Who makes 95 grn .224 bullets?

[Nowhere Man]

As far as I know, Sierra is the only company who has made them, but there are so many companies out there, I was wondering if someone else makes them that I'm not aware of?

Thanks, Dave

 

[Medic505]

Berger makes a 95 gr. VLD

They make 90 grain VLD's. No .224 95's made by Berger.

 

[Warren Dean]

They make 90 grain VLD's. No .224 95's made by Berger.

OOOPS!! Sorry about that...it's still early.

 

[Dusty Stevens]

Heres a guy launching a 95gr 22cal bullet

 

[Jdne5b]

 

[Ned Ludd]

View attachment 1315069

Throated out just a teensy bit, eh?

 

[Jdne5b]

Throated out just a teensy bit, eh?

Unithroater cuts quick. This was chamber #1. Two wasn’t quite as long

 

[jackieschmidt]

What twist does it take to stabilize that?

 

[Dusty Stevens]

What twist does it take to stabilize that?

1:2.5

 

[Ned Ludd]

What twist does it take to stabilize that?

A 1 in 7"-twist works just fine. It takes something like a 1 in 6.7"-twist for optimal BC.

 

[r bose]

A 1 in 7"-twist works just fine. It takes something like a 1 in 6.7"-twist for optimal BC.

Curious, is the increase in BC worth the decrease in velocity. I've never known anyone who shot them in any caliber much less the mighty 223

 

[Ned Ludd]

Curious, is the increase in BC worth the decrease in velocity. I've never known anyone who shot them in any caliber much less the mighty 223

Technically, it's not a BC increase, it's just using a sufficient twist rate to obtain the full intrinsic BC of the bullet. According to the Berger Twist Rate Calculator, the effective BC of the 95 SMK drops by about 4% using a 7-twist barrel, rather than a 6.7-twist. Of course, that is a theoretical value, but a 4% difference is in the same neighborhood of the effective increase in BC gained by pointing bullets. Unless there's a very good reason, no one using a .223 Rem in F-TR ever willingly gives up 4% BC because such a setup is usually already running at a slight disadvantage to .308s pushing 200 gr bullets. One drawback to using a faster twist rate barrel in such a setup is that it increases the risk of jacket failure. However, that can largely be negated by using a 0.219" bore barrel.

I have not personally noticed any significant difference in velocity due to a minor increase in twist rate (i.e. such as going from 7.0" to 6.7"). It may be that a larger increase in twist rate such as 0.5" to 1.0" might have a more noticeable effect in a .224" barrel; I don't know as I've never ramped up the twist rate in a .224" barrel that much. However in my .308s, going from an 11-twist to a 10-twist, or even a 9-twist, had a negligible effect on velocity. Having experienced .224" bullet jacket failures out of 0.218" bore barrels with twist rates faster than 7.0, that is my major concern. In the future, all of my .224" barrels will have 0.219" bores, which should largely mitigate the jacket failure issue. However, I usually have more than one barrel chambered at a time on my competition rifles and am therefore still working with some low round count 0.218" bore barrels.

In my hands, the 95 SMKs shoot reasonably well out of a rifle originally set up with slightly longer freebore for the 90 VLDs. I feel like the inherent precision with the 90 VLDs is slightly better, but the 95s aren't bad by any means. The most important aspect of the 95s is that you really can't hit the kind of velocities possible with the 90 VLDs out of a 30" barrel. The 95s tune in with H4895 in my hands at around 2750-ish fps, which is 80 to 100 fps slower than a comparable 90 VLD load. The slower velocity combined with Sierra's very tough jackets means that I can run them without major fear of jacket failures in the current 0.218" bore barrels that have previously caused jacket failures with both 90 VLDs and Hornady 88 ELDMs. So for me, they're just a way to get some good use out of the barrels I already have until it is time to replace them with newer 0.219" bore barrels.

 

[dfrosch]

Curious, is the increase in BC worth the decrease in velocity. I've never known anyone who shot them in any caliber much less the mighty 223

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"... BC is forever"