Pharmseller
Well-Known Member
A guy on another board needed to fund another project so I bought what he was selling, a stainless T3 in .223. The cool thing is it's a 1-8" twist, which IIRC Tikka doesn't offer anymore. Heck, you can't find a new T3 anyway. I won't tell you what I paid but I stole it.
I sent the bolt off to get fluted and it took forever. In the meanwhile I discovered Nosler's new Reduced Drag Factor line of bullets and bought a few 70 grain in .223. Their reported BC is .416, which is really slippery for such a small bullet. The guys at Nosler directed me to use the 69 grain 5.56 load data so I loaded a bunch with 24.5 grains of TAC and tried 3 different OALs.
I hit the range yesterday and took the .223 with me to shoot while the barrel cooled on the 7 Rem Mag.
I had replaced the VX2 3-9 CDS with an FX3 12x40 AO with target turrets. I used some 50 grain TTSX to get on paper at 50 yards and the bullets overlapped. I moved to 100 and shot the 50s again to confirm.
First up was the longest of the three 70 grain loads. They shot okay, around .75", but I wasn't impressed. Then I tried the middle load, at 2.260".
Holy Hannah, the clouds parted and the angels sang. Remember, I bought this thing used for a song.
That's three shots into 0.103". I think I'll keep it. Now I need to chronograph the load, I'm hoping for 2850. No varmint alive will be safe from me.
P
I sent the bolt off to get fluted and it took forever. In the meanwhile I discovered Nosler's new Reduced Drag Factor line of bullets and bought a few 70 grain in .223. Their reported BC is .416, which is really slippery for such a small bullet. The guys at Nosler directed me to use the 69 grain 5.56 load data so I loaded a bunch with 24.5 grains of TAC and tried 3 different OALs.
I hit the range yesterday and took the .223 with me to shoot while the barrel cooled on the 7 Rem Mag.
I had replaced the VX2 3-9 CDS with an FX3 12x40 AO with target turrets. I used some 50 grain TTSX to get on paper at 50 yards and the bullets overlapped. I moved to 100 and shot the 50s again to confirm.
First up was the longest of the three 70 grain loads. They shot okay, around .75", but I wasn't impressed. Then I tried the middle load, at 2.260".
Holy Hannah, the clouds parted and the angels sang. Remember, I bought this thing used for a song.
That's three shots into 0.103". I think I'll keep it. Now I need to chronograph the load, I'm hoping for 2850. No varmint alive will be safe from me.
P
