Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Predators and Varmints Speer Varmint Hollow Point bullet

I'm looking at using the Speer Varmint 52gr.hp in a .223 for Coyote. Does anyone have any experience with this bullet?

Back in my fur hunting and trapping days it was my go to bullet in a Swift and 22-250. I put up fur for some of the callers in the area. One of them was using them in a 223 and they worked well. We did see more exit wounds at 223 velocity than with the Swift and 22-250. Out of my Swift and the 22-250 that preceded it, the bullets generally came fully apart in a good chest hit and almost never exited. Fringe hits could produce some spectacular fur damage.

The guy using them in his 223 almost always had an exit from a chest hit. The exit wasn’t huge but not small either. Generally two or 2.5 inches. Not a terrible sewing job but still a sewing job. Ballistically they fall way behind many of the more sleek bullets we now have available. It’s still a good bullet and has been in the Speer lineup forever. It’ll definitely kill coyotes.

Great info, thanks.

I use it almost exclusively, in my 222s, 223s, 5.6x50R Mag(combo gun) 22-250 and 22-250AI. It is usually very accurate, and for me it has been quite fur friendly. I haven't shot it in the 22-204 just because the 40gr NBT turned out to be the the most accurate out of that particular rifle.

I usually buy in 1k lots and usually under $.10/bullet..

Now that's good news.
What powder and primer do you use in the 223 load?

They are nicely accurate in my 1/12 twist Remington 700 with several different loads. AA2015, RL10x, Benchmark, AA2230 and AA2460. I settled on 23.2 of AA2015 or RL10x. I like Federal Match primers the best. I haven't killed anything with it yet so I don't know what it will do on fur.

kwg

Haven't shot a lot of coyote's but back in the days I would actually go out after them with my 222 Rem, I shot either 50gr Hornady SX's or 52 gr Sierra match kings. Those were my most accurate bullets with Sierra MK being most accurate by a small margin and the 50gr SX a small time bomb that I don't recall ever exiting.

Thanks kwg.
The powder I generally use in 17 Rem, 204R, and 223 is IMR8208. I have H335, H322, IMR4198, H4895, and IMR4320, but none of those you listed. Lol

LOVE that bullet! Very accurate and fur friendly!

What load do you like ingwe?

Lots of stuff works with that one, depending on what you have on hand. Right now I'd be using 25 gr of TAC, or 4895

I have 4895 so I'll give it a try. Thanks

I have shot some 8208 with 55 grain Vmaxes. Very accurate in my AR's. I have not worked up a load with 8208 for my Remington and the 52 grain Speers. I would suggest 24.2 or 24.4, somewhere through there. I load 52's with 24.2 of AA2460 and I have found those to be nicely accurate. AA2460 and 8208 are right next to each other on the burn rate chart.

kwg

Someone said something about the BC of a ping pong ball and that kind of resembles the 52 grain HP but that bullet works in everything I have tried it in.

Thanks kwg.
Worked up a load yesterday with 8208 and 2 of my rifles were very happy with 25.3 gr. using a Rem. 7 1/2 primer and Remington brass. Those bullets shot remarkably well.

Ahh, the flying ashtray. That was usually slang for a 45acp HP they used to make, but it goes that bullet as well.

Never used them on coyotes but in close at 22-250 velocities I've seen them hit a 15 lb. groundhog & literally lift them off the ground.

I shot quite a few coyotes with the Speer 52 HP, back in the day, with a Rem 700 22/250. It worked very well. Ive since transitioned to plastic tip bullets, for all my coyote killing.

I couldn't get the 53 grain Vmax's to shoot with about any load of H335 or AA2460. But, I could get the 55 and 60 grain Vmax's to shoot with a number of powders. I also tried some 55 grain Nosler plastic tips. Really accurate. Between the Hornady's and the Nosler's. It's the Nosler's by a hair.

kwg
I had some 55 grain Vmax's that I loaded a couple of years ago with 25 grains of 8208. Apparently I never got around to shooting them. They did very well on the 50 yard range with an Armalite 16" midlength 1/9 twist barrel. I need to try them in a couple more rifles including the 1/12 Remington 700 on the 100 yard range. Maybe I need to bump up the charge a bit.
Thanks

kwg

I would try it. Seating depth may change it also. The Rem 7 1/2 can be a thing of beauty.

Have had great all-around success with this bullet out of 222. Used it for ground hogs, coons, fox, the occasional stray coyote. Probably my go-to pill for the .224.