Quote Originally Posted by warbucks View Post
Hi Brickhill.
I was a long time before i started reloading, 223, and 243, but im glad i did.
With the 204r lots of people are happy with the 32g Hornady v-max, sort of most make seem to shoot them accurately, you talk about 4225 fps, this might be what it says on the box but chances are unlees you have a 24-26" barrel it wont be doing this speed, this doesn’t make it wrong though.

Ive read about 39/40g v 32g bullets, and i think its owt after 150yd+ the heavier bullet retains more speed and ft lb due to its superior bc, so in most cases this is the better option.

It is said that some 204's wont shoot the 40g Hornady v-max but will shoot the 39g blitz kings, the thing is with reloading you can alter the powder charge and seating depth to make "most" bullets accurate, and example of this is my Tikka in 223, it has the worst grouping of all the bullets ive tried with Factory 53g v-max (fantastic bc of .290) but with the same bullet head home loads sort of go through the same hole, mine is like "Elliotts" it like the long seating depth.

Dave (warbucks)
That's not strictly true though is it, perhaps any bullet within a given length range? Powder weight and COAL will help with barrel harmonics and shrink groups, accuracy has a lot to do with stability, my .223 AI is fiendishly accurate but its set up short throated for bullets 50 gr or less so its a 1:14 as that's optimum for that weight / length, it needs bullets <0.800" long. If I load 55 gr SBKs or v-max which are longer it shoots about 1.5" because they don't stabilise.

Same as your .223 if a 1:12 won't shoot 69gr or if a 1:80 90 gr bullets.....