My 22bra should be done in a few days and I’ll be starting with n140 and n150 with 75’s to try. Once it gets here I’ll post my experiences
.22 br
- Thread starter Dai Bando
- Start date
Thread been going for over 4 1/2 years and man am I glad. There is alot of value info in here. My 22br should be done by this weekend. I already have 150 pcs of peterson brass sized, going to fireform and hopefully won't have to do a skim cut . I have a. 253 neck and a. 2495 loaded round. I'm going to fireform with 28gr varget. Can anybody think of anything else I might need to do?
Buy more brass, depending on what shooting disciplines you pursue; 150 is barely enough to shoot a one-day PRS match, and not enough for a two-day or a training session and zero confirmation before the one-day.
But your load sounds good to go to start.
I shoot prs with a 6br. I wanted to try out the peterson brass to see if it was good, or should I use alpha. I do however plan to use the 22br for some matches.
I use alpha 6bra, and there are some problems with the common reamers at the 200 line, lapua chambers are bigger at the base, the alpha brass is so hard at the base it won't expand and grip chamber. I just had a new barrel cut with a alpha 6br chamber and I'm still getting bolt thrust/lift issues. Lapua is the gold standard on 6br brass, use it if you can.
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Everything BR based from Alpha has been OCD I believe(maybe not dasher from 2021). My BRA is from early 22, I know their dasher brass is good to go. But BRA has been a problem. I'm still breaking in my alpha spec chambered barrel, but 31gr varget is giving random bolt lift with 108bt going 2850 from a 28" barrel. Light load. However my old barrels ammo with 33.4gr H4350 was running 2930 with 105s and no lift. Weird shit........
Alpha recommends a reamer with a 0.4705-0.471 spec at 0.200 line of chamber for best performance. A lot of prints for br and bra have a 0.4714 dimension at the 0.200 line, where as dasher is most commonly 0.4706-0.471. Alpha dasher brass has been a great success, while the bra has had widley mixed results, experienced first hand. Now they release BR that is designed around cip chamber specs, which is not where most custom us spec chambers are at. I see more problems ahead with their br brass I chambers with anything larger than 0.4710 at 0.200 line.
I have noticed they recommend a reamer specifically for their brass. Have you heard anything about the peterson brass besides less capacity?
Peterson will be fine in the common chambers being used in the precision game. Alpha ocd has such a hard base, it will not expand enough to grip a chamber that's large base. This is only a problem with the BR variants. I've used a ton their OCD 6gt and creedmoor, and I believe the longer case wall gives more grip. However their brass is best used in min saami reamers, factory rifles such as a Tikka, bergara, whatever will likely have oversized chambers and will not work well with alpha OCD brass, I highly recommend lapua for those applications.
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Neck sizing die doesn't size body of case, that's fine for intial neck down. But once you start sizing after first firing, a FL bushing die utilizing 002-003 shoulder bump has become the more common desired method of brass sizing.
FL die shouldn't be sizing case much, if at all. Just set the die up high enough to not bump shoulder and it'll basically act like the neck die.
Anyone have been running the 90gr sierra lately?
I was in love with the 95gr, being out of stock for a year now, I switched to 88 ELD, but I keep having weird flyers during matches (about 1 or 2 per 100rds) and would like to get back to sierra consistency. 90gr looks like a suitable option, any opinion on this?
I was in love with the 95gr, being out of stock for a year now, I switched to 88 ELD, but I keep having weird flyers during matches (about 1 or 2 per 100rds) and would like to get back to sierra consistency. 90gr looks like a suitable option, any opinion on this?
Do some searching. I've posted lots of data shooting them in 22br, 22gt and 220tb. My favorite bullet. Shoots lights out
I don't think the 90 smk would survives the aggressive twist needed to stabilize the 95gr (the op seems to shoot the 95 exclusively and thus have a 1-6.5 twist or similar)
The smk was never intended for 2900 fps + in aggressive twist
I didn't see him state in his post he has a 6.5 twist barrel....and I didn't have any issues shooting 95smk in my 7 twist...
. Good to knowI run a 6.25 twist. Shooting up north, we need a bit more twist than what is usually OK for bullet stabilization.
I saw only 1 post with those bullets so far, so thought maybe some more people tested them too, not that I didn't look for that prior to posting.
I saw only 1 post with those bullets so far, so thought maybe some more people tested them too, not that I didn't look for that prior to posting.
Are 90gr smk more sensitive in that kind of rpm than the 88gr eldm? 88 never (from what I know) blew up, so far, and work really well at distance.
I actually went from a 7 twist Bartlein to a 7.5 twist and my loads were much wider and more consistent. Saw a noticeable difference instantly.
308,000rpm down to 287,000 rpm going from 7 twist to 7.5 twist
I found this same case with 22gt as well going from 7 to 7.5 twist....
