223 53gr V-Max Load Development

[Elliott]

After creating a great load using 22.8gr of Vhit 133 and being slightly disappointed by the velocity of 2,850fps I thought I'd experiment some more with higher charges and keep and eye on pressure signs.

Max book load for the 53gr V-Max is 23gr and last week I knocked some up in 0.2gr increments from 23gr - 24gr. Best group was at 23.6gr. The group size increased at 23.8gr and started to close up again at 24gr.

Thinking I might be coming back onto another 'accuracy node' I loaded up some more rounds from 24.2gr - 25gr and tested them out this afternoon at 100 yards.

Here's the result- all four shot groups: https://www.dropbox.com/s/6toefmsnyg..._0280.JPG?dl=0

24.4gr and 24.8gr appear to be the best but I can't just decide which load to use. Quite a lot of mirage today so I put the flyers down to me.

Which load would you choose?

[Treebone]

Elliot, i am getting 3340fps with a 55grn Sierra Blitzking out of my 223.
Load is 28 grains of H335 in Lapua brass sparked by a Fed 205M primer
Rifle is Sako 85 varmint stainless laminated 20" barrel with Hausken Mod.
http://www.hunt101.com/data/550/medium/P1220693.JPG

TB.

[Elliott]

Elliot, i am getting 3340fps with a 55grn Sierra Blitzking out of my 223.
Load is 28 grains of H335 in Lapua brass sparked by a Fed 205M primer
Rifle is Sako 85 varmint stainless laminated 20" barrel with Hausken Mod.
http://www.hunt101.com/data/550/medium/P1220693.JPG

TB.

Nice one TB. I've got some 55gr SBK but haven't pushed them too much. Like the 53gr V-Max, I have a feeling they will do well with more powder!

[ZAKDINGEL]

This might be of help? I use 40grn v-max in my .223 with 22 grns of ramshot -"Tac " col is 56.5 for my gun these shoot very good if you want something faster I sometimes use barns 36 grn varmint grenade with 22 grns of tac seated to 57mm these shoot very flat like a laser

[223AI]

This might be of help? I use 40grn v-max in my .223 with 22 grns of ramshot -"Tac " col is 56.5 for my gun these shoot very good if you want something faster I sometimes use barns 36 grn varmint grenade with 22 grns of tac seated to 57mm these shoot very flat like a laser

Why so low? That's 3gr below ramshot's start load!

[223AI]

After creating a great load using 22.8gr of Vhit 133 and being slightly disappointed by the velocity of 2,850fps I thought I'd experiment some more with higher charges and keep and eye on pressure signs.

Max book load for the 53gr V-Max is 23gr and last week I knocked some up in 0.2gr increments from 23gr - 24gr. Best group was at 23.6gr. The group size increased at 23.8gr and started to close up again at 24gr.

Thinking I might be coming back onto another 'accuracy node' I loaded up some more rounds from 24.2gr - 25gr and tested them out this afternoon at 100 yards.

Here's the result- all four shot groups: https://www.dropbox.com/s/6toefmsnyg..._0280.JPG?dl=0

24.4gr and 24.8gr appear to be the best but I can't just decide which load to use. Quite a lot of mirage today so I put the flyers down to me.

Which load would you choose?

I'd load up another 5 rds of each and shoot 2 more groups, over a chrono if I could get hold of one, one load may be more consistent.

[Elliott]

I'd load up another 5 rds of each and shoot 2 more groups, over a chrono if I could get hold of one, one load may be more consistent.

Might be the best way Scott, good idea!

[ZAKDINGEL]

Why so low? That's 3gr below ramshot's start load!

Because the start load of 23.9grn shot shite no other reason and using the weight I said still makes it very fast and flat shooting I zero one inch high at 100 and have shot fox at 300 plus with a drop of no more than one inch I think that the ramshot chart is a little to hot on some of the loads----- like barrels everyone is different

[223AI]

Because the start load of 23.9grn shot shite no other reason and using the weight I said still makes it very fast and flat shooting I zero one inch high at 100 and have shot fox at 300 plus with a drop of no more than one inch I think that the ramshot chart is a little to hot on some of the loads----- like barrels everyone is different

Fair enough, what sort of velocity are you getting? I never had issues with Tac until max load when I was using it with 52gr a-max, at least it'll be kinder to your brass too.

I'm just sorting out a 40 gr load with Sierra blitzkings and exterminator, found a nice accuracy node at 25.8 so loaded 100 of these up to keep me going but as I had no pressure signs when I get a chance to do some more load testing, I'm going to keep going up to max in .3 gr increments to see if I can find another accurate load. I want it as flat as possible as it will be an NV load and it will make the little pill cope with wind better.

Edit: now I'm intrigued, was it a lasered 300 yards? Assuming a 1.75" scope height I've just plugged the figures in to a ballistic calculator and to get 1.5" drop from your zero at 300 yards the v-max would need to be doing 5500 fps! I'm guessing your load is doing around 3100-3300 from the load data! The top end of which gives you 8.5" drop at 300...

[pothunter]

Because the start load of 23.9grn shot shite no other reason and using the weight I said still makes it very fast and flat shooting I zero one inch high at 100 and have shot fox at 300 plus with a drop of no more than one inch I think that the ramshot chart is a little to hot on some of the loads----- like barrels everyone is different

Surely a typo......
200yards makes more sense.

[ZAKDINGEL]

Surely a typo......
200yards makes more sense.

Yes that's what it should be 200 plus not 300 should have read it before pressing submit would be a bloody ray gun of star-wars if it shot like that at 300 plus one thing I was getting sometimes with the max start load was primers starting to pop out

[223AI]

Yes that's what it should be 200 plus not 300 should have read it before pressing submit would be a bloody ray gun of star-wars if it shot like that at 300 plus one thing I was getting sometimes with the max start load was primers starting to pop out

Ha, that makes more sense, sounds like a useful load!