Home Forums Reloading Varmint Rifles Range day bummer

Got some loaded up but ran out of day, taking care of other things the wife wanted done... we'll see how the weather is tomorrow to go to the range...

Keep us posted buddy. I also loaded some up for the slow twist 22-250. I am running AR Comp. First time to try this bullet in my new rifle. I also plan on shooting tomorrow if conditions are good:

Hey why don’t y’all give me the base to ogive measurement of the bullet.

I had a similar experience with the 50gr Vmax. Tried them in a few .223's and no success at all, even though the 40gr and 55gr versions shot very well. I just put them aside. Built a .22-250 for a buddy of mine and loaded some rounds for him. Used the 50gr bullets since I had no need for them, and frankly didn't figure he would notice the difference. Imagine my surprise when he came back saying they were shooting the head off of beer bottles at 200 yards! Oh well, they didn't work in my rifles so I'm not missing anything.

Not an apples to apples, but still interesting.
Buddy of mine sent this pic to me. 223 Wylde chambered PSA upper supposedly a 8 twist.
bullets were 60 gr Hornady sp. 25 yards.

.380" for the new bullets I've been buying. Lot #2211516 (but who knows how long they have been on the shelves)

The older bullets I have on hand measure damn near the same thing, @ .377". Lot #2211725. I'm not sure if these are the ones I bought a few months ago, but more than likely they are. I usually don't pull the comparator set out, but I like you swifty....

Today's outing with my slow twist, new to me rifle:


That was the first charge wt I tried. Bullets seem to be stabilizing just fine. Accuracy is fine as well. Not bad for a used rifle I just bought. I was happy enough with results that I went to the store and bought 4 more boxes:


I'm glad all you guys are saving these schidt bullets for me. These mother fu ckers are horrendous... But I'll take them. Even though the price is the "new normal" ha ha, ha ha,, . I'm wondering how seafire's range day went?

Beautiful Featherweight Lawrence....I've got its 223 twin.. Love that rifle...

Oh man. I hope to find one like this in 223 one of these days. This one shoots lights out buddy. I hope you had a great range day. I am shooting at a new range in northern Nevada and meeting some great people. Had a nice day today. I hope you are doing well buddy!!! As for the 53gr v-max, those have always been my go to bullet for my 223 bolt action rifles. I stumbled across these 53gr V-max bullets recently for $20.49/box and I've been snagging them. One store clerk said I can only buy 2 boxes per day, but I talked to the manager today and he said I could buy the whole damn shelf if I wanted. I only took 4 this time. I'll be back though. I think our buddy swifty got a bad lot though. He needs to post up some info on what bullets he has. I posed the measurements he wanted and lot numbers that I have. They seem to shoot well. Here's some shcidty groups from my AR today. I just loaded up some of the old recipe, but bumped the oal back to 2.250" to fit in the mag. I ran this load in my bolt actions. Posted pics of how they do and the lowly Rugers would shoot these 53's pretty well. Here's how that load did in the AR today. Not good, but posting honest results as per usual.......


Shot these 53gr pills with my least accurate AR. Stabilized just fine, but accuracy was terrible..

All is quiet on the western front. How much are you guys paying for these 53gr V-max bullets? Also wondering why you are having stabilization issues... No comment though.. I'll go back to my honey hole and buy 4 more boxes today. Hell, maybe even 10 boxes. They shoot great in all of my rifles and my buddies 223 and 22-250 that I load for. I may even work up a good load in my AR's with them.. Should be very easy to do. I'm thinking 1 range trip and maybe 30 bullets at the most to complete that task.

That result from an 8" twist isn't computing for me.

Sling shot?

I gather no one contacted Hornady as I suggested....

so I went ahead and did so... just as they told me in the past, in their testing they couldn't find them stabilizing in ANY 1 in 14 twist that they tested,
regardless of the caliber they tried it in... 221 to 220 Swift....

Savage claims a one in 14 twist in the 22.250 Stevens that I have... that barrel will stabilize the 53 VMax also along with a Pac Nor 1 in 14 twist on a Model 70 action..
with a 28 inch barrel....

as it was listed as being marginal for the twist, I wonder how much the powder and charge might be on the ragged edge to where it pulls it off and stabilizes.

The Stevens is getting a load of 33.5 grains of Benchmark... and the Model 70/ Pac Nor is getting a charge of 30 grains RL 7

the rifle barrels are 22 inches on the Stevens and 28 inches on the Pac Nor Barrel on the Model 70....

I need to check the velocity of the loads I worked up yesterday. I'm pretty damn happy with the accuracy and the holes are nice and round. NO evidence of instability. I believe my rifle is one with a 1 in 14 twist. Just for chidts and giggles, I should run them through the Tikka varminter and Stevens 200 as well. The Tikka has a 1 in 14 and the Stevens a 1 in 12".

Air density matters, especially when a bullet is on the ragged edge of stability.

That I can agree with. When I shot them it wasn’t really ideal. But it’s really a mute point right now. Appreciate the input.

Swifty, what do your bullets measure base to ogive? Same as the dimension I gave you yesterday?

So more on this. The whole purpose was to find a bullet that had about the same contour as the 53 varmageddon which is the bullet that a #1 really seemed to like. Now this is a project I started in the late 90’s and went down a 4 year rabbit hole. Never would consistently shoot anything under an inch to inch and a half. Totally unacceptable for a 22.250. Languished about 10 years or so.
Anyhow today I go out and run some 55 grain varmageddon in the thing.
Everything was kinda arbitrary as the brass was some Win that had a 2nd fire date of 07. Annealed, sized shoulder bump .003. CCI primer, 35.5 grains H4895. Now again arbitrarily seated to .005 over Nosler suggested.

Forgot my other front bag so a towel had to suffice



First 5 shots and that outlier is all on me.



5 groups.



Moving around some but believe a lot of that is on the lack of a good stable front bag. Showing some good symmetry for the groups. A few 3 tight 2 outs. Honestly think with a tad bit of adjustment I can shrink those down to a respectable level.

~.001 .389

From hornady

The 53 grain bullet V-Max bullet. A 1 in 12" twist rate or faster is recommended for optimal performance.

That's what seafire has been saying. Although, he has some 1 in 14 rifles that shoot them. My model 70 seems to like them as well. I'm curious as to what my Tikka and Stevens 200 will do with them. Have you tried them J? I've always had good luck with them in 1 in 9 twist 223's. Rumor has it, they were made/designed for such a twist rate. They also have a better bc than the 60gr vmax because of the secant ogive and bt. Swifty says he's had issues with this bullet in everything he's tried it in. Like I said before, it may be the lot of pills he has. I'd contact Hornady to get to the bottom of it, or not..