I work with a few guys that moved from California about 6 years ago. They said the northern part of the state is really beautiful.
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Monolithic bullets and accuracy
- Thread starter Neil McCauley
- Start date
I am originally from Texas and hunt there when possible but it’s all high fences now and really isn’t hunting anymore; more like going to a live grocery store. Though I do love busting pigs there! It’s hard to justify going out of state to hunt when I have roughly 3.7 million acres to hunt less than a 1/2 mile from my front door. Yes 3.7million acres and that is just one zone close to me; probably pushing 10+ Million acres if you count all the land I have access to within an hour of me.
Just a bit more info. Both my Savage 260 Rem's ( 1.8 twist ) also shoot beautifully with the Barnes 6.5 100gr TTSX . 47grs of IMR 4350 & 3260 FPS, 22" bbl . Three shot groups with bullet holes almost touching. A very safe load in both of my 260 Sabage rifles. These bullets will take the heaviest of deer.
Buy a box of the 124gr Hammer Hunters and you won’t be disappointed. I’ve hunted with Hammers the past two years and they have been very accurate out of my 6.5 PRC but the Creedmoor is next on my list to load for.
I went with the 110gr HH, I haven’t shot them for a group yet due to high winds here in the desert where I live. After the amount of 127-130gr weight bullets I have shot through my CM I am all but convinced that class of projectiles is just wrong for my rifle.
Also I measured my twist rate after some suggestions and while it is advertised as a 1:8 I found it to be 1:8.25 which also maybe effecting that grain weight class of bullets.
I know this isn’t a group to write home about but finally after a year and a half I have found a load that will group under 1” at 100 yards. I also realize this is only a 3 shot group but it’s my hunting rifle; as long as it can do this I am good. 110hr Hammer Hunters 41.0gr of Varget seated to an Ogive of 2.175 in Peterson Brass with a 210M primer.
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What is your cartridge overall length with these loads? Velocity and barrel length? Thanks—because I have some of these 110’s to load and try.
I am at work right now but I can get back with you this evening.
The Hornady 70 grain GMX is significantly longer than the heavier, Hornady 75 grain SBR.
The Hornady 70 grain GMX is significantly longer than the Sierra 69 grain MatchKing.
The Barnes 70 grain TSX is significantly longer than the heavier, Speer 75 grain Gold Dot.
The Barnes 70 grain TSX is significantly longer than the Sierra 69 grain MatchKing.
The Sierra 69 grain MatchKing is readily stabilized from a 1”9” twist barrel.
When the Barnes 70 grain TSX is fired from a 1:9” twist barrel, it begins to keyhole at 100 yards.
When the Sierra 69 grain MatchKing is fired from a 1:9” twist barrel, it has a worst-case gyroscopic stability factor of 1.43. When the Barnes 70 grain TSX is fired from a 1:9” twist barrel, it has a worst-case gyroscopic stability factor of 0.96; hence the keyholing.
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@Molon
My post was in reference to the guys running the uber-long solids for the ELR game that require twists considerably faster than what is typical for cup & core bullets.
The 129gr 6.5mm GMX is comparable in length to a 140gr 6.5mm pill and will be stable in a 1:8" twist, the 165gr .30 cal GMX is comparable to a 180gr .30 cal cup&core bullet and will be fine in a 1:12 or 1:10 twist, etc... The lineup is stable in standard twists.
The 70 GMX is fine in a 1:7 or 1:7.7 twist, and while you're correct they may very likely have issues in a 1:9 twist, I'd reckon those barrels are vastly the minority these days.
Obviously weight-for-weight the less-dense bullet is going to be longer. A 53gr GMX is much longer than a 53gr V-max and a 1:12" twist is not advisable for the GMX, but is perfectly fine for the Vmax.
But (and I missed this important phrase in my first post) IN GENERAL, you don't require a special twist rate with the Barnes/GMX bullets like you would with a Warner/cutting edge/PVA/etc. ELR bullet, where your required twist rate will be radically tighter than with typical cup&core bullets of the same caliber.
My post was in reference to the guys running the uber-long solids for the ELR game that require twists considerably faster than what is typical for cup & core bullets.
The 129gr 6.5mm GMX is comparable in length to a 140gr 6.5mm pill and will be stable in a 1:8" twist, the 165gr .30 cal GMX is comparable to a 180gr .30 cal cup&core bullet and will be fine in a 1:12 or 1:10 twist, etc... The lineup is stable in standard twists.
The 70 GMX is fine in a 1:7 or 1:7.7 twist, and while you're correct they may very likely have issues in a 1:9 twist, I'd reckon those barrels are vastly the minority these days.
Obviously weight-for-weight the less-dense bullet is going to be longer. A 53gr GMX is much longer than a 53gr V-max and a 1:12" twist is not advisable for the GMX, but is perfectly fine for the Vmax.
But (and I missed this important phrase in my first post) IN GENERAL, you don't require a special twist rate with the Barnes/GMX bullets like you would with a Warner/cutting edge/PVA/etc. ELR bullet, where your required twist rate will be radically tighter than with typical cup&core bullets of the same caliber.
I shot a few of these today, starting at 39.5 grains Varget and going up by .5 to 41.5. I didn’t notice any ejector swipe or bolt lift issues so I have at least a little room to work upward still. However, these groups really sucked IMO. I did 3 shot groups and had some good sd’s but can’t really use as a data point because 3 shots isn’t a good sample size. My COAL was 2.78; which I used instead of an ogive measurement because I understood ogive measurements on monolithic can be problematic with most comparators (I did not try mine). None of these loads were compressed in my Lapua brass.
I’m curious what length you were loading, so I can try a few of what worked well for you with the loads that gave decently consistent velocity for me today. Hopefully I can shrink the groups some. FWIW, the 110 hammer hunters seemed to shoot a little better today than the PVA Cayuga 122’s I tried also, but again this was a really small sample size so I’m not ruling them out.
Not even close to Berger hybrid’s, which consistently can be in the .3 mean radius at 100 yds same gun, same case, same primer, same dies. They were bad enough I didn’t even bother taking pictures. So I’m going to estimate 1.5+ MOA mean radius, being generous.
I will say the hammer hunters were extremely concentric. I measured half thousandth on 3 samples after seating, measuring directly in front of the front-most ‘band’ on the bullet. The Cayugas were 1.5 thou, which is similar if not slightly better than most Berger lots I’ve checked. Accuracy One gauge, mitutoyo indicator.
The next set I try I think, unless swarrick changes my mind, I’m going to seat just a bit deeper for a little jump; at 2.78 I’m awful close to the lands right now if not kissing them at the ogive.
40 gr Varget worked good with the 127 gr LRX. I use either CCI match or #34 primers.
