.223 for bear, mountain goat, deer, elk, and moose.

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Really tempted to get down this rabbit hole. Is $750 a fair price for T3X Lite stainless in .223?
 

Juan_ID

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Really tempted to get down this rabbit hole. Is $750 a fair price for T3X Lite stainless in .223?
I bought mine for $799 about a month ago. I couldn’t seem to find one anywhere after looking for a little while, so when I did I jumped on it.
 

Sandstrom

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I bought mine for $749.00 about 6 months ago as it was the only one I could find. Literally a week later I found another one for $649.00.... I have not seen another one on a shelf since. It is definitely in the range of what they are going for, if you are ok with the price go for it!
Ryan
 
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Those of you that reload the tmk’s are you needing to load them long like the eldm’s or can you go stock mag length and get decent accuracy/velocity?

The nose of the 75 ELD is quite a bit longer than the 77 TMK. That is by design so TMK could be loaded at mag length without ogive being in the neck.

Like @Lawnboi stated, i just dont like loading TMK over varget at mag length because of how compressed it is. That said, 77 TMK with varget @ 2.295" in ASC AR mags has been my standard AR load for a while but it just kind of sucks compressing it that much. Something like XBR or TAC would do better as far as case fill.

XBR didn't shoot as tight as varget in my tikka. H4895 seems a little closer and I might try to settle with that to have a little less compressed charge.
 

Juan_ID

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The nose of the 75 ELD is quite a bit longer than the 77 TMK. That is by design so TMK could be loaded at mag length without ogive being in the neck.

Like @Lawnboi stated, i just dont like loading TMK over varget at mag length because of how compressed it is. That said, 77 TMK with varget @ 2.295" in ASC AR mags has been my standard AR load for a while but it just kind of sucks compressing it that much. Something like XBR or TAC would do better as far as case fill.

XBR didn't shoot as tight as varget in my tikka. H4895 seems a little closer and I might try to settle with that to have a little less compressed charge.
Noted, I do have 5lbs of H4895 that I’d intended on using with the eldm. Hoping to find some more tmk’s to try with it now. Just out of curiosity what is the problem with the compression?
 
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Noted, I do have 5lbs of H4895 that I’d intended on using with the eldm. Hoping to find some more tmk’s to try with it now. Just out of curiosity what is the problem with the compression?

My main reasons for disliking it is you are more prone to deform bullets in the seating stem and it can result in inconsistent seating depths and case grip on the bullet. Those impacts seemed negligible on performance in my AR but I also took steps to minimize compression.

There are things you can do to help like using drop tubes, vibrating cases, and seating until first crunch and then turning the bullet upside down so powder drops around the sides of bullet before seating to final depth. I'd rather do none of the above if possible. I end up using a drop tube anyway most of the time.
 

Juan_ID

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My main reasons for disliking it is you are more prone to deform bullets in the seating stem and it can result in inconsistent seating depths and case grip on the bullet. Those impacts seemed negligible on performance in my AR but I also took steps to minimize compression.

There are things you can do to help like using drop tubes, vibrating cases, and seating until first crunch and then turning the bullet upside down so powder drops around the sides of bullet before seating to final depth. I'd rather do none of the above if possible. I end up using a drop tube anyway most of the time.
That makes sense, I worked up fairly high with Varget, all bto measurements were close enough that I think any variance was most likely in the bullet itself. I would not mind getting a drop tube to see if that’d help once I start loading tmk’s
 

Juan_ID

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Turns out midsouthshootersupply had 100ct boxes of the tmk in stock last Friday and I missed it.
 

FLS

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Been a while since I loaded 223. Since Sierra isn’t making enough tmk I had to find another option for shooting steel. So I went back to 75 eldm. A few of my older eldm loads shot better suppressed, so I loaded up some more. At 400 yards they shot pretty well.

When the 77tmk become available again I’m going to buy a barrels worth.


Also ended up with 100 rounds of Lapua 223 55grain fmj off midway for 21 bucks a box. Going to burn them up and use the brass specifically for my tmk load, and continue to use Hornady for steel/prairie dog ammo.View attachment 302090
I use 8208 and TAC with 77 SMKs and TMKs out of a 18” 1-8 twist AR I’m shooting in some local matches. 24.5 grains of TAC or 23.4 grains of 8208 in LC brass lit by a BR4 loaded gets me 2750 with either bullet. The SMKs actually shoot a little better out of my rifle. You should be able to easily get to the speeds you desire in a bolt gun with either powder without compressing the loads.
 

Juan_ID

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I use 8208 and TAC with 77 SMKs and TMKs out of a 18” 1-8 twist AR I’m shooting in some local matches. 24.5 grains of TAC or 23.4 grains of 8208 in LC brass lit by a BR4 loaded gets me 2750 with either bullet. The SMKs actually shoot a little better out of my rifle. You should be able to easily get to the speeds you desire in a bolt gun with either powder without compressing the loads.
So since the smk’s shoot a little better out of your rifle does that mean you’d entertain selling some tmk’s? 😊
 

Juan_ID

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For anyone possibly looking for tmk ammo, I found this last week. Have never ordered from them but have read on discord they are g2g. I wanted to give it a shot but with over 1k eldm’s I’m going to bite the bullet and get a mtn tac mag and shoot through some of the eldm’s in hopes I can find some tmk projectiles soon. I reached out about velocity and they reported back that they were getting 2600 FPS out of a 16” barrel.

 

dla

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For anyone possibly looking for tmk ammo, I found this last week. Have never ordered from them but have read on discord they are g2g. I wanted to give it a shot but with over 1k eldm’s I’m going to bite the bullet and get a mtn tac mag and shoot through some of the eldm’s in hopes I can find some tmk projectiles soon. I reached out about velocity and they reported back that they were getting 2600 FPS out of a 16” barrel.

Just a note: I get 2620fps with 23.2gr 8208 pushing a 77gr TMK out of a 16" barrel. COL = 2.26".
 
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