Post by GLSHOOTER on May 23, 2019 10:40:31 GMT -8
I finally got to the range last week to test the new barrel after getting sidetracked a bit., The goal was to test a few more varmint weight bullets and get a feel for how fast they would go and yet maintain some semblance of accuracy. I decided to load three shot at each powder level with three levels for each powder and three powders per bullet. Basically nine groups for each bullet although with AR Comp I did elect to shoot a five step charge variation as I had no equivalent data for it.
Bullets tested were 50, 55 and 60 grain Nosler Ballistic Tips. All were seated to 2.230. All loads used CCI 450 primers and once fired converted 6 MM HAGAR brass. Weather conditions started out at 71 degrees and finished up at 81. Initially I had a few small gusts but as the morning progressed so did the intensity and frequency of the wind. Top guts topped 20+ according to my wind meter. I did try to shoot between all those..LOL I stopped shooting for the day when the wind blew the 4X scope I have setting on a bracket of my LabRadar off the box onto the table. All speeds are actually at the muzzle velocities.
I had just mounted a new 8X32 Mueller on the upper so picked out a target in the middle of my array and pulled the trigger on the first CFE 50 grain load. About a foot left and four inches low got me headed in the right direction. A few twirls later and I fired the remaining two shots. Those two went into 0.822 so I felt like I at least had something to work with. I then fired two groups of three of CFE at 35.3 and 35.6 grains. I did learn on the first group that I was over 3900 FPS that is the operational MAX on the LR so I had to be content with just holes in the paper and no real speeds. What was recorded was right at 3921 for the mid-load. Below are the groups that got my juices flowing early on. The speeds are out of sight with this powder with very little pressure signs being seen
Next up was AA2520 and the 50 Nosler. This powder has done well for me in accuracy and across the board it has given yeoman’s accuracy day in day out. Three groups from 31.8 to 32.4 gave me three decent reports. The best was in the middle splitting the speed almost perfectly at 3696. I did reach 3746 with this load so I believe that the 2520 has some potential in the light pills. This was the best of the three with the other two chalking up a 0.783 and a 0.917.
The last powder tested with the 50’s was 748. I usually avoid this one here in Arizona as heat can make it wild and woolly in the pressure world but I figured that any knowledge was of usage for me over the long haul and someone that shoots a lot of 223 is sure to ask. The first group got me one that made me look a bit through the scope and gave me verification that this 8 twist will shoot those 50 grain pills just fine. This was the first group at 32.4 at a respectable 3706. The higher charges gave me a max of 3786 at 33.0 shooting an average of 0.837 with one a smidge over 1 inch showed me this one might well be OK. The last two targets showed vertical but I was starting to hit a few minor pressure signs there so maybe I could sneak up another 0.3 but in the 110’s here this would be a no go from the standpoint of safety and primer pocket longevity.
My crunch for eight record targets gave me an aggregate average of 0.755. No real screamers but no real Ah Dang It’s either.
Moving along to the 55’s I was hopeful that this basic gold standard weight in the 223 bore would pay off. Not to disappoint the 22-NXS stepped up and let me know it was here to serve.
I shot CFE 223 for the opening slavo as it always gives me about top speeds in this one. I had done a bit of work with this powder and the Sierra 55’s so knew I had plenty of legs to get it done. The first group looked decent through the scope at about a minute but group number two at 35.3 made me set up and smile. Heck I even took a long pull on the coffee cup after that one!! Speeds were coming up and the top load turned up a 3864. This is very respectable for a 55’ in any rifle and it may have a tad more left. The last group was big jerk on the wrong end of the gun that had two stacked and the last one out in Never Never land. That being said the tree shot agg was still 0.875. Nothing to write home about but a bit better steerage would flat make this one unreal. The one that made me smile is below.
