good loads using VLC bullets?

rimfirematt

rimfirematt

New member
I have a box of Barns VLC bullets. 50 grainrs. They look neat, but I have yet to get decent accuracy out of them. And for those of yous who know me, I have had alot of guns to try them! (22 centerfires). I even saw amagazine article where they did a run down on the various factory ammo accuracy results. Most of the loads were under .75 whereas the barnes were around 2 inches! Is it that coating that makes these things sub-par for acuracy or does barnes just make an incosistant bullet?
I have a 223 and a 22-250 that I want to try them with but I am hesitant on wasting the powder anymore!
 
Hi Matt,
I got bashed the last time I tried to help you but here goes again!! LOL!!!

Barnes bullets have a reputation for being finicky in most rifles. Kinda like that Hornet thing. They do shoot well if you spend a lot of time and compoents working on them to find a load or you just get lucky. It would be a lot easier to just use somone else's and much cheaper too.

I believe this reasoning to be that Barnes bullets have a longer profile like match bullets. Therefore requiring a little faster twist than standard rifles have in order to shoot them well. AKA what Jerry has experienced. I have worked with them for years and they do require work to get results. The 40's shoot extremely well in my Rem XP-100 .221 Fireball. Good luck.
 
Are you trying to say the 1/8s shoot better than others? Steve........Steve.................

I will say it.

I have found that 1/8s shoot all bullets better.
I have had 1/9s for 15 years. Not one came close the the cheesiest 1/8 bbl. But I did find a 1/9 that happened to shoot a certain bullet/load well.
It shot touching hole consistantly with 55 grain V-max with a max charge of varget. I traded a guy SRS1, the upper for a 24 in. 1/8.
As commonly noted, with a 1/8 you can shoot about any bullet better. Any weight from 40s to 80gr bullets shoot better.
All things might be different fron shooter to shooter and rifle to rifle,but I have noticed the 1/9s wont hold a good group unless you are near max. I have been doing data comparrisons with several reloaders and serious shooters lately. Seems we all noticed 1/9s like to be near max to shoot as good.
With 1/8s, I took some guys advice and started from rock bottom of the load scale and 2 grains up from the bottom was my most accurate load.Saving powder,bbl life,and brass. And I flipped ferrel cat last week at 200 yds with a 50 gr blitzking in high winds and it exited with a rowdy hole. Still cooking at near lowest charge. jerryboy
 
Jb,
I really like 1 in 8's but in this instance just noteing the point that the longer bullet design of the Barnes bullets tend to shoot better in a faster twist than normal. It is not that you have to have a way faster one, they just seem to be on the edge of what the mfg'ers offer. Thereby making you work harder to find a bullet/load combination that shoots real well.

With the 1 in 9's you speak of, it has been our experience that .223's just don't shoot as many bullet combinations as well as we see in the 1 in 8's. They just seem to be more finicky or only like a couple of bullets or loads that shoot really well. As always, they all have their own personality.
 
Hello, I've been using VLC's for about a year now and both me and my dad have been able to get good groups. I just found a target of my dads and it measured 1/4 inch (only 3 shot group though). That was with a CZ 550 bull barrel 22-250 pushing a 50gr VLC with 40gr of IMR 4895. I get roughly the same groups with my CZ 550 pushing a 50rg VLC with 41gr of BLC-2. My Ruger M77 22-250 likes that same load too but gets a little less accuracy, about 1/2" out of it. I did have to play around with the load a bit before I got one they liked. I had troubles with Varget, the groups werent good till I started increasing the powder amnt but at the end I only got about 1" groups with that powder.

These bullets do shoot it just takes a little playing around.

(edited because I've never learned to proof read /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif )
 
I tried them in my AR but never could find the magic load. Must've shot 300 rounds trying. The best groups were around 1 1/2 inch at 100 yards, most were over 2". These bullets are more expensive and don't shoot as good as Hornady VMax
 
I know a little late on this thread but I did a search and found it.. I had found a box of these bullets in my storage shed and thought about trying them out. After reading this I may just trade them for some V-Max's that I know shoot..
Thanks for the heads up..
 
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