Thread: 55grn winchester soft point factory loads

Well it appears they work rather well in RUMPYs .223 rifle...and it just so happens I have a couple of hundred of the projectiles - ones sent off to Mr Songhurst to use in his .22-250 (wonder if he got to load and try them before on selling rifle LOL) ....so I am thinking of reverse engineering load.....99% sure it will be 748 powder has anyone pulled them apart to find out how much????
overall length is piece of cake,just go off factory round.
my thinking is try middle of range powder charge in good brass of same type(removing as many variables as possible) and just see what happens,If can reproduce the magic by using same powder and same projectiles at same overall length....life will be good.
if not...well will just have to tootoo a bit more till we do.

Getting good results out of the hornady 55s with rem 7 primers & Vit 130 which Richard W, sells for 157 a kg all cheap materials. Getting just over 3000fps with 23.5g OAl 2.275 in a Savage model 10, 9 twist, 20 inch barrel.

Worked up that load using GordensReloading which I have subsequently dropped, as every time a update came though, had a major job getting it reset up, then you had to download 3rd party stuff to make it work, not a computer junky it all became too hard.
Priced Quickload the other day all up cost 380 bucks, too rich when I only load for 4 rifles in 2 calibers, got a mate who has it, so Mate .....

@Micky Duck With the component apocalypses XVII , for just a hunting load l would simply find what FPS the factory load is doing & use a available /suitable powder from memory it is just on 3240fps but a ladder load around that will find the rifles favorite.

The Vanguards l reloaded for also loved the Belmont bulk ammo & Sierra Super Roo 55gr SP projectiles we would bulk buy & have going around the magical 3200fps as well,the guys bomb up goats & Skippies with them . The Weatherby accuracy recommended loads for 55grn are Federal 55gr Nosler Ballistic-Tip
(P223F) doing 3240fps & Barnes Vortex 55gr TSXFB(21520) doing 3240,so that should give you a hint to what they like.

Weatherby list the factory ammo they use for accuracy testing each caliber Here is the Winchester Calculator & Weatherby list -

https://ballisticscalculator.winchester.com/#!/result

https://weatherby.com/faqs/does-weat...best-accuracy/

ok thanks guys for help.....

RUMPY brought around targets shot with reloads and I feel much better now......

three different reloads all pretty much same result..the calipers dont lie.....
a couple of observations I believe are worth sharing

#1 if your aiming point/mark is 1 1/2" your groups are likely to be 1 1/2"

#2 a really good cloverleaf three shot group looks great and other 5 shot groups ,not so much BUT within all 3 x5 shot groups were also 3 shot groups under 1/2" and all 3 5 shot groups if taken as a 4 shot group were under inch...

#3 if you took out 1 as a flyer you feel much better about group


#4 as Mimms said above,its pretty hard to go wrong with .223 and 55grn loads.



so this morning poked 2x 3 loads together for him to try 26 and 26.5grns both loads in once fired FLR milserp brass federal match primers seated to just slightly longer than factory rounds as my projectile tips are still pointy and not flat/mashed like the factory ones (whats with that??)
will see how they go if he ever goes back to range LOL.

which sort of brings up another point...even if the worst case senario applies and reloads will only hold to 1 1/2" group consistanly at hundy....at WORST thats 3/4 " away from where was aimed...and thats a very dead animal out past where I will use .223 any way.
a simple X makes for a good aiming point with duplex....but the 1 cm sticky dots work great too.