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bullets tumbling!
Hi Folks,
New Tikka T3 shooter here. Love the rifle. My question is that when I first fired it I ran a handful of Wolf brand steel cased 55 grain bullets thru it and almost all of them were touching! Pretty excited….then I ran another handful of my own loads thru it. Remington cases with 24 grains of CFE223 powder with 68 grain Hornady BTHP. Looked like a shotgun hit the target and over half of them tumbled. At 50 yards. Never seen such a clear cut sideways picture of a bullet going thru a target sideways.
Thats all I can tel you, clean barrel, solid platform, etc.
Any thoughts or ideas? Anxious to load more but want the recipe to be correct.
Thanks for the thoughts. -
4 Replies
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bullets tumbling!
updated 5 years, 9 months ago
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You need to use lighter bullets , your twist is not the correct twist to stabilise the 69 heads try between 50 and 55 bullets
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After a ton of research i found out what the problem is. The twist I guess is actually good for the heavier bullets. A lot of guys use them and have a lot of luck with them.
They tumble because they are going too fast and become unstable in flight. I use a Dillon 550 press and checked the powder it is putting into the cases. It is between 22.5 to almost 27 grains of powder! I never thought that would be an issue with a Dillon.
I loaded of a handful of the real light loads at 23, some at 24, the load I thought I was using. Some at 26+,
I measured each load with my digital scale. All of the loads worked perfect up to the 26, every single one of them tumbled. So I guess I have to find out why the Hodgden CFE223 powder is not loading smoothly from my press.
Frustrating but I learned a lot in the process. I just want one good round I can use for everything, doesn't necessarily need to be the 68, just thought the extra umpf would be good for hunting. Then I read on Hornady's website that they don't recommend the 68 BTHP for hunting? Not sure what else you use a hollow point for? Sure is a fun rifle to shoot!!! -
Try a 55 or 60gr Nosler BT Spitzer round in your barrel over 25 – 25.5 grains of Varget or 26-27grains of CFE.
They seem to stabilize pretty well in all T3 barrels with minor tinkering in this powder range.
One of the best projectiles you can use for all around performance.
In good weather we routinely shoot 4″ clay targets out to 500yrds (fun in the wind but not so routinely). -
Thanks for the info, I will give them a try. So many choices, glad to hear of one round that somebody is consistently happy with.
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