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

So apparently I did a thing last night.

I 'won' a used, unknown history, 8-twist tikka .223 barrel.

It's shorter and threaded. My plan is to remove the long heavy 12 twist barrel from my Tikka 595 and be able to use 75-80 grain stuff in it. The 595 223 magazine will handle 2.42" so my plan would likely be to load something to 2.4". I have a pretty good idea on powders already on hand. I know the 77TMK would work and that's the easy button but since these will be loaded to 2.4" there's a part of me that would like to save the TMKs for use in an AR and load something with a different colored tip for easy ID as being bolt gun loads.

That means 75eldm, 80 eldm, or 80 eldx.

8 twist, most shooting will be at or near 660' elevation and temps could be anywhere from 10 degrees on up. Which would y'all choose as second place to the 77TMK?
73 or 75 ELDm. 73s seem to be less finicky.
 
You should try a few different bullets.

After buying 600 ct of tmk’s, my tikka does
Not like them….

I’ll try them first but won’t be wedded to them. I already have multiple ARs that eat them. If they just won’t shoot I’ll try the 73/75 eldm. If that doesn’t work I’ll go a different direction. Not interested in paying Berger prices for Berger terminal performance.
 
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