H322 in 223 - 02/29/20
In load development I found H322 the most accurate with a 68 grain Hornady match in the 223. It turned out as 23 grains in the Windham Varmint Exterminator and 22.7 grains in the Savage 12 FV.
I have 100 cases set aside for the Savage, only short sizing those. I loaded up 30 of the 68 grain load and then was going to switch to H335 for the 55's, which are both SP's and V-MAX. I got to thinking, back in the day I shot both a Rem 788 and a Rem 722 in 222 Remington. H322 worked very well in both of them even though for some reason the 788 liked a case stuffed with 748. But only by a very slight margin. So I said "what the hell" and loaded both 55's with 23 grains of H322. I think today I'm going to load 50 grain Hornady SX and 40 grain Nosler BT's with the same powder.
We shall see what we shall see.
On another note, looking back, with that 722 and 788. Back then you had one choice in stock material, wood. I did something you only saw in custom rifles back then, I pillar bedded both. You pretty much had to make your own pillars but I had access to a lathe so I made them from 316 stainless rod. I fit them exactly to the bottom contour of the actions. Then I glass bedded both to 1-1/4" ahead of the receiver ring.
I had a Tasco scope on each. These were not your typical Tasco's. They were variable power and had a static wire you used for range finding. There was a scale on the tube that told you how far, three sets of graduations as I recall. They had replaceable drums that you would put on the turret and a window you could see them through. I do not remember what that scope was called.
Both rifles had sporter weight barrels. Doesn't really make a difference with woodchucks as you never shoot them fast enough to get hot. I killed truck loads of woodchucks with those rifles, some out to 400+ yards. Of course back then we weren't overrun with coyotes and we had truck loads to shoot.
Farmers loved me back then, one even tried to set me up with his daughter. He would say, " Take her out with you." I did, problem being that unlike the story of the beautiful farmers daughter she was butt-fuggin-ugly. I had to talk about my fake girlfriend rather than saying, " No way, you're butt-fugging-ugly."
I have 100 cases set aside for the Savage, only short sizing those. I loaded up 30 of the 68 grain load and then was going to switch to H335 for the 55's, which are both SP's and V-MAX. I got to thinking, back in the day I shot both a Rem 788 and a Rem 722 in 222 Remington. H322 worked very well in both of them even though for some reason the 788 liked a case stuffed with 748. But only by a very slight margin. So I said "what the hell" and loaded both 55's with 23 grains of H322. I think today I'm going to load 50 grain Hornady SX and 40 grain Nosler BT's with the same powder.
We shall see what we shall see.
On another note, looking back, with that 722 and 788. Back then you had one choice in stock material, wood. I did something you only saw in custom rifles back then, I pillar bedded both. You pretty much had to make your own pillars but I had access to a lathe so I made them from 316 stainless rod. I fit them exactly to the bottom contour of the actions. Then I glass bedded both to 1-1/4" ahead of the receiver ring.
I had a Tasco scope on each. These were not your typical Tasco's. They were variable power and had a static wire you used for range finding. There was a scale on the tube that told you how far, three sets of graduations as I recall. They had replaceable drums that you would put on the turret and a window you could see them through. I do not remember what that scope was called.
Both rifles had sporter weight barrels. Doesn't really make a difference with woodchucks as you never shoot them fast enough to get hot. I killed truck loads of woodchucks with those rifles, some out to 400+ yards. Of course back then we weren't overrun with coyotes and we had truck loads to shoot.
Farmers loved me back then, one even tried to set me up with his daughter. He would say, " Take her out with you." I did, problem being that unlike the story of the beautiful farmers daughter she was butt-fuggin-ugly. I had to talk about my fake girlfriend rather than saying, " No way, you're butt-fugging-ugly."