I had an idea that the rifle liked the 55’s and loaded up my nest batch charged with H 4895. This powder is noted for its versatility but the accuracy it delivers many ties overcomes that perceived need for speed. Starting out at a pedestrian 3477 I ended up at 3624 with some more to go if there is enough space in the boiler room. Three groups below are interesting in a few ways. First of the first two groups are very decent and the last was obviously a huge error of either nerves or the wind or both in tandem. Nevertheless even it would have gotten the job done on many PD’s under 300 yards. The other thing of note was that as the charges went up the standard deviations went down but group size increased. The last group shot was a 0.849 but the standard deviation was 0.11. Yes barely more than one tenth FPS variation. Extreme spread on that string was 0.16 FPS. Never in my life have I done better than that. The closest I had come before was on my PPC loadings in 38 Special that had many cylinders running an ES of 2 FPS. So an illustration that fast is not always the winner nor is the least variation the winner from group to group.
The last go around with the 55’s was with AR Comp. This has worked well in my smaller 223’s and I have a god supply of it. That being said I had nothing really that I could use as a god yard stick on it so thought I’d start a bit lower than what I felt might be the top and see how it ran. I shot five levels from 29.0 to 30.2 with the 30.2 being right at the low max for this one. All the groups were vertical indicating it wanted more go but if it doesn’t show up at 30.5 on my next outing this one will be relegated to also ran as the speeds while decent just aren’t there compared to the others. Two of the five broke the OA mark but the other three snugged the agg back under that number. The best of these is below showing the top speed. That up and down has to go though. And BTW in this case the faster I went the lower the SD went again but on this one the best group was the low SD of 5.01. Go
figure.
The winds were starting to pick up and getting more violent so the 60’s were going to be a challenge. Also I had very little exposure to this bullet. I have not checked the shank length but my best guess is it is quite a bit bigger than the others. Part of this whole exercise was to do a bit of the Edison method of light bulb design. Even things that don’t work out tell us something and the 60 grain Nosler was willing to share.
I started out once aging with CFE 223 but did not hold back on the powder jug like I should have. The first three shot group was very nice at 0.540 but the cost to my pocket book was way out of proportion. I lost two primers out of three and beat the third case up prettyt badly. I was not over gassed so this did catch me off guards. Getting these three together with the pressure spikes I saw was one of those things that one puzzles over. I now know what not to load to on this one with a 60! I’m not much into one and done loading when the cases are $0.80 each plus the potential damage to the firing pin. I did defer from firing the two higher charge test groups on this one BTW
Not to be too beat down and with hope beating eternal in the human breast I prepared to shoot the next batch of TAC powdered cartridges. Once again a high intensity offering perfect for a 223 powder but I had not a clue on what it would do. I had figured out the starting load with comparisons in anything I could find and that was very slim. The bottom load of 31.7 gave me a smile at 0.461 and 3610. Not bad and I could take that one to the field if pressed with the tiniest of ejector marking on one case. #2.0 grains gave me 3645 and a reasonable bullet spread of 0.768 clocking in at 3645. Not a huge gain from the extra 0.3 and I found out quickly as I picked up the brass that this was just a bit over the top also. The ejector marks had come up quite a bit and once again I was looking at a smoking primer pocket. I suspect the top sped round of 3674 was the culprit here as the others were more pedestrian at an average of 3631. The good one here that will get reshot down the road with some supporting loads below it.
The winds were now howling off and on and the temps had hit 81 as I started the 60 grain tests but I had one more batch in the box and figured I’d play the waiting for the lull game. I was using LT 30 for this one. I knew going in it would be slow but I was hoping it might deliver some screamer stuff for me. It didn’t wander from the speed expectation giving me 3429 at 26.7. No ejector marks showed and while I could have just quit at that speed I just had to know what I had on tap. The next two rounds went into 0.689 but after those I had a jammed up BCG that was seized up in the buffer tube about half way back. I had the tools for the cure but with the wind howling I decided that it was time to call calf rope and pack it in. I had looked around for the blown primers but had not seen anything. Disassembly later let me know that I need new glasses. The target of record with LT 30 was not overly shabby and years ago I would have been happy as a clam.
So ends the saga of the Nosler Excursion of the 22-NXS. I did do some math work on these groups as the cartridge is new and the barrel deserves more than a cursory crunch. All told I fired 27 groups. Two of those were two shots each. One was for a sighter pair and the other was due to a mechanical issue. Twenty five groups were fired with three shots each. I added all twenty five and averaged them. This was three bullets with three powders at each level. The average group size was 0.711. The smallest was 0.279 and the largest was 1.538 with a called pull. No other group exceeded 1.116 CTC. All told I learned a great deal on a couple of powders and found out where the dragons were hanging out. I’ll be loading up some more and let you all know how they go.
