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22BR Barrel from UrbanRifleman Review

Ordered a 22br barrel from Urbanrifleman this spring when my other barrel was still out 3 months. Got the barrel in about 2 weeks after order and threw it on savage short action and with a SSS stock. Just for kicks and giggles and because I have always wanted to, did load development with Blue Dot with the 53gr Vmax. Most recent testing showing 53gr v max shooting 3 shot groups inside of .2" and a couple 5 shot groups sub .3" at 100 yards. 15.2gr is running at 2920fps in my gun. This has been on virgin brass which has not needed any work other than running through a Redding FL die. I am loving the blue dot loads, about as loud as a 22lr, recoil like a 22mag, can run 30 consecutive shots without much barrel heating, doesn't foul, and cleans easily. I know I can probably improve accuracy a bit running standard powder and some higher bc bullets, but I have having to much fun to switch over for a while. Will see how it does on pdogs this weekend, should be able to shoot without ever having to switch out rifles. I can certainly give a positive review of Urbanrifleman's 224 barrels in a 22BR.
 

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Ordered a 22br barrel from Urbanrifleman this spring when my other barrel was still out 3 months. Got the barrel in about 2 weeks after order and threw it on savage short action and with a SSS stock. Just for kicks and giggles and because I have always wanted to, did load development with Blue Dot with the 53gr Vmax. Most recent testing showing 53gr v max shooting 3 shot groups inside of .2" and a couple 5 shot groups sub .3" at 100 yards. 15.2gr is running at 2920fps in my gun. This has been on virgin brass which has not needed any work other than running through a Redding FL die. I am loving the blue dot loads, about as loud as a 22lr, recoil like a 22mag, can run 30 consecutive shots without much barrel heating, doesn't foul, and cleans easily. I know I can probably improve accuracy a bit running standard powder and some higher bc bullets, but I have having to much fun to switch over for a while. Will see how it does on pdogs this weekend, should be able to shoot without ever having to switch out rifles. I can certainly give a positive review of Urbanrifleman's 224 barrels in a 22BR.

That is the coolest stinkin thing I have ever heard. I mean seriously!!! That is very cool. I may have to think on the possibilities of this...

Thank you so much for the feedback. Your rifle looks very cool too!!!
 
Had a couple PMs about my load. Happy to share. Start with couple notes:

This is new Lapua 6mmbr Norma Brass run through Redding FL 22BR die 1 time. Remember the lapua brass is the small flash hole, so if you get a die, make sure it will work with the .060" lapua flash hole. The Redding die does, however, make sure you tighten the collet on the deprime pin, I lost mine and had to call redding to get a replacement.

Capacity of blue dot in the entire 22BR case about 28gr. I chose a min of 14 grains so that I could never accidently double charge a case. A double charge would probably blow up the gun. Here is a quick pressure test I did when I started with blue dot. Also, I think it would defeat the whole purpose of the blue dot load to try to load max and I think that is when you could run unto safety issues.

13.5gr 2582fps
14gr 2678fps
14.5gr 2717fps
15gr 2880fps

New Lapua 22BR resized Brass
CCI BR4
Alliant Blue Dot 15.2gr
Hornady Vmax 53gr
COAL 2.098" (Lands located at about 2.165")
Runs 2920 with a STD of 10fps on my magnespeed.
 
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Nice rifle! We need some group pics or it didn't happen! Lol!

Thanks Paul
Here is a couple targets I cherry picked from a seating depth test and then shooting 1x fired cases that had been collet sized with the same load. The other seating depths shot around .5 to .6 groups and are nothing to brag about. On the 5 shot target, I was pretty excited with the first 4 shots and then the 5th shot I pulled to compensate for a pretty good cross wind left to right. This never works for me, I just get too excited thinkin I can outshoot the gun, should have just held the same POA and I bet it would have fallen with the other 4. I have a couple nodes and need to follow up on which is the best one.
 

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Here is a couple targets I cherry picked from a seating depth test and then shooting 1x fired cases that had been collet sized with the same load. The other seating depths shot around .5 to .6 groups and are nothing to brag about. On the 5 shot target, I was pretty excited with the first 4 shots and then the 5th shot I pulled to compensate for a pretty good cross wind left to right. This never works for me, I just get too excited thinkin I can outshoot the gun, should have just held the same POA and I bet it would have fallen with the other 4. I have a couple nodes and need to follow up on which is the best one.
Very nice, thanks for sharing! Nice shooting on your part. Urban is doing something very right!

Paul
 
That's very interesting. Certainly will stretch a pound of powder. When your done figuring out the Blue Dot try some VV135. You just might see those groups shrink, yes at the expense of more noise and recoil. Now I need to go hunt some Blue Dot. Gotta try it, thanks.
 
We took this 22BR through it's paces on pdogs yesterday. I had my 11 and 13 year old sons as the primary shooters, but I shot a few at the longer dogs. Shot 40 consecutive shots at a single setup location. Closest dog was 225, longest of the day was 395. Was not able to break the 400 yards as I only shot at a single dog over 400 and missed him and he went down. I let the boys do most of the shooting today. They were loving the lack of recoil and noise on this rifle. The 13 year old had is earplugs out and when I noticed, I told him to put them in and he said this is not as loud as a 22. Of the 40 shots, 31 confirmed kills and another 2 shots possible kills. My 11 year old hit a 325 yard dog as his longest on his 2nd shot of the day and the 13 year old hit his personal long at 385 yards.

The 53gr vmax was explosive on dogs under 300 yards. On dogs over 300, still did the job, but without launching them. At the longest ranges of near 400 yards, kills the dogs with not much carnage. No dogs running down the holes so these were very effective at instant kills. The 2 images below were of a 225 yard dog and a 275 yard dog with head poking out. Should have taken pics of my setup.

After the 40 shots in about 20 minutes, the barrel was warm to the hand, on the verge of being hot with air temps at 85F. We finished shooting everything I had reloaded, but felt like I could shoot a few more before pulling the rifle. What I have always wondered is how hot does a barrel need to get before you start doing damage? I typically pull my rifle when they are hot, but not too hot to grab and hold.

Is this too hot or too late to pull them or do I still have some shots before I start doing damage? What is your guys experience?

All in all, I was very pleased with this rifle. At a shot every 30 seconds on average, I was hoping I would be able to go forever without too much barrel heating and maybe I can in lower air temps, but I think there is a shot rate that will be too fast and cause too much barrel heating. The only other rifle I can shoot with as much frequency is my rimfires and my 17 hornet. Nice to have a larger caliber than I can get a lot of shots out of without the barrel heat.


Warning - Images of dead prairie dogs below. FYI, These are agriculture fields that experience severe damage from prairie dogs each year. Shooting is more effective and humane than poison. We always leave a healthy breeding population and strive to keep the numbers down, but never to eliminate them. The fields that culled have very little die off from plague compared to the fields that are never culled, which experience near 100% die off every 3 or 4 years.
 

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