Range Report 55 ttsx loads

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I have recently found the 55 ttsx loads for .224 caliber in the barns website listed under 5.56 nato. search: barnes bullets..>> load data >> .224>>> 5.56 nato. >>> 55tsx.
The oal is much shorter and with more powder than the .223 loads..
I am leaving the other posts to show how much work and frustration finding a good load for the ar 15 or any firearm can be. It says earlier in thier reloading section to use the 55 tsx data for the 55 ttsx. For these tests ill be doing in the next week or so. skip down to NATO 5.56..





There is so little info on the 55ttsx ar loading info I thought id post todays results at the range. (all of these loads are .4 grain or more below maximum in the barns book. the h4895 load of 25.1 is 4 tenths grain under max. Always double check load any data from the net and always work up your loads.. )

This is just a first time sweep of general loads with powders suggested from the book, and i found the results very interesting.. The 55 ttsx has a bc of .270 and a good choice for a tough bullet from the ar 15, but pricey. this bullet is rated for coyotes and deer.

these loads are not for braging rights but for general loading info for those looking for it. im going to refine this further for my particular gun.

gun, 20 inch rock river arms coyote h bar barrel. 1 - 8 twist... (could be 1/9)

nikon monarch scope with adjustable parralex, elevation and windage knobs with covers. the parralex adjustment is nessesary for accurate 50 yard shooting.. (sorry added this later when i thought about this post.)

off harris bypod and using rear bag

range 50 yards

nice day about 70 degrees not very windy

lake city brass 2004 sorted for weight at .025 grams (about a half grain).

7 1/2 remington primer..

.over all length 2.254 inch.

no crimp used.. (the slower powder h4895 could shoot well with a crimp giving it a better burn. I will try that if exterminator gives me temperature sesitivity this winter. (h4895 is a hodgdon extreem powder and i prefer them.).

In order of groups shot.(groups of 3 rounds.)

55 ttsx -24.6 grains H4895 1 1/2 inch group. at 50 yards! checked primer for high pressure. I was using h4895 and tsx bullets before so i did not need a fouling shot.

25.1 grains h4895 1 7/16 inch checked primer.

24.5 grains tac one shot for foul round and check primer for high pressure

25.0 grains tac, 3/4 inch group. check primer

25.5 grains tac, 3/4 inch group. check primer.

23.0 grains exterminator one shot for foul round and check primer.

23.5 grains exterminator 3/8 inch group (the foul round (23.0)was within this group. i look for this becouse it shows
this load has potential and is not picky about the powder amount (23.0 -23.5) and may help temperature sensitivity.

24.0 grains exterminator 1 3/8 inch group.

I will take the best exterminator load and work it up and down, and when
a good powder charge is found i will vary over-all length. shorter in this case as it is close to magazine length

It is not a good idea to mix cup and core bullets and solid barns bullets with out cleaning inbetween. It is not dangerous but accuracy will suffer..

I shoot 2- 3 round groups with each powder and this will tell me which way the loads may need to go for accuracy.for example these tests showed a good load may be found between 23.0 and 23.5 grains of exterminator.. Loads are picked between minimum and max in the center of the load listed for that powder in the barns book. then following towards or past the best group of the two will tell me where the best loads may be..Use the 53 grain tsx for 55 ttsx loads in the barns book.

dave,

thanks for letting an old man post here...I Know most of you know this stuff, but as i said there is very little info on the ttsx 55. .224 bullet, and someone will need it..

 

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2nd day out with ttsx

Well all I had to do is get the best load of exterminator and sight the rifle in for that, right? Wrong, i cleaned the bugger and it was obviously pretty dirty i guess, and all heck broke loose.

all other variables the same except for a little more windy and a clean bore.

23.0 grains exterminator 2 1/4 inch group. at 50 yards!

