Quote Originally Posted by Dave Hoback View Post
Varget is good stuff! I have a soft spot for BLC-2 though. A bunch of years ago, when 223 was the only thing I was reloading, I had a chance to equip a Serviceman I care about, a 1st Gen PMAG loaded with some of my own hand rolls. The loads were Moly’d 60gr V-Max pills over 27gr of BLC-2 & BR-4 primers. I had been using these loads for some time. Shooting side by side compared to standard m855 Green Tips, my reloads were a step up in PEW-PEY’ity! Only minor pressure signs....slightly flattened primers. On my compadre’s return, I was informed that all 30 hand loads were indeed used in a fire fight. I can only hope to have pride in knowing that maybe, just maybe one of the rounds I hand loaded helped to safeguard American lives.

As for twist rate, 1:7 & 1:9 both work with 77gr. For the 1:9, the 75-77gr pills are at the very end of its stabilization ability. 80gr are too long for 1:9. Given a choice, I’d rather 1:7 or 1:8 for the 77gr, but it’s proven fact many, many shooters do just fine with 1:9. It’s the same going the other way. 1:7 works fine with the lighter 55gr & even 50gr! But given a choice, I’d rather 1:9 or 1:8 for bullets of this weight & length.
Yeah, I've never reloaded with Varget. I'm also relatively new to this hobby (3 years) so I got started just as the SHTF.
In my AR15 (16" 1:7) I've shot the standard IMI 62gr green tips, 69gr Frontiers, 77gr Nosler, 75gr Hornady match all of which are
factory rounds. I've shot 77gr SMK's as reloads as well. It seemed to do quite well with the 77gr SMK's using BL-C(2) performing the best
but only by a small margin.
As for this new rifle, I hope it will perform as expected, it's just weird I can't find specific load data for a BA rifle with a 22" barrel and a 1:7 twist.
Just gonna hafta start somewhere and go from there, I guess.
And FWIW, I'm strictly a long range target shooter, 100-1000 yards with 100-400 being the typical range I shoot at in both my .308's and AR and now with this Savage Axis II Precision in .223.