Estate Find 1000's of light .224 bullets, what twist 12-14

[Luke Miskol]

First off, may who ever passed rest in gunpowder smoke heaven. But, I ended up with literally 6K +/- .224 bullets all Sierra, Nosler and Speer all of which are 50-53 gr, all high dollar target and varmint style. There are 600 Sierra 55gr HPBT and 500ish 40gr VMax.
My Savage Model 11 .223 shoots these great. But, its been rebarreled with unknown twist 12-14 ? All I know is 24.5 V133 and a 50gr Nosler BT will do a legit .25 group at 100yards!
Question being, I ended up with my Dads Savage 110 .223 ( we're Savage guys) Sporter 22". He never believed in cleaning guns. The barrel is really bad. I don't know if I could get all the carbon and copper out.
Giving the bullets I've got (no intention of shooting heavy) if I were going to rebarrel should I stick with 1-14 or move to a 1-12??

 

[jghoghunter]

My 1/12, 222 Remington shoots all of those bullets very well.

 

[280ai]

Start cleaning by getting the bbl soaking wet with kroil or the like for at least one day. Patch dry then use bore tech and follow instructions may take several times. Then scope if you have one. then JB bore shine well and scope again should be pretty close to clean. In between soakings you can put bore tech on a patch with a short rod put it in the chamber at the carbon ring and let it sit over night to loosen the carbon. I did this very procedure with a Winchester 1894 made in spring 1895 no one had ever cleaned it. It was as bad as I have ever seen! It took 2 kroil soaks and 10 bore tech cycles with 10 over night chamber soaks. And 3 JB cycles to get it looking like new and it shoots very well after shooting it cleaned up with one bore tech cycle. hope this helps good luck

 

[Rank Amateur]

All these weights shoot well from my 1:8 barrel, so overtwist is probably not much of a concern. I:14 might be starting to be on the slow side for the 55 grain bullets. 1:12 is probably considered ideal for that entire bullet weight range.

 

[Knotwild]

I like 1 in 9 and 1 in 8. I don't shoot anything over 77gr, and I do prefer in 8 for that.

 

[DGP4]

My Remington 700 .223 had a 1:12 barrel and shot all 50-53 grain target bullets extremely well. I re-barreled it recently with a Remington Sendero barrel with a 1:9 twist rate and it still shoots the same bullets very well.

 

[littlebuddybr]

1-12

 

[C.E.Smith043]

First off, may who ever passed rest in gunpowder smoke heaven. But, I ended up with literally 6K +/- .224 bullets all Sierra, Nosler and Speer all of which are 50-53 gr, all high dollar target and varmint style. There are 600 Sierra 55gr HPBT and 500ish 40gr VMax.
My Savage Model 11 .223 shoots these great. But, its been rebarreled with unknown twist 12-14 ? All I know is 24.5 V133 and a 50gr Nosler BT will do a legit .25 group at 100yards!
Question being, I ended up with my Dads Savage 110 .223 ( we're Savage guys) Sporter 22". He never believed in cleaning guns. The barrel is really bad. I don't know if I could get all the carbon and copper out.
Giving the bullets I've got (no intention of shooting heavy) if I were going to rebarrel should I stick with 1-14 or move to a 1-12??

12

 

[searcher]

Since you have enough bullets to pretty much put the wear on that rifle, I'd probably go 1-12". That said, you might want to consider a 1-9" twist if you think you might ever have any urges to shoot heavier bullets, such as up to 73 grain or so. Also, since the future (years down the road) is murky about more states going to lead-free bullets for hunting, that 1-9" will also stabilize the lead-free bullets up to 50 grains. It will ensure your rifle doesn't become unusable for hunting in the future, should the "anti's" get their way. Congratulations on a nice score on those bullets!

 

[Gray420]

I have got a Shilen 1:9 26” prefit from northern shooter supply that shoots those 40gr vmax and the 52 or 53gr FB bullets into little bug hole groups.

 

[TheCZKid]

In AR's I think 8 twist is the perfect twist rate, 9 for mid to lighter weights like 40 - 55 and 7 for heavier like 63 - 79, though 12 used to be the norm for long rifles.

 

[kennicka]

My vote is the 1/12" if sticking with those bullets

 

[Luke Miskol]

Since you have enough bullets to pretty much put the wear on that rifle, I'd probably go 1-12". That said, you might want to consider a 1-9" twist if you think you might ever have any urges to shoot heavier bullets, such as up to 73 grain or so. Also, since the future (years down the road) is murky about more states going to lead-free bullets for hunting, that 1-9" will also stabilize the lead-free bullets up to 50 grains. It will ensure your rifle doesn't become unusable for hunting in the future, should the "anti's" get their way. Congratulations on a nice score on those bullets!

 

[Luke Miskol]

Thanks for all the great replies. Seems 1-12 will be the twist.
After 2 days worth of scrubbing I got my dads barrel clean. So, I guess this gives me some time to save up for a new barrel.
Now, what lenght do I want go with??? I'm thinking 18"- 20" for a short handy rifle

 

[Just Say Moe]

How are you shooting it? For 223's off of a bench, 26 inches.