Anyone shooting 77gr out of their .223 12 F/TRs?

Have a friend who just got this rifle and we're trying to figure out what it likes best. Seems like Varget or VV 540 are the powders of choice, so I thought I'd see what you folks who shoot this bullet are using. Thanks for any personal experience you are willing to share.

Havn't shot many 77 but have been shooting alot of the nosler custom comp 69 grainers. IMR 8208 has been working fine for the heavier bullets. Good accuracy across the entire range and great accuracy over a full grain spread. usual groups in the 1's and 2's with the load and still in the 3's half grain either way. And this load still has about 1 1/2 grains till published max is reached.

Thanks. He got fairly good results this weekend with 69gr. Sierras and 4198, but we're waiting for some Varget to come in. Apparently, the 1:7 twist favors heavier bullets, at least from what I've read; we shall see. I'll keep the IMR 8208 on the "possible" list.

Long range will favor the longer bullets. The 1:7 twist is just there to facilitate the longer bullets.

I shot the 77 SMks out of a 1 in9 twist 223 (Savage PC) with great resualts. This was what Savage used when they test fired the rifle, they was loaded in Federal Gold Match. I found the best powder was 4895.

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Originally Posted by helotaxi

Long range will favor the longer bullets. The 1:7 twist is just there to facilitate the longer bullets.

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Someone else I know with a 12 F/TR .223 Rem had worked up a load with 77gn bullets, being unaware of the marked difference in down-range performance between the bullets intended for mag-length use and those designed for single-load, seated-long, dedicated target use. He did get some incredibly tiny groups @ 100 & 200yd, and since the event we were going to was out to a max of 600 meters, he figured he was GTG.

By the time the match was over (four days), he'd had his eyes opened. The shorter mag-length bullets may be very accurate... but they give up too much in the wind if you shoot much past 300yds/meters. I was running a Berger 82BT stuffed 10 thou into the lands... which shot well enough for 1st F/TR (by the skin of my teeth; #2 was also running a .223 Rem, shooting S80MKs).

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Originally Posted by memilanuk

Quote:

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Originally Posted by helotaxi

Long range will favor the longer bullets. The 1:7 twist is just there to facilitate the longer bullets.

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Someone else I know with a 12 F/TR .223 Rem had worked up a load with 77gn bullets, being unaware of the marked difference in down-range performance between the bullets intended for mag-length use and those designed for single-load, seated-long, dedicated target use. He did get some incredibly tiny groups @ 100 & 200yd, and since the event we were going to was out to a max of 600 meters, he figured he was GTG.

By the time the match was over (four days), he'd had his eyes opened. The shorter mag-length bullets may be very accurate... but they give up too much in the wind if you shoot much past 300yds/meters. I was running a Berger 82BT stuffed 10 thou into the lands... which shot well enough for 1st F/TR (by the skin of my teeth; #2 was also running a .223 Rem, shooting S80MKs).

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Thanks for this. We are experimenting with single-shot rounds .020 & .030 off the lands to see how much bullet jump affects some Varget loads. I will be most interested to see his results with these.