23.25 grains exterminator 13/16 inch group. 2930 feet per second. extreem spread 6 fps.? wierd, best group today.
A quarter grain of powder giving this much difference in groups is not what i wanted to see. probably quite temperature sensitive.
It seems like the dirty bore was giving more and consistent pressures than todays loads had..

23.5 grains exterminator 1 9/16 inch group. extreem spread 32 fps.

23.7 exterminator 2 inch group.

ouch.. i thought id be done with this today. What i think is happening is the bullet is too light for this application.. normally id go to a heavier bullet, but then the velocity would drop and the wind drift would again be more than i want.

since exterminator is one of the fasted powders listed, ill drop the best exterminator load 2/10 of a grain and try some varying crimps to try to stop the nasty verticle stringing.. All loads today had verticle stringing.. Im thinking the less contact of the boatail ttsx 55 on the surface on the bullet to the bore is not giving enough consistent pressure to stabiliaze these loads.. (the 55 tsx shoots pretty well in this gun)

Ill do some variable crimps and see if it will give me more and consistent pressure and post it here... I dont like crimping for accuracy but it worked with a colt light match i have with 16 inch barrel and 55 grain vmax bullets. the 55 vmax have a flat base and flat base bullets tend to have better short range accuracy... dave

 

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Third day out.

Today i shot three three shot groups with overall length 2.257, 2.251", 2.246" same exterminater powder load of 23.2 grains. one group was 7/16" at 50 yards but good groups have been randomly popping up with three shot groups that wont reproduce that group the next day..Meaning luck was with that load and the next shot would probably string. Ill probably try that one length one more time but i dont have much confidence in it.

used the same 23.2 grains of exterminator load as above with light, medium and heavy crimp, three shots each, and still verticle stringing up and down up to and one over 2 inches..

I just cant reccomend this bullet for the ar 15.. even with my 1-8 twist. the ttsx 55 grain is rated for 1 :10. I feel the bullet contact with the barrel is too short becouse of the boatail,and long ogive, increasing the problem of not enough drag to give enough pressure to stop blowby or yaw, or whatever is happening. ..

the wierd thing is that the 55 grain tsx has worked well in this gun, its a flatbase and more section touching the bore keeping it strait....that load is:

24.3 grains h4895, 2.250 oal, rem 7 1/2 primer, no crimp, ......... the last two times i shot these bullets at 200 yards off the hood of my ford was 1 1/16 inch thee shot group, then a 1 1/4 inch group several days later.. Proving its a decent load..

the gun loves 55 grain vmax load 24.4 tac, 2.245 0al, 7 1/2 rem primer, no crimp.

sorry but im going to give up on thee ttsx 55 grain. .. Someitmes your gun just likes a different bullet than you want... dave

 

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Good info, thanks for posting

 

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NATO 5.56...(search: barnes bullets..>> load data >> .224 >>> 5.56 nato, >>>> 55tsx.



I will be posting some of the newly found barnes data results hopefully tonight. Same rifle, rra coyote 20 inch wild chamber .. Ill be starting over from scratch.. the listed oal is 2.190 to start, and ill be using my favorite hodgdon extreme powder.. In this case H4895. In the begining of this section it says to use the tsx data for the ttsx bullet.

 

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The new data from barnes under the nato load worked much better and went pretty fast for workup. Ill give the loads to you in chronilogical order.

20 inch barrel on rock river arms ar 15, coyote model.
all groups 50 yards. nice day not real windy. 65 degrees average.
all 55 ttsx, rem 7 1/2 primer, lake city 04 brass, about 30-40 rounds fired, bore not cleaned.All rounds shot off bipod and rear bag, just squeeze trigger and let her slide..no cheek or hand pull pressure..(the coyote is pretty heavy compared to a light ar 15.)

24.7 grains h4895, 2.190 oal 1 3/8 " group.

25.1 grains h4895 2.190 oal 1 13/16" group.

25.5 grains h4895 2.190 oal 2 1/8 inch group.

