Which load would you pick...

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Which load would you pick...

Postby Belgiboy on Tue Sep 11, 2012 11:43 am

Here's an interesting dilemma I ran into when I worked up a load for my 260 Remington (26" Heavy Mc Gowen barrel). The idea was to get something to shoot accurate with light bullets to take out to the prairie dog field and reach out and touch a bit farther than is comfortable with the .223.

Tested two 6.5 mm varmint bullets: the Sierra 85 gr HP and the 95 gr Hornady V-max. Both shot really well and gave me good groups (in the 0.550-0.660" range with Remington virgin brass) with the max loads and no pressure signs were ever observed.

- The 95-gr V-max is a boat tail, polymer tipped bullet which, according to the Hornady manual, would have a muzzle velocity of 3100 fps with the Max load of 41.8 gr of RL15. BC is 0.365. I know and love the terminal performance of the V-max bullets. They will utterly blow up a prairie dog even at long distance/low velocity.
- The 85-gr HP is a flat base hollow point and may be slightly more accurate, muzzle velocity of approx 3500 fps according to Sierra over 46.1 gr of RL15. BC is 0.225. The terminal performance of the HP is more of an unknown quantity for me but a quick search on the interwebs shows that varminters generally like them a lot too.

Both bullets are comparable in price. Loads use the same brass, primers (WLR) and powder (RL15). I have thrown both loads in a Ballistic Calculator and IMHO these bullets should do their job admirably out to 500 Yards.

I have one more test to do which is comparing these two loads with fire formed brass, but I expect that this will only tighten both groupings up a bit more. Based on this info (or anything else I could provide, just ask), which bullet would you choose to load in quantity.


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Re: Which load would you pick...

Postby Pinnacle on Tue Sep 11, 2012 12:29 pm

Six of one half a dozen of the other

I would go with whatever is cheapest and go from there.
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Re: Which load would you pick...

Postby Seismic Sam on Thu Sep 13, 2012 4:11 am

I'd go with the polymer tip because of the absolute uniformity of the tip from bullet to bullet. HP's in general and even match bullets like the Sierra Matchking can have small differences in the nose profile from bullet to bullet, which the polymer tip totally avoids. May not see a big or any difference unless you are shooting an optimized load with concentric, fireformed brass (one does not necessaerly man the oher, BTW!!!) that is seated a set number of mils off the lands.
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