Berger, Sierra or JLK for 223 rem

[manitou210]

Will soon be getting my 30" custom barrel 1/7 twist on Barnard action for F class shooting in Canada.
Two other fellows have built similar guns they have shot sub 1/4min groups at 300yards .520 & .600 5 shot groups,using Sierra & Berger VLD 80gr bullets.using Varget and VT 540 powders.
Reading up on JLK bullets there 80gr has over 500BC which is considerably higher than both sierra & Bergers.
Has anyone shot these JHLK in 223 rem ? would you think they will shoot as well as Sierra & Bergers or better ???
thanks for any input
manitou

 

[cmillard]

jlk makes a FINE bullet, but they only make a run of a particular bullet about once a year. call them up and when you do order--order A LOT!!! thousands of them!!

 

[msnations]

i can't say I think the JLK 80s cut the wind any better than berger 80 VLDs but I might be wrong. I use bergers because they're easier to get...

 

[ThunderDownUnder]

I use the 80gr Amax bullets with 25.7grains of Varget for a velocity of 2960fps. This load is my current target load in a Barnard/Kreiger 30" barrel with 8 twist. Accuracy is laser like and I'm continually amazed at how accurate 223Rs can get.

The reamer I use is a Dave Kiff custom for the 80gr Amax, (Print#19051) its posted somewhere on this website and I would recommend using it for this bullet.

The 90 grainers need the 7 twist but are a bit of a struggle getting upto 2900fps and I'm building a 223AI especially for these bullets. The Berger 90gr VLD has a higher BC than any of the 6mm bullets Berger make, so at around 2950fps should be match for most 6mmbr guns out there!

Ian

 

[Laurie]

Manitou,

Your words:

Reading up on JLK bullets there 80gr has over 500BC which is considerably higher than both sierra & Bergers.

But are they? Precious few of the BCs quoted are really usable, not that they're lies or anything but because they use the G1 drag model which is not suited to a modern HPBT type bullet let alone the even pointier VLD designs. Moreover, G1 BCs are very velocity dependant and the manufacturers usually quote a BC value that only applies at 3,000 fps or more. Even if you're getting that at the muzzle, the bullet doesn't stay at it for long!

Palma and Fullbore ace Bryan Litz goes into all this in great detail in his book Applied Ballistics For Long Range Shooting and also gives form factors and average G1 and G7 BCs for most match bullets on the market based on actual 1,000 yard tests and retained velocities, but unfortunately not JLKs.

Bryan has recently joined Berger as its full-time ballistician and Berger now uses his experimentally derived BCs for all its long-range bullets. These are much lower than those previously published, but are far more accurate. Sierra has moved onto using five velocity bands for its most recently introduced bullets such as the 90gn .224 MK and these average out close to the Litz figures.

In reality, the JLK may be a little better or poorer than the 80gn Berger VLD and Hornady A-Max over long ranges, but the trio are similar secant ogive designs, so will have BCs that are close irrespective of the published values. Bryan's average G1 BCs for the Hornady A-Max (another secant ogive VLD type) and Berger VLD are 0.452 and 0.445 respectively while the Sierra is a bit below at 0.425 which is what you'd expect with it being a shorter, blunter tangent ogive form design.

To get a .22 bullet up to a real BC of over 0.500, you have to go up to a 90gn VLD and make it a really long and sharply pointed design which is what Berger has done with its 90gn VLD, that Bryan Litz says averages 0.512 over a long-range flight. Jerry Tierney has got these to fly at around 2,900 fps MV from a 32" barrel Barnard Palma rifle, but found accuracy peaked at just over 2,800 fps. Even at that, this bullet outperforms any .308 Win load with 155s, but it won't quite match .308W with top 210gn VLD loads at 2,600-2,650 fps that we see in the UK in F/TR which has no bullet weight restrictions.

Laurie,
York, England