25.8 grains h4895 2.190 oal 1/2 inch group plus 1/32"

reload, return to range & reshoot 25.8 grain h4895 2.190 oal load. 9/16 inch group plus 1/32".
(I needed to verify this load before I went any further to see what direction i needed to take. )

the nato reloading data is much better for my rifle obviously.. and im getting pretty darn happy.
looks good, reload, return to range to do some fine tuning.

25.8 h4895, 2.180 0al, (.010" shorter than barnes recomended oal), 1 1/8 inch group.

25.8 h4895 2.200" oal (.010" longer than barnes recomended oal), 1/4 inch group plus 1/32". ( 50 yards)

26.0 grains h 4895 2.190" oal, 1 1/16" group. seeing if a little more powder would do better, getting close to max load.
Max is 26.2 grains h4895.

I dont like to see it go to heck so fast just a little over a decent load.. Temperature variances could change group sizes. Time will tell.. Temperature stability is not the .223' s strong suit.. The larger cases like 22 250 and 243, work better for that with the smaller calibers. I like the idea that the good load is at the upper end of the powder range, giving me good velocity...

Ill try varying overall length slightly and see if it will settle down a bit..

I use 50 yards for preliminary loads, wind isnt a problem, and its much faster. i Put a 30 inch x 3 foot brown shipping paper up and staple
1 by 1 inch dots cut out of flourecent heavy paper from the hobby shop like ben franklin. Its plenty stiff.. you can make 2x2 4x4, or whatever you need. I then put 6-15 dots on the paper about 4-6 inches appart and bang away.

the next step for this rifle is checking best loads at 200 yards.. finnally a 300 yard ladder test is in order.. The ladder test is shot at 300 yards and you measure the verticle placement of the group.. Dont worry about horrizontal placement that was done at 50 yards. the wind will have its way, but we arnt worrying about that with the ladder test., . Ive found the ladder test is more reliable (tells you more) than the chronograph.

Then measure the distance between the better load at 200 and 300 yards, and calcullate the ballistic coeficient, ( by inserting velocity, bullet diameter, drop, scope height etc in a balistic program like jbm simplified balistics. vary balistic coeficent untill the 200 and 300 yard drop distance matches your field tests, use same sight in distance of course.,) and you should be good to go.. check load quality at different temperatures..

dave

 

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Ive double checked all the best 55 ttsx loads above and none of them have produced a reliable load. The varying oal, and powder types etc convince me that ttsx 55 grain are not for my rifle..
The 55 tsx (with a lower bc and flat base) does shoot well.. 24.3 h4895, 2.180", rem 7 1/2 primer.
3 three shot groups fired on three different days averaged 1.52 inches at 200 yards.. All of the groups showed a wider than higher variance becoues of (i believe) the wind..

Dave

 

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Some remarks that were made locally to me about how to get accuracy from the ar 15 and the 55 ttsx.

"The port in the ar barrel causes the problem..." This does not seem to hold true with some cup and core short boattails that some use so I dont belive this to be totally true.

"You need to have an absolutly clean bore and light loads for the 55 ttsx to work well.."
This could be true becouse im not the spotless bore type of guy. In fact the tests that i ran all had the same dirty bore. .. Meaning the bore was not cleaned for all of the loads shot above.. I would shoot a 55 tsx about once a day out to see if the bore was ok.. And it always shot fine.. But this does not mean ie 55 ttsxt would be ok for that much of a fouled bore..

If this is the case, then tests would need to be run to see how many rounds can be fired before problems arise..

As i mentioned above mixing cup and core bullets with the tsx will cause problems, that is not done in these tests..

Dave.

To finalize this for me, i called Barnes teck service.. He said : copper solid bullets generally LIKE heavy loads...It sounds like my bore just dont like this bullet.. Normally its the oal, or ogive or somthing my barrel just dont like.. I could probably find a load but how many POUNDS of powder would i have to go thu.. (end of quote)

This means they may work fine in your weapon. If your twist rate will accept that bullet listed on the bullet box.. dave