Greg
Bullets tested were 50, 55 and 60 grain Nosler Ballistic Tips. All were seated to 2.230. All loads used CCI 450 primers and once fired converted 6 MM HAGAR brass. Weather conditions started out at 71 degrees and finished up at 81. Initially I had a few small gusts but as the morning progressed so did the intensity and frequency of the wind. Top guts topped 20+ according to my wind meter. I did try to shoot between all those..LOL I stopped shooting for the day when the wind blew the 4X scope I have setting on a bracket of my LabRadar off the box onto the table. All speeds are actually at the muzzle velocities.
I had just mounted a new 8X32 Mueller on the upper so picked out a target in the middle of my array and pulled the trigger on the first CFE 50 grain load. About a foot left and four inches low got me headed in the right direction. A few twirls later and I fired the remaining two shots. Those two went into 0.822 so I felt like I at least had something to work with. I then fired two groups of three of CFE at 35.3 and 35.6 grains. I did learn on the first group that I was over 3900 FPS that is the operational MAX on the LR so I had to be content with just holes in the paper and no real speeds. What was recorded was right at 3921 for the mid-load. Below are the groups that got my juices flowing early on. The speeds are out of sight with this powder with very little pressure signs being seen
Next up was AA2520 and the 50 Nosler. This powder has done well for me in accuracy and across the board it has given yeoman’s accuracy day in day out. Three groups from 31.8 to 32.4 gave me three decent reports. The best was in the middle splitting the speed almost perfectly at 3696. I did reach 3746 with this load so I believe that the 2520 has some potential in the light pills. This was the best of the three with the other two chalking up a 0.783 and a 0.917.
The last powder tested with the 50’s was 748. I usually avoid this one here in Arizona as heat can make it wild and woolly in the pressure world but I figured that any knowledge was of usage for me over the long haul and someone that shoots a lot of 223 is sure to ask. The first group got me one that made me look a bit through the scope and gave me verification that this 8 twist will shoot those 50 grain pills just fine. This was the first group at 32.4 at a respectable 3706. The higher charges gave me a max of 3786 at 33.0 shooting an average of 0.837 with one a smidge over 1 inch showed me this one might well be OK. The last two targets showed vertical but I was starting to hit a few minor pressure signs there so maybe I could sneak up another 0.3 but in the 110’s here this would be a no go from the standpoint of safety and primer pocket longevity.
My crunch for eight record targets gave me an aggregate average of 0.755. No real screamers but no real Ah Dang It’s either.
Moving along to the 55’s I was hopeful that this basic gold standard weight in the 223 bore would pay off. Not to disappoint the 22-NXS stepped up and let me know it was here to serve.
I shot CFE 223 for the opening slavo as it always gives me about top speeds in this one. I had done a bit of work with this powder and the Sierra 55’s so knew I had plenty of legs to get it done. The first group looked decent through the scope at about a minute but group number two at 35.3 made me set up and smile. Heck I even took a long pull on the coffee cup after that one!! Speeds were coming up and the top load turned up a 3864. This is very respectable for a 55’ in any rifle and it may have a tad more left. The last group was big jerk on the wrong end of the gun that had two stacked and the last one out in Never Never land. That being said the tree shot agg was still 0.875. Nothing to write home about but a bit better steerage would flat make this one unreal. The one that made me smile is below.
I had an idea that the rifle liked the 55’s and loaded up my nest batch charged with H 4895. This powder is noted for its versatility but the accuracy it delivers many ties overcomes that perceived need for speed. Starting out at a pedestrian 3477 I ended up at 3624 with some more to go if there is enough space in the boiler room. Three groups below are interesting in a few ways. First of the first two groups are very decent and the last was obviously a huge error of either nerves or the wind or both in tandem. Nevertheless even it would have gotten the job done on many PD’s under 300 yards. The other thing of note was that as the charges went up the standard deviations went down but group size increased. The last group shot was a 0.849 but the standard deviation was 0.11. Yes barely more than one tenth FPS variation. Extreme spread on that string was 0.16 FPS. Never in my life have I done better than that. The closest I had come before was on my PPC loadings in 38 Special that had many cylinders running an ES of 2 FPS. So an illustration that fast is not always the winner nor is the least variation the winner from group to group.
