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#Post#: 24212--------------------------------------------------
Woo hooo! Light loads working!
By: babbyc1000 Date: March 4, 2014, 3:57 pm
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I mentioned one or twice in the past that I wanted to make some
light/low power rounds for my .222, the idea being they wouldnt
blow rabbits to pieces like full power loads and that theyd be
quieter as well...
well after alot of research and testing, on Saturday I finally
got them to work!
I'm not going to give any specific load data, for safety reasons
(if you want to know pm me) but out of all the options and
suggestions I could find online I decided to use a high bulk
powder, seemed to be the safest route, and also the simplest.
Trailboss seemed to be the most popular powder for this
application, but finding it anywhere in the country was
impossible. But had a stroke of luck lately when a shop got 3
tubs of vihtavouri tinstar in. It's similar to trailboss, tho
supposedly puts out the round a bit faster, so managed to lay my
hands on two tubs of it. Now there's no load data for this
powder for .222 etc, its designed for cowboy action shooting, so
I was very careful and asked ALOT of people for their ideas and
opinions before finally loading up a few to try using 55 grain
hollow points. Just going to point out again I didn't just rush
into this, I took months researching this before I even had the
reloading gear.
Anyway the 55 grain rounds were promising, definitely quieter
and lower powered, sound more like a hmr and there's no recoil
at all, but the 1:14 barrel twist in the .222 combined with the
low speed meant they weren't stabilising properly. Spent a few
days thinkin it over and managed to get eight 40 grain ballistic
tip heads. So loaded them up and tried them on Saturday, they
had no recoil and sounded like an hmr again, but importantly
first shot at 50m was bullseye and a group of about 1", then
moved out to 100m and they were still on target, tho group had
opened up to 2" :)
Have to say I'm over the moon about it finally working, a 2"
group isn't anything to write home about but itll still kill
rabbits, tho I should be able to tinker with the load a bit to
get it shrunk down. I havnt got a chronograph to check the
speed, but did a few penetration tests with the rounds and they
show more damage (dont just punch through like full power) Just
need to get more 40 grain heads and get a 3 shot magazine, so i
can keep the 5 shot loaded with low power and the 3 shot with
high power for foxes. Oh and I'll be selling a cz 455 17hmr soon
if anyone's interested... Lol ;)
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