l have recently been loading/shooting 60gr Hornady SPs in my little Rem 700 VLSF in 221Fireball... lt took me awhile to find 221fb/60gr Hornady load data.. l finally located it in a most unexpected location. ln Hornady's Loading Manual 3rd edition from 1980. lt was for an XP100-close enough l felt. l had bullets, brass, powder specified in the data... l used CCI srp for the spark... Data stated IMR 4227 was a good powder starting @ 12.9gr with 15gr being MAX... l chose to start in the middle with 13.8gr in Remington 221FB brass... Off to the range Friday l fired 3 disappointing 3shot groups at 100yds of around an inch... l thought about changing powders but the only other powder listed close to what l had in my powder cabinet was AA1680... Powder in book was Win680... l wasn't prepared to make that substitution just yet... l chose to simply add ONE MORE GRAIN. Put me to near MAX @14.8gr.. Back to the range l fired 2 more groups with 13.8gr.. They were both close to 1 1/2''. Worse than Friday's groups... Then l fired 3 groups @14.8gr... Hit a home run with those.. My last being a satisfying .376''!! l don't think this too bad for a basically STOCK gun... Only addition being a Shilen trigger... After the math was done the 13.8gr loads/groups avg was 1.221''... That extra grain shrunk the groups down to .539''! That's less than HALF
FWIW The Lee reloading manual Second Edition (2003) offers two loads for 60-gr bullet (original sources not cited) using Reloder 7 at 2250 fps and Hercules 2400 at 2200 fps. (With the Lee data one assumes a 24-in barrel.) -
Hornady Manuel #3 lists IMR4227 load velocities from 2100fps Min. 2400fps MAX. The RL7 Max load velocity is 2500fps... All velocities taken from 10 3/4'' XP100. My guess my 22'' barrel VLS would add maybe 400fps
You may be in the ballpark, since Sierra lists max velocity for 55-gr at 2800 from a 20-in barrel. Most folks overestimate velocity gain from an inch of barrel, I use 30 fps. That might put Sierra's 55 at 2920 for a 24-in tube. Anyway, Lee's data is almost certainly from a handgun. -
Hornady #9 lists both rifle and pistol loads for 221FB...Only bullets listed in BOTH rifle and pistol sections were 45gr and 50gr bullets.. A 45gr bullet in a rifle using RL7 lists max velocity load @3300fps. Max rifle velocity for 50gr bullet and RL7 is 3100fps. Max velocity w/45 & 50gr using same RL7 load in XP100 pistol were 2800fps w/45gr bullet.. 2700fps for a 50gr...
