Rate of twist -vs- bullet...........

[alstar80j]

From what I have read, I find that different grain wt. bullets or shape, and rate of twist coinside with each other. I want to load 85 Seirra HPBT and use Varget powder. The pressures look a little high compared to most "recipes", ie... 58 to almost 60,000 ). Using a Remington 700 24" barrel with 9 1/2" twist. All said and done, will a lighter bullet or a 100gr. bullet give better performance without the expense of trial and error ??

 

[bully_eye]

Can't give you scientific answers except that in most situations you can't over stabilise a projectile and that a projectile with a longer bearing surface in a particular calibre will require a faster twist.I load the 85gr Sierra HPBT in my Savage 243 using AR2209,H4350?)and it is accurate,for a light rifle with a very thin barrel) and performs well on animals up to medium size feral pigs. The Savage has a 1:9.25 twist and I think theoretically should handle a 100gr projectile. However I've never had much luck with projectile weights over 90gr and the 100gr Sierra SPT Pro Hunter projectile didn't hit paper at 100yd- you'd need to have a crack with your rifle to see though. I'd have liked to load a heavier projectile but can use my 30-06 if things get a bit big. From a practicle point of view though, I think you could do much worse than the 85gr HPBT.

Michael