Midsouth Varmint Nightmare?

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TonyAngel

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Hey guys, I've recently discovered the world of "precision" shooting and am currently shooting an AR and a M700 bolt gun. I have my loads worked out for those, but this past weekend I had a rude awakening. Me and a friend of mine did some off hand shooting and I SUCKED! I suppose that not practicing for a while has left me rusty.

Anyway, I'm getting ready to load up some bulk ammo and was just going to order some 55gr FMJs to shoot out of my AR15s. I was shopping prices and ran across Midsouth Shooter's Supply and their Varmint Nightmare bullets. They are about the same price as Hornady FMJs but are hollow points and should be good for something more than just punching paper. I went ahead and ordered 1000 of the 55gr hollowpoints and now I'm wondering. One of my ARs has a 1:9 twist barrel and the other has a 1:7 twist barrel. Since these are varmint bullets, I'm now wondering if they have super thin jackets. Are they going to explode coming out of my fast twist barrels?

Anyone have any experience with these? Since these are going to be bulk rounds, I'm going to use a ball powder, Ramshot X-Terminator and will be running something in the neighborhood of 24-25gr, although I would like to stay in the upper range to fill the case as much as possible.

Any comments would be appreciated.
 
I have order 1000's of VN bullets use them in my AR's very accurate, cheap as FMJ, definetely puts a thumping on a coyote! I also used TAC & X-terminator worked very well I love these bullets. Used Hornady 7th edition load data and worked up. You should be fine
 
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I think they have both HP and soft ponts available. I'd bet either is fine from your AR. Been meaning to order a few of the soft points myself. Definately let us now how they work out for you. Inquiring mind want to know....
 
I choot the chit outa them in my .222, .223 and 22-250. I have had real good luck with the SP bullets on Pdogs.
 
I like them in Ar's and my .22-250. I have only used the SP bullets, but they have been very accurate. I have run them pretty fast out of the .22-250 with very explosive results to varmints.
 
Thanks guys. I got the shipment in today. I weighed about a dozen of them and they were very consistent. I'm getting very consistent overall lengths too. Well, I loaded 500 of them up and am going to go blasting this weekend. We'll see how they do. It would really be something if they shot sub MOA like my heavy weight loads do.
 
OK, I just realized that I pulled a super newbie dumb a$$ move. I loaded these up like I've loaded up every other 55gr projectile I've ever loaded, to 2.250. The projectile is contacting the rifling. I've never seen this happen before with a cartridge loaded to mag length.

What OAL are you guys using with these bullets? Is this right? Front the marks on the test round, it looks like I'm going to have to seat really deep to get the round off of the lands.
 
My Hornady book says 2.200 for 55gr for PSP(this is what I used for the PSP varmint nightmare). And 2.230 for 52-53gr HP
 
I load up both the VNE HP and VNE SP at 2.225-2.230" without any issues. I mainly use 748 and BLC-2. They were more accurate than FMJ. I've also used some Tac, but not mch of it yet. Haven had a chance to test their terminal performance yet.

I think you will be pleased with them.
 
Thanks guys. I do have the Hornady book, but didn't know if this bullet is of the same profile. Oddly enough, the rounds chamber fine and leave no marks on the bullets on my carbine with the milspec chamber. It's only tight in my precision rig that has the match barrel. Hey, knowing this, I could possibly toy around with loading to touch the lands and seeing if I can get some good accuracy out of these rounds in this rifle. It sure would be nice to be able to get sub MOA groups out of these at $90 per thousand. SMKs are getting expensive.
 
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OK guys, I just went and took another look at it. I was tired last night. Anyway, I took one of my rounds and blackened the projectile with a Sharpie and chambered it in my precision rifle. It is not sticking on the lands, it's sticking in the throat. I seated a few rounds down to 2.20" and they will chamber and I can extract them easily enough. I wouldn't know that they were sticking unless I inspected a round, but the throat is still leaving marks on the projectile.

Any words of wisdom? I've gotta figure that the round sticking in the throat like that is going to increase pressure.
 
It isn't going to hurt. People make way to much out of being into the lands, or in this case, the throat. Must be a really tight throat.
 
I probably am making too much of a big deal, but I do want to seat the bullets a little deeper just so that I can eject a loaded round if I need to. My real concern is that I loaded these rounds using 24.5gr of Ramshot Xterminator. I used that load because I had good results with it using other flatbase hp bullets, but I have them loaded to 2.255. I'm going to have to reduce that to 2.2 and am wondering if that is going to make the pressure sky rocket. I was thinking that it wouldn't be a big deal because the load data says that the max charge is 25.3gr with an OAL of 2.260, but I have a Wylde chamber which should give me some wriggle room.
 
thanks for the help guys. I just reseated all of the rounds that I loaded last night. Looking at the bullet, it is really short and squat. I suppose that seating it so deeply won't be such a big deal after all.
 
Well TonyAngel... did you get a chance to shoot those Varmint Nightmare rounds yet? I'm curious how well those shot for you since I'm thinking about buying some for my Bushmaster Varminter with a 1 in 9 twist.
 
Tony,

The fact that you're going to get hollow points has to do with what you intend to use them for. Your 7" and 9" twist were meant for use with 62gr and 68gr bullets. The light bullets should come out of your barrel, what they do after that is a wild a$$ guess. The 55gr bullets is intended for a 1-14" bore. Good luck.
 
Those bullets shoot well in my 8-twists and 9-twists at well over 3600fps (223AI).
 
I just realized that I never posted with results. They didn't shoot worth a crap in my 1:7 twist AR. The good news is that I have since gotten a .223 bolt action. I ran some of these out of that and omg, they do shoot good. The first batch that I loaded for the AR gave me some problems, but I found some left over and loaded them up with a different powder and this second batch surprised me. Five shot groups all fit into a 1" target dot.

Next weekend I'm going to compare them to Hornady V-Max and see how they compare.
 
Tony,
For your bolt action rifle try this load if you have any Varget on hand.

I used:
Federal Brass
CCI-400 primer
55gr Sierra MatchKing bullet
25.0gr Varget
OAL = 2.255"

Of course you will substitute with the Varmint Nightmare bullets but that load produced several sub 1/2 MOA groups @100 yards in a Howa 1500 rifle. Maybe the Varmint Nightmare bullets will shoot as well with that load.
 
Archangel, I've run a similar load. I actually like Varget and usually pick that up when they're out of Reloader 15. Have you chronographed that load and how does it do on varmints and small game?
 
Tony,

What make of .223 bolt rifle did you get, and the twist? I've got a 788 Rem and just put a new Timney trigger on it, shot 5 rnds into a spot 1/2" X 3/8" @ 100 yds with Hornady 52 gr BTHP using W748. Just curious if those 55 gr pills are really that good, might buy some to try out. Thanks, Jim
 
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