223 bolt gun and 62 eld-vt

[benson821]

Good afternoon everyone,

I've had pretty good luck with the factory 22 ARC 62gr eld-vt ammo for night hunting. I'm about to embark on reloading for my 233 bolt gun with a long throat running the 62gr eld-vt bullets. Has anyone messed with these at all yet? And if so what powders and primers are you folks seeing luck with?



This gun is going to be primarily used as a day gun for coyotes and switched out to smaller bullets during summer for Prarie dogs.

 

[DarinC]

A friend of mine runs them over lever in his 223ai and it absolutely hammers

 

[benson821]

A friend of mine runs them over lever in his 223ai and it absolutely hammers

That's good info thanks. I haven't messed with lever becuase I heard it can be finicky with temps and humidity swings. But I was thinking on the faster end of the powder spectrum. Like varget speed

 

[DarinC]

Lever is the ball equivalent of varget in a lot of cases. And it generates ridiculous speeds. Just don’t run it against
The tagged edge and you’ll be ok.

I temp tested my arc with it and it only got crazy over 95 degrees. And that was on the very top end of safe.

That being said, 90 degrees had a flattened primer with no cratering, 120 degrees blew the primer clean out. Solid it’s for anything but mid summer shooting, it’s not too big of a deal

 

[spife7980]

16" 7tw wylde, lapua 25x brass, fed 205 primer
62eldvt touch at 1.915 and seated at 1.900 so .015 off the lands
8208xbr: 23gr=2600 and 23.7 got me 2700

I didnt hit pressure but I also didnt bother chasing higher as I know its not that far away, I just bought a 100 to toy around with but Ive only taken them to 500 so far (and only have 10 or so left that I was hoping to experiment on a coyote with) and they are about like any 60-69gr bullet hits steel. I think so long as you have adequate twist itll be fine.

 

[benson821]

16" 7tw wylde, lapua 25x brass, fed 205 primer
62eldvt touch at 1.915 and seated at 1.900 so .015 off the lands
8208xbr: 23gr=2600 and 23.7 got me 2700

I didnt hit pressure but I also didnt bother chasing higher as I know its not that far away, I just bought a 100 to toy around with but Ive only taken them to 500 so far (and only have 10 or so left that I was hoping to experiment on a coyote with) and they are about like any 60-69gr bullet hits steel. I think so long as you have adequate twist itll be fine.

Thank you for the reply. That's awesome to hear since I have a 8lb jug of 8208 sitting around with no use. I will give it a try. My 223 is a 7.5 twist 23" barrel so I figure if I push them a little harder they should run fine.

 

[BigdaddyWSM]

I also have a long throat.223 bolt rifle & looking for 62 gr eld vt loads using H4895

 

[benson821]

I also have a long throat.223 bolt rifle & looking for 62 gr eld vt loads using H4895

I've got soke test loads ready for the range. I just don't feel like laying in snow on a day that's a high of 17. But I'll post back on here what my results are.

 

[brett458]

I run mine in a factory t3x varmint with a 24" barrel. I am lazy and have a surplus of 55gr Federal fmj ammo. I pulled the 55gr bullet and seated the ELD-VT .020" off the lands (2.43" OAL, you need the mdt or modify accurate mags for it to fit). Sitting at about 3260fps with about a 1" group at 100m. ES isn't amazing but for the range I'm shooting them, I'm not too concerned.