First rounds in the .223 Ruger American Predator.

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Re: First rounds in the .223 Ruger American Predator.

Post by Tripod » 02 Jan 2018, 9:09 pm

So accuracy wise my projectiles are performing as well as anything else but the fast twist is killing them. It will be interesting to see how they perform without the wind and with a grain or two less powder. In my Ruger 223 is 1in12 and it will blow the primers and the projectiles will still be fine so it is definitely the fast twist in your rifle that is doing it. Why did you opt for a rifle with a 1in8 twist?
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Re: First rounds in the .223 Ruger American Predator.

Post by bladeracer » 02 Jan 2018, 9:18 pm

I spent several hours weighing the remaining 945 52gn bullets, as well as 100 RooMax's and my 32 remaining 80gn ELD-M's for comparison. I was going to weigh 600 RooMax's but after the first 100 the consistency was so good I didn't go any further.
75% of the swaged bullets were within 0.1gn high or low, and 90% were within 0.2gn high or low. 6% of them being 0.3gn high or low though is a problem which may offer better accuracy after weight batching. All of the 55gn RooMax's were within 0.1gn of 55gn.

Now that I've batched them all, loads from now will be using bullets with less than one-tenth of a grain variance.
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Re: First rounds in the .223 Ruger American Predator.

Post by sungazer » 02 Jan 2018, 10:10 pm

The 1.8 twist is a good twist it allows you to shoot the 80grn projectile which is the only projectile weight allowed for F class. The 80grn are thr true long range bullets for 223.
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Re: First rounds in the .223 Ruger American Predator.

Post by bladeracer » 03 Jan 2018, 8:26 am

sungazer wrote:The 1.8 twist is a good twist it allows you to shoot the 80grn projectile which is the only projectile weight allowed for F class. The 80grn are thr true long range bullets for 223.


Yes, I like the 80gn ELDM and I want to try some of the others in that range.
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Re: First rounds in the .223 Ruger American Predator.

Post by Gwion » 03 Jan 2018, 9:02 am

sungazer wrote:The 1.8 twist is a good twist it allows you to shoot the 80grn projectile which is the only projectile weight allowed for F class. The 80grn are thr true long range bullets for 223.


Only bullet weight allowed for F-standard, that is...
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Re: First rounds in the .223 Ruger American Predator.

Post by bladeracer » 03 Jan 2018, 7:33 pm

Tripod wrote:So accuracy wise my projectiles are performing as well as anything else but the fast twist is killing them. It will be interesting to see how they perform without the wind and with a grain or two less powder. In my Ruger 223 is 1in12 and it will blow the primers and the projectiles will still be fine so it is definitely the fast twist in your rifle that is doing it. Why did you opt for a rifle with a 1in8 twist?


That's my guess as well, further testing should find a velocity boundary for 8"-twist barrels.
The Ruger American only comes in 8" and I want to be able to use the widest range of bullets. It shoots the 35gn almost as well as it shoots the 80gn - I couldn't do that with a 9"-twist.

I hope somebody else is testing these in 8"-twist barrels for comparison.
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Re: First rounds in the .223 Ruger American Predator.

Post by bladeracer » 04 Jan 2018, 5:46 pm

I've been chatting to Brian of BT Sniper swaging dies.
He's passed my details along to some Aussies using his dies so hopefully I can get some more swaged bullets to try in my rifle.
He's sure he has customers using his bullets in 7"-twist barrels though.
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Re: First rounds in the .223 Ruger American Predator.

Post by Tripod » 07 Jan 2018, 8:22 pm

bladeracer wrote:I've been chatting to Brian of BT Sniper swaging dies.
He's passed my details along to some Aussies using his dies so hopefully I can get some more swaged bullets to try in my rifle.
He's sure he has customers using his bullets in 7"-twist barrels though.


It's not the velocity that's making them come apart it's the RPM. I am having no problems with them in my 22-250 at close to 4000fps but it is only a 1 in 12. so it is doing about 240,000 rpm. Rough calculation has you pushing them at 290,000 RPM. These projectiles are made to be as soft as possible to maximise killing power on small game, To make them hold together at that sort of rpm I would have to make them harder and then they would be no better than the commercial offerings. Go and shoot a fox or cat with them and you will see what I mean. :lol: :lol:
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Re: First rounds in the .223 Ruger American Predator.

Post by bladeracer » 07 Jan 2018, 9:42 pm

Tripod wrote:It's not the velocity that's making them come apart it's the RPM. I am having no problems with them in my 22-250 at close to 4000fps but it is only a 1 in 12. so it is doing about 240,000 rpm. Rough calculation has you pushing them at 290,000 RPM. These projectiles are made to be as soft as possible to maximise killing power on small game, To make them hold together at that sort of rpm I would have to make them harder and then they would be no better than the commercial offerings. Go and shoot a fox or cat with them and you will see what I mean. :lol: :lol:




Yes, I know, although I calculated 304,000RPM.
If they come apart before they hit the fox they aren't going to do anything :-)
I'll work loads downwards until they stay together and then tune for accuracy - hopefully they won't have to go so slow that they don't expand on the target.
I would still like to see them tested in other 8"-twist barrels though. It could just be mine.
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