the same. Both of my rifles did this. I shot it more in my Superlite than my CTR, and finally settled on 23.6 grs of Varget, CCI 450's in a IMI case. That was a 3/8"-1/2" 3 shot group most of the time, but again I shot some .1's and .2's with that bullet that next time around would double ( open up) or even triple the next time out. My CTR was best with Lapua brass, 24.4 grs Varget, CCI 400. About the same accuracy. I ran the loads to 25.8 or so which is a heavly compressed load in my case. I'll not waste another dime on them for making tiny holes.

I took the 73gr Berger out a few times, and promptly dumped the ELD's for the most accurate bullet I've ever shot! Not the best BC compared to the new 75's and 80's , but boy do they shoot! My .02

25.5 grains of Varget at 1.930” gave me 2976 fps. A little crunchy on the seating but not much. Primers look like this:




Bolt lift was fine.



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25 grains gave me 2916 fps and these primers:




Bolt lift was fine.




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24.5 grains gave me 2873 fps and these primers:









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Mix all the primers together and it’s hard to tell which is which.

cci 400's shouldn't be used in anything that operates over 40,000 psi, but I've used them in a pinch too. 450's, br4's and 7 1/2's are tougher, and will crater less than the thin cupped 400's.

Source?

I haven't shot any elds as I'm sitting on a mountain of amaxs but buy looking at the amax next to the eld I think you will be fine.

How did your varget loads group?

Dunno yet. Today’s exercise was just a pressure/velocity test. Three rounds at each charge weight.





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The Amax and ELD are very close. I think my seating depth was changed like .013-.014" or so when I made the switch. The ELD had to be run that much longer to have the same jump to the lands as the Amax. To be honest, I didn't shoot the 75 Amax for very long, but that is what I recall.


Your primer crating is the same that I have observed with CCI400 primers. One of my bolts is quite bad and will get the fix. The other is noticeable but I'm going to live with the crating.


I shoot the same load as Dude in my standard 223. 26.0 lever which gets me 2970 fps in a new 26" tube. I expect my speed may increase as I get more rounds down range.


Good luck!

According to several sources, primer appearance is a poor indicator of pressure. The bolt lift is easy and the fired cases re-seat into the chamber without effort. Velocity is a little high compared to Hornady #10, but close to Hodgdon using Varget and 75 gr JLK VLD.

Remember I’m seating way long, too.





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That’s a pretty extensive write up. Thank you for sharing it.

Yessir. A friend & I shot a lot of the 75Amax over the years. When I ran out of the old Amax, the ELD was sub'd in. Accuracy was the same, but the ELD shoots a little flatter at long range and slips the wind slightly better. So far so good with the 75ELD.

Looks like I need some CCI 450.





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