45gr hornady soft point... success!

[Brad Y]

Loaded up a small ladder test of 22.2 through to 23gr in 0.2gr increments with the 45gr hornady soft point, BM2 powder and fed gold medal primers in the usual 20 prac remington 223 brass. This arvo while doing a bit more F class load refining I got the chance to shoot them off.

From a clean barrel, the 39gr sierra load started driving its usual single hole group- done that plenty of times. So moved to another point on the target and shot the 45gr loads off.

Well bugger me if they all didnt go into one ragged hole... So much for a ladder test and looking for nodes... They all shot brilliantly. And all in the same POI as the 39gr sierra load with 23.6gr of reloader 10x and CCI450 primers. Havent chronied them but im sure I will be on fur all the way out as far as I need to be. At this stage im going to go with 22.8gr of BM2 seated 15 thou off the rifling. Cant wait to try them out on some more solid critters.

[R.J.]

For the guys that dont come to Ausvarmint often anymore, tell us about the rifle.

I had a .204Ruger VT that liked them too. Cant remember the load anymore but I was using AR2206H.

[Brad Y]

Tikka LSA 55 in 20 practical. Lothar Walther 1:12 twist 24" bbl.

[LoneRider]

what distance were you testing at ?

[Brad Y]

100m on paper- about 150m on furries so far and not dissapointed. Probably the best 20 cal pill out there for long tail rabbit culling. They dont blow up prematurely like the ballistic tips do.

[jeffk]

Tikka LSA 55 in 20 practical. Lothar Walther 1:12 twist 24" bbl.

You're getting 45gr projies to shoot through a 1:12?

[Brad Y]

Yes, they are shorter than the 39sbk.