The last go around with the 55’s was with AR Comp. This has worked well in my smaller 223’s and I have a god supply of it. That being said I had nothing really that I could use as a god yard stick on it so thought I’d start a bit lower than what I felt might be the top and see how it ran. I shot five levels from 29.0 to 30.2 with the 30.2 being right at the low max for this one. All the groups were vertical indicating it wanted more go but if it doesn’t show up at 30.5 on my next outing this one will be relegated to also ran as the speeds while decent just aren’t there compared to the others. Two of the five broke the OA mark but the other three snugged the agg back under that number. The best of these is below showing the top speed. That up and down has to go though. And BTW in this case the faster I went the lower the SD went again but on this one the best group was the low SD of 5.01. Go
figure.
The winds were starting to pick up and getting more violent so the 60’s were going to be a challenge. Also I had very little exposure to this bullet. I have not checked the shank length but my best guess is it is quite a bit bigger than the others. Part of this whole exercise was to do a bit of the Edison method of light bulb design. Even things that don’t work out tell us something and the 60 grain Nosler was willing to share.
I started out once aging with CFE 223 but did not hold back on the powder jug like I should have. The first three shot group was very nice at 0.540 but the cost to my pocket book was way out of proportion. I lost two primers out of three and beat the third case up prettyt badly. I was not over gassed so this did catch me off guards. Getting these three together with the pressure spikes I saw was one of those things that one puzzles over. I now know what not to load to on this one with a 60! I’m not much into one and done loading when the cases are $0.80 each plus the potential damage to the firing pin. I did defer from firing the two higher charge test groups on this one BTW
Not to be too beat down and with hope beating eternal in the human breast I prepared to shoot the next batch of TAC powdered cartridges. Once again a high intensity offering perfect for a 223 powder but I had not a clue on what it would do. I had figured out the starting load with comparisons in anything I could find and that was very slim. The bottom load of 31.7 gave me a smile at 0.461 and 3610. Not bad and I could take that one to the field if pressed with the tiniest of ejector marking on one case. #2.0 grains gave me 3645 and a reasonable bullet spread of 0.768 clocking in at 3645. Not a huge gain from the extra 0.3 and I found out quickly as I picked up the brass that this was just a bit over the top also. The ejector marks had come up quite a bit and once again I was looking at a smoking primer pocket. I suspect the top sped round of 3674 was the culprit here as the others were more pedestrian at an average of 3631. The good one here that will get reshot down the road with some supporting loads below it.
The winds were now howling off and on and the temps had hit 81 as I started the 60 grain tests but I had one more batch in the box and figured I’d play the waiting for the lull game. I was using LT 30 for this one. I knew going in it would be slow but I was hoping it might deliver some screamer stuff for me. It didn’t wander from the speed expectation giving me 3429 at 26.7. No ejector marks showed and while I could have just quit at that speed I just had to know what I had on tap. The next two rounds went into 0.689 but after those I had a jammed up BCG that was seized up in the buffer tube about half way back. I had the tools for the cure but with the wind howling I decided that it was time to call calf rope and pack it in. I had looked around for the blown primers but had not seen anything. Disassembly later let me know that I need new glasses. The target of record with LT 30 was not overly shabby and years ago I would have been happy as a clam.
So ends the saga of the Nosler Excursion of the 22-NXS. I did do some math work on these groups as the cartridge is new and the barrel deserves more than a cursory crunch. All told I fired 27 groups. Two of those were two shots each. One was for a sighter pair and the other was due to a mechanical issue. Twenty five groups were fired with three shots each. I added all twenty five and averaged them. This was three bullets with three powders at each level. The average group size was 0.711. The smallest was 0.279 and the largest was 1.538 with a called pull. No other group exceeded 1.116 CTC. All told I learned a great deal on a couple of powders and found out where the dragons were hanging out. I’ll be loading up some more and let you all know how they go.
Greg