Why the 69 gr SMK when we have the 53gr VMax?

I worry very little about the BC of 22 cal bullets, to put it nicely they all suck, step up to a 6mm or 6.5mm and you can push .550 and .600+ BC no 22 cal can even come remotly close. If you want to dust a Savage 308 get a Savage/Sako/Tikka 260 Rem or 6.5x55, vastly better external ballistics, both will rival max load 300 Win Mag with a 123gr LS .547BC at 3,000fps.

mwsenoj said:

Well I don't think I agree with that. Berger has a 75 gr with a bc of .423 and a little further to the extreme are some of the 90 gr .224 pills with a bc in the mid to high .500s

Either way, I am stuck where I am at because I don't have the $ to do a barrel swap not to mention a 6 or 6.5 gun.

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How many factory 22 cal barrels will stabalize those 90gr 22 cal pills? I don't even think that the rare 1:7 twist on some ARs will keep that from keyholing, standard factory twists 1:9-1:14 don't stand a chance. If you have to use a 22 cal I think you are on the right track with the A-Max, good match bullet without a doubt, but don't just look at drop because drift at range is much more important since drop is most often a known variable.
BTW the Burger 90gr VLD is listed at .551BC but no factory bolt gun that I know of has the twist needed to keep it streight.

I shoot 69gr SMKs because most times, a 100yrd group looks like one hole on paper. I have no problems hitting steel at 600yrds(11"x18" section of truck frame)

Why?? ACCURACY. But you should try both and see which one shoots better in your rifle.

Better BC of the SMK = less wind drift
Trajectory is easier to compensate for at long distances than wind drift (trajectory is constant). That's why people use heavier bullets for long distance.

Thanks for starting this thread. That bullet is very interesting and I'd never heard of it before. I ran some numbers on it, making some assumptions on velocity and it stacks up really well against the 77SMK.

Wind drift numbers are not hugely different. The SMK wins for energy but loses in drop, but I'd assume that the terminal effect of a Vmax to be a lot better than a SMK at any range.

There isn't a lot of info that is easily googled other than it's a VLD design and that makes me wonder if it will shoot well out of a mag length AR load. We'll see because I just ordered some!

The wind drift will kill you... The BC of the 53 is terrible in comparison and there will be a huge difference between the 75's and 53's. Yes it goes faster and in turn drops less... but the wind will make up for the drop.

Hmm. The numbers I ran shows 46.45" for the 77 SMK at 600 yards, in a full value 10 mph wind. The 53 Vmax shows 49.14". Are you certain of your opinion?

The higher velocity of the 53gn VMax makes up for the slightly worse BC in the wind drift department as well. To around 500yds, the VMax shoots flatter and has about the same wind drift. Past that the BC of the 69gn and heavier SMKs start to pull away. The 53gn VMax is the highest BC explosive varmint bullet in .224 caliber.

As far as accuracy goes, I've never heard of anyone complaining of VMax accuracy. Higher BC bullets aren't automatically more accurate. I have a couple hundred of the 53gn VMax and they're good shooting bullets. They're also a lot cheaper than the SMKs. My rifles have shot the 69gn Nosler better than the SMK, FWIW and I'm waiting for a day where I don't have work and the weather doesn't suck to go try out the 69gn Barnes Match Burners. Both the Nosler and Barnes are a good bit cheaper than the Sierra. My rifles also really like the Hornady 75gn HPBT.

But again, none of the heavier bullets have an advantage over the 53gn VMax until you're past 500yds.

Hmm. The numbers I ran shows 46.45" for the 77 SMK at 600 yards, in a full value 10 mph wind. The 53 Vmax shows 49.14". Are you certain of your opinion?

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I was referring to more 75 amax, also with the high bc plastic tip. It may only be 3 or so inches, but in competition that is significant. And i'm sure it's much better to use the 75 or even 80 amax as they have a better bc than the smk hollowpoints.

I don't have any valid research to prove this but I'm sure it exists... and probably is the reason you dont see people using 52 or 53gr bullets in 600yd f-tr for example.

HJ857 the VLD will turn your AR into a single shot. You'd have to seat them to deep to get that 2.25 length.

You don't see them in long range competition mostly because they don't offer an advantage past about 500 yds. If shooting farther than that, it makes sense to use something else. Turning the AR into a single shot for High Power isn't a big deal since the slow fire stages at long range require single loading anyway. 80gn SMK and AMax are the standards there. For the shorter ranges, no reason not to use the 53gn VMax.

Interesting. I've never heard of anybody using this bullet for Highpower match shooting. Is this a newer design? If there's one thing I'm confident of, if it shoots better and is cheaper, somebody will try it.

On the other hand, many of us know the drop and drift cold for our favored 68/69/75/77gr ammo at 200 and 300 yards. Learning new tricks can be painful!

Somethings fishy with the chart.
1166 lbs energy at 600 yards with 223?
I don't think so....

Oops, I didn't see dashed lines at first, Nevermind.

wanderinwalker said:

Interesting. I've never heard of anybody using this bullet for Highpower match shooting. Is this a newer design? If there's one thing I'm confident of, if it shoots better and is cheaper, somebody will try it.

Click to expand...

It's been out around a year. Was challenging to find for some time.

Even harder to find load data!

