22BR finished

[Elwood]

My new 22BR, specifications are AI stock, Jewell trigger, Stiller Predator action, Badger Ordinance bolt knob, Border 5R, 1-12 twist, 27 inch barrel, Parker Hale bipod, Nightforce 3.5-15x56 NXS with Leupold QD rings. Built by Mike Norris and then greened up by our very own James Clark using durocoat.

 

The Leupold rings will be replaced eventually with a set of Badger Ordinance, I had a set of Remington bases all done the same colour as the scope only to find at at the last minute that they wouldn't fit a Stiller action so we had to make do with Leupold's.

 

It's shooting ok but I think with a proper clean ( I don't have a rod long enough) and further load development it's going to be a tack driver, shooting 52 grain Amax's at around 3700 fps. So far I have tried N133 but will be testing H322 and Benchmark soon.

 

 

 

[Ronin]

Looks very nice Ian, have to say I like the Predator actions, did your builder bed it into the AICS?

 

 

Load development will only improve the groups and of course a proper length cleaning rod is essential (as I am sure you know anyway)

 

Looking at the posted groups am I right in thinking the dots are 1"?

 

If thats the case its well on the way to being a shooter anyway

[Elwood]

Looks very nice Ian, have to say I like the Predator actions, did your builder bed it into the AICS?

Load development will only improve the groups and of course a proper length cleaning rod is essential (as I am sure you know anyway)

 

Looking at the posted groups am I right in thinking the dots are 1"?

 

If thats the case its well on the way to being a shooter anyway

 

Thanks Andy, the photo's do not do justice to Kals work.

Yes it was bed into the action, I previously had the AI stock on the rifle in my avatar a Remy 40X in .223, Norman Clark did the work on that rifle and he also had it bed in.

 

The dots are one inch, I would like to think that this set up will quarter inch group when it's all settled down.

 

Right it's time to load up some cases with Benchmark this time.

[Guest vim]

[cooperman223]

.22br thats nice.

[baldie]

Very nice Elwood. How does it feed from the mag? OK? any mods to the mag?

[Elwood]

Nice scope Elwood

 

I had to go away and think about that one Vim, and then the penny dropped

 

Baldie yes it mag feeds but works best with only four rounds in the mag. I know it caused a great deal of grief trying to get it to feed reliably, but Mike has sorted it out with a piece of alloy in the back of the mag and some other voodoo black magic stuff he told me about

[baldie]

Check out the AI 6br on 6mmbr.com buddy, he is mag feeding these in an ai/rem, and the spacer is at the FRONT of the mag.The problem feeding usually comes as the cases slide forward under recoil apparently.

[foxing2night]

Now thats nice!!!!!

 

Hope that you get a lot of pleasure out of it???

 

Keep the groups coming so that we can see how you get on over the coming months.....

 

All the best, Darrel

[Elwood]

Well after some early disappointment with the 22BR and accuracy the tide has turned at last. I must admit that at one point I thought I had got a bad un.

I wanted to use Hornady 52 grain Amax's as they are easy to get, very accurate and devastating on foxes, I tried them with Viht N135, Viht N133, Benchmark and Varget, only Varget gave me any sort of accuracy that I could work on, producing several groups in the .3's and then I ran out Varget.

 

I soon ran out of Amax heads and then tried 52 grain Bergers, nothing but half inch groups which quite frankly isn't good enough for a custom rifle in this calibre, so I gave up on them quite early.

 

My last chance was some Nosler 55 grain BT's which I didn't even know I had! After a bit research I chose H322 for powder and Remington 7 1/2 primers and put the Noslers touching the lands. First impressions looked promising with consistent accuracy and no pressure signs so I decided to go over max limit, I'm glad I did as at 30.3 grains which is close to be 1 grain over max I obviously hit the sweet spot. According to quickload the 55 grain Noslers should be going at around 3700 fps, I will run them through the chronograph next week.

 

Happy days, both groups are 3 shots at 100 yards and measuring 0.129 but are with two different charge weights

 

Three shots at my night vision target at 200 yards using 52 grain amax and Viht N135, interesting that this load was struggling to stay under one inch at 100 yards a few weeks ago!

 

[baldie]

h322 is a damn good powder Elwood, thats overlooked by most folk.Its worked very well in everything i,ve tried it in. Just out of interest, and without going into the loft [loading room] has h335 crossed your mind? because i think its for similar cartridges as 322 is.I have a pot upstairs. i think? i used for hornet way back, and its a dust/ball powder.

[Elwood]

Hi Dave

 

I used to use H322 in my .223 but then changed to Benchmark because I could get the same accuracy but with an added 200 FPS, but I believe H322 was a top powder for many benchrest shooters.

 

I know that H355 is recommended for 55 grain heads in .22 cal but I never even considered it to be honest, probably because it wasn't listed as a preferred powder in 6mmBR.com, and it just so happens that I have a tub of it here, thanks for the heads up.