Bullet Stability 17 Tactical

[Varmint Shooter]

My 17 tac has a barrel twist of 10.25. Would a 20 gr bullet stabilize with this twist?
Both 25 gr V-Max and Berger 25 gr will not. Will start to key hole after a couple shots.
Tried a couple with the 20 gr V-Max and after a couple shots they key holed also.
Barrel has been cleaned twice with copper removal. Barrel is a Douglas XX

 

[Coyotefurharvester]

Try Nosler 20gr fbhp. Shorter bullet no tip.

 

[Hal]

Try removing the plastic tips on a few of them.

Hal

 

[L.Sherm]

Try Nosler 20gr fbhp. Shorter bullet no tip.

^^^^^^
I've shot a ton of the 20gr Midsouth ones I'm pretty sure are Nosler.
I'm pretty sure the Dog town ones are the same, Midway has them in stock

 

[dellet]

If they are only starting to key hole after the barrel warms, the bullets might be coming apart. Maybe something in the barrel, maybe a seating issue. You might try shooting out another 100 yards and see if they actually make it to the target.

If you’re any where near 4,000 fps, it wouldn’t take much of a defect to have them start coming apart.

 

[DaveTooley]

Set a target up at 10 yds and shoot a few through it. See if this happens. It's also possible to identify, with some reliability, if and which lands might be causing the problem.

 

[L.Sherm]

I'm not saying its not possible his bullets aren't coming apart especially if the barrels throat is rough but I just got done loading for a 17 Javelina and I never chronograph my top end loads but I'm pretty sure there over 4,000 with the 20 V-nitemare and shot really well.
Its not my rifle just working on it for a family member I never even checked the twist.

 

[Varmint Shooter]

Tried coyotefurharvester's suggestion, trying the 20 gr fbhp, from Nosler.
These shorter bullets have so far solved my problem. Reloaded 50 rounds by
pulling the 25 gr bergers and seating the 20gr fbhp with the same powder
charge and coal. 48 dead p-dogs out of the 50 rounds. Yardage from 100
to 250.
Thanks for the tip.

 

[dellet]

Tried coyotefurharvester's suggestion, trying the 20 gr fbhp, from Nosler.
These shorter bullets have so far solved my problem. Reloaded 50 rounds by
pulling the 25 gr bergers and seating the 20gr fbhp with the same powder
charge and coal. 48 dead p-dogs out of the 50 rounds. Yardage from 100
to 250.
Thanks for the tip.

The Berger 25 grain calls for a 1/10 for stability, using a 1/10.25 won’t cause a key hole. Just won’t have that highest BC available. Might verify the twist.

If a shorter bullet solves the problem without changing COAL, you might check to see if you’re over compressing the powder with the longer bullet.

At 4000 fps, bullets spinning over 280,000 rpm, at 4200 it’s pushing 300,000. It doesn’t take much of a defect. To me the flag is only happens after a few shots. Been there done that with a Varmageddon

 

[Varmint Shooter]

Rifle is now shooting moa p-dog. I'm satisfied. I'll leave all technical analysis to those
who play in that area.