I have initial test results for the folks that have an interest. I'm testing against my standard load, which is a 77 SMK over 23.7 grains TAC, matched cases, Wolf 223 primers. Everything out of an 18" stainless barrel, 1:8 twist. Weather conditions are identical.

My shooting is limited to 600 yards, so I do not calculate past that. These numbers include a 10mph full value wind, which is an arbitrary number just for comparison. 70 degrees, 825' elevation, 3.25" sight above bore.

I use a very light crimp with the Lee FCD. All three loads printed 7/8" for six shots. I did test the 53 Vmax's with and without a crimp. There was no difference on paper at 100 yards. Interestingly I found that the uncrimped loads ran 10 fps faster than the crimped ones. I need to re-test this, and I only used the crimped rounds for these test results.

The 25.4 grain load showed no pressure signs. I'm going to bump up the load to 25.7 grains and run the full test again this weekend. I hope to get both MOA or better accuracy at 3200 fps out of an 18" barrel. If I can, then I'll have a whole bunch of 77 SMK's up for sale real soon.

Baseline load.
77 Sierra Match King, 23.7 grains TAC

Range Velocity Impact Drop ToF Energy Drift
0 2651 -3.25 0 0 1202 0
50 2530 -0.95 0.76 0.06 1094 0.66
100 2418 0 2.87 0.12 1000 1.36
150 2308 -0.54 6.48 0.18 911 2.53
200 2202 -2.73 11.73 0.25 82 4.22
250 2098 -6.72 18.78 0.32 753 6.47
300 1997 -12.69 27.81 0.39 682 9.31
350 1899 -20.85 39.03 0.47 617 12.78
400 1805 -31.41 52.66 0.55 557 16.94
450 1714 -44.66 68.97 0.64 502 21.82
500 1627 -60.86 88.23 0.73 453 27.48
550 1543 -80.36 110.79 0.82 407 33.96
600 1464 -103.5 136.99 0.92 366 41.31

53 Vmax, 25.0 TAC
Range Velocity Impact Drop ToF Energy Drift
0 3052 -3.25 0 0 1096 0
50 2881 -1.1 0.59 0.05 977 0.68
100 2724 0 2.22 0.11 873 1.43
150 2573 -0.08 5.04 0.16 779 2.71
200 2428 -1.47 9.17 0.22 694 4.56
250 2287 -4.34 14.78 0.29 616 7.03
300 2152 -8.89 22.06 0.35 545 10.17
350 2020 -15.32 31.23 0.43 480 14.04
400 1894 -23.88 42.53 0.5 422 18.73
450 1773 -34.87 56.26 0.59 370 24.29
500 1659 -48.64 72.76 0.67 324 30.81
550 1550 -65.57 92.43 0.77 283 38.36
600 1449 -86.12 115.72 0.87 247 47.03

53 Vmax, 25.4 TAC
Range Velocity Impact Drop ToF Energy Drift
0 3131 -3.25 0 0 1154 0
50 2957 -1.13 0.56 0.05 1029 0.68
100 2797 0 2.12 0.1 921 1.4
150 2643 0.01 4.79 0.16 822 2.63
200 2495 -1.23 8.71 0.22 733 4.42
250 2353 -3.86 14.03 0.28 652 6.8
300 2215 -8.08 20.93 0.35 577 9.83
350 2082 -14.07 29.61 0.42 510 13.56
400 1953 -22.09 40.31 0.49 449 18.07
450 1830 -32.38 53.28 0.57 394 23.42
500 1712 -45.28 68.87 0.65 345 29.69
550 1600 -61.15 87.42 0.74 301 36.96
600 1495 -80.42 109.37 0.84 263 45.3

TAC is a little on the slow side for the 53gn. Switching to a faster powder should get you a bit more velocity. 3300fps should be doable with something like 2230 or X-terminator. Benchmark also works very well with that bullet weight.

The problem is that I like to standardize loads, so I have nearly 20 pounds of TAC on hand. Switching powder would be a little annoying. For my use, 3131fps is acceptable, so more is just a bonus.

Interesting test today though. I swapped out the standard Stag 3G brake for a FSC556 brake and upped my charge to 25.7 grains. Those loads averaged 3072 fps which is 59 fps SLOWER than the 25.4 charge with the Stag brake. The FSC also shot 9 inches low but grouped very well.

Will test the 25.7 load again with the Stag brake tomorrow.

I use a lot of TAC as well but I've never gotten the accuracy that I want from it. I use it almost exclusively for bulk loading with medium to heavy bullets that I don't have grand expectations for with regard to accuracy to begin with.

Just for the sake of being thorough, I'm posting my final results. Someday there may be some person that Googles 53 VMax with TAC and this thread may come up and have some use. First off though, thanks Helotaxi for your insights, much appreciated.

My final load was 26.2 grains TAC, and I think that's book max for all 53 bullets that I could find a reference for. I see no pressure signs at all though and I think it could go higher.

The final velocity is 3176 at the muzzle (calculated via JBM), with the chrono being 9 feet forward during testing.

At 600 yards the velocity is 1534, energy 277, drop with a 100 yard zero is 76.76", a 10 mph full value wind drifts 43.79 inches.

So the load has notably better ballistics than a 77 grain SMK out to 600.

TAC does not give maximum velocity, though I think it's reasonable. I only require a one MOA accuracy, and the TAC load gives that, but not by much.

Helotaxi looks to be correct in that TAC is not the best powder for the 53 grain Vmax, though it is definitely workable.