I wasn't blowing bullets but was getting unexplainable fliers and inconsistencies accuracy with 85 and 90's.. switched to 7.5 and all that went away
308,000rpm down to 287,000 rpm going from 7 twist to 7.5 twist
I found this same case with 22gt as well going from 7 to 7.5 twist....
I wasn't blowing bullets but was getting unexplainable fliers and inconsistencies accuracy with 85 and 90's.. switched to 7.5 and all that went away
I had excellent accuracy out the gate with 88 eld from my first 22br 7 twist. My testing they were not as consistent past 600 as a 7.5 twist with 85.5 and 90smk.. especially at 1000yd
I have no experience with this combination. I doubt there are many people using 6.25 twist.
I don't think it necessarily blows up but I've found that over RPMs to cause flyers and unstability.
I had no luck back in the day trying to shoot 90 smk's over 2900 fps and my conversation with Sierra summed up the fact that this bullet was never made for velocities that high.
I hope I'm wrong and that Pandom is right, but Pandom experience is at way slower twist and his above post explain it all.
I don't think it necessarily blows up but I've found that over RPMs to cause flyers and unstability.
I had no luck back in the day trying to shoot 90 smk's over 2900 fps and my conversation with Sierra summed up the fact that this bullet was never made for velocities that high.
I hope I'm wrong and that Pandom is right, but Pandom experience is at way slower twist and his above post explain it all.
I've probably shot 3000-4000 of the newer factory pointed 90smk at or over 3000fps in 3 fast 22 calibers. Looking at my data, My go to 22br load has been 3013 with many groups in the 0.2moa out to 400 and 0.3s out to 800. Many groups just under 0.5moa at 1000 but consistently 0.5moa.
I have 3 22br barrels in the safe right now...the 28" Bartlein 5R 1-7.5 with my custom 22br reamer shoots the best of all 3... the Mullerworks 1:7 shoots 80smk and 80vld into tiny knots. The Bartlein 1:7 shoots great but the 7.5 is more consistent. Shoots everything with ease
I have 3 22br barrels in the safe right now...the 28" Bartlein 5R 1-7.5 with my custom 22br reamer shoots the best of all 3... the Mullerworks 1:7 shoots 80smk and 80vld into tiny knots. The Bartlein 1:7 shoots great but the 7.5 is more consistent. Shoots everything with ease
Really interesting.
I went for the 6.25 gain twist to stabilize the 95gr in the North, work perfecly, and as the bullets are not available anywhere tried the 88gr. So far Im still really lucky, it shoot consistently 1moa target at 1km with impact (its PRS) in the wind, but it might be the explanation for the fliers I get here and there.
Will try in a 7 twist and see, really appreciate the feedback!
For some more data for you, here is my 22GT OCW with 90smk after switching to a Bartlein 7.5 twist going 3100-3200. Everything tightened up just by going from 7 to 7.5... No more erratic and unexplained fliers
Well my 22bra is finished. I will be starting barrel break In tomorrow with 75gr eld-m’s and either n140, n150, cfe 223 or varget but not too sure where to start. looking for a light load to form with using alpha 6bra ocd
Interested in your results.I have a load for n140 and varget and the varget is about 50-60 fps faster with similar charges in a 6bra.The 22 br loads should be safe start.22Bra should be about 1-1 1/2grains more for a finished load.The n150 should be a good powder.When mines finished it’s the first one I’m gonna try with 90smk’s and alpha brass
I will let keep this updated then. I used n150 and n140 in my 6bra and had extremely similar results and speeds
So I think I’ve settled on a load and it’s similar to what most have said throughout this thread. Over multiple range visits (4) looks like 28.5 gr Varget @1.798” (40/1000 jump) has always been the stand out and consistent. Barrel now has 273 rounds through it and has settled at around the 3000FPS mark with the 85.5gr Berger. All rounds have made it to the target with the 6.5 twist IBI. Does this look promising? Cheers.
Well finally got all 200 fire formed so ran a pressure test with the 85.5’s. Just a hair over 1/2 moa of vertical on a windy day with 240fps velocity spread. Didn’t hit pressure so going extend the pressure test. Max velocity here was 3116fps with 85.5’s
I actually work at Kauger Arms. I love it and not because of that but they are really smooth actions. I have a 6br I shoot PRS with and have never had any problems with them.
Well after reading through 16 pages of posts I’m spinning up a 22br. Are the 22br Remington dies the correct ones? I know there are dimensional differences between the Remington br case and the br Norma (lapua) cases I will be using. I ordered a Forster ultra mic seater in “22br” and a Redding type s FL sizer in “22br Remington”.
I think you mean .245. I also used honed Forster dies. They are the BEST for low runout, like no more than .001!
David
They’ll hone further, you just have to call them and explain that you really do want that.
I’ll check my die tonight and figure out what it got set to.
