The 22 creedmoor thread

[Bluumoon]

A bit disappointed in a new lot number of factory Precision Hunter 80 ELDX ammo from this morning. Shot 100 rounds of it and couldn’t get the gun to shoot better than about 1.75-2ish MOA.

Went back to the previous lot and was at 1-1.5 MOA.

Gonna run another 100 through it tomorrow morning and if it still sucks I’m sending it back to Hornady.

How'd this work out?

 

[mxgsfmdpx]

How'd this work out?

Haven’t shot any more of it as I’m out hunting this week. Went back to the previous lot for this trip.

I’ll throw some more through the gun when I get back to AZ.

 

[Skerhunter]

Picked up my barreled action this week - Bighorn origin and a 20ish” proof 1:8 barrel.

Shot 25 rounds through it to zero just now.

AVG 3104 fps 52fps spread with factory ammo - 80gr ELDMs.

Will be impatiently waiting for Rokstocks to be available again.

Update - another 25 rounds fired today.

 

[mxgsfmdpx]

Haha don't worry about starting a new thread. This thread is Great with your 22cm kills! I completely get it. Kill some more for this thread!! Love it!!!!

Two more 22 Creedmoor 80 ELDX doe kills today. Photos are a bit redundant at this point but two more blown up hearts.

Didn’t have my phone in the field for photos of the doe this morning, it was dead and charging up at the house. Shot was 20-30 yards off hand in the woods. She was bedded and jumped up and stopped and looked back I never saw her until she jumped. Quartering away shot broke the 5th and 6th ribs. A mangled mess. Offside lung
was mush. Heart almost completely liquified. Bullet exited. She ran over 100 yards with minimal blood trail. Luckily I heard her crash down in a thicket otherwise it could have been a long morning looking for a dead doe in the thick woods.

This evenings doe was in a large clearing between two sets of wood lots. I stalked through the east woods and bumped a couple small deer. Flanked around them to the south and popped out into the clearing. Sat against a large oak tree which gave me shooting lanes out to 400 yards to the west, north, and south. Big doe came in from the north and stopped to piss at 272 yards. Another excellent broad side opportunity. I shot her and it felt really good but she ran about 130 yards and made it into the wood lot. Didn’t get another one into her as she was ass to me. Thought maybe I didn’t hold for enough wind and placement was bad. She was dead less than 10 yards into the woods. She managed to run that far with no broadside lung left and a heart that looked like this…

 

[Duh]

Here’s a 77 TMK, 2533fps impact on my wife’s mule deer today. Shot was 250 yards and he was quartering too hard. Told her to split the chest and front shoulder and she did just that. Dead in 20 yards. Glad she stayed off the shoulder.

This is our first big game kill with the TMK’s. I was scooping out lungs and heart chunks trying to find the bullet.

 

[mxgsfmdpx]

Update - another 25 rounds fired today.

View attachment 788848

Holy smokes! Good shooting! I need to send you one my stocks until you get one! Although you’ll sort of hate going back to your other stocks once you get used to shooting positionally with the Rokstok. So maybe I’ll spare you haha!

 

[Skerhunter]

Holy smokes! Good shooting! I need to send you one my stocks until you get one! Although you’ll sort of hate going back to your other stocks once you get used to shooting positionally with the Rokstok. So maybe I’ll spare you haha!

Thanks - I will survive without one or two rokstocks for a while longer!

 

[Bluumoon]

Well, I was going to use the 80gr bullets, but some how I’m malforming them while reloading. What am I doing wrong? RCBS dies.

 

[Lawnboi]

Well, I was going to use the 80gr bullets, but some how I’m malforming them while reloading. What am I doing wrong? RCBS dies.

Virgin brass?

 

[BBob]

What am I doing wrong? RCBS dies.

No idea if they make them but you likely need what’s commonly called a “VLD” seating stem. A VLD stem will contact the bullet lower on the ogive to help keep it from malforming the tip.

 

[Bluumoon]

Virgin brass?

Yep. Neck tension?

 

[Lawnboi]

Yep. Neck tension?

Is it alpha or Peterson. If it’s Peterson it probably has a boat load of neck tension.

Virgin brass fresh squeaky clean annealed necks have a lot of friction.

I normally mandrel my new brass and dry tumble it to knock it down the friction. Chamfer/debur and load.


Assuming no die setup issues a different stem may or may not help. Also make sure the bullet isn’t bottoming out in the stem.


Iv seen a log of deformed or dinged up bullets specifically on virgin premium brass.

 

[Bluumoon]

Is it alpha or Peterson. If it’s Peterson it probably has a boat load of neck tension.

Virgin brass fresh squeaky clean annealed necks have a lot of friction.

I normally mandrel my new brass and dry tumble it to knock it down the friction. Chamfer/debur and load.


Assuming no die setup issues a different stem may or may not help. Also make sure the bullet isn’t bottoming out in the stem.


Iv seen a log of deformed or dinged up bullets specifically on virgin premium brass.

New Alpha brass. Thanks, I’ll start there. Not bottoming out in stem best I can tell.

 

[Lawnboi]

New Alpha brass. Thanks, I’ll start there. Not bottoming out in stem best I can tell.

Alpha probably dosnt need a mandrel run through it, but it wouldn’t hurt. They normally don’t come really tight but who knows maybe your box is.

Friction from the anneal is a huge one though. I seat everything on an arbor press and have had virgin brass that I almost couldn’t seat a bullet in because of the friction. Smoothing it out with a mandrel and dry tumble seems to work for me. Iv tried about everything, and this is the only way I have found to create ammo that is near resized consistency when seating.

The only other thing I’ve seen do this would be a very compressed powder column. But I’m doubting that an issue with 22 creed

 

[Castle Rock]

Shiny brass creates a lot of friction, wipe a q tip dipped in graphite inside the neck before seating the bullet, is the powder charge compressed, if so change powder.

 

[wind gypsy]

Even after dipping the necks in graphite beads i still get a lot of seating resistance with virgin brass at times. What has worked best for me is running them through a FL sizer with expander ball and then tumbling with well used rice (for cleaning media) that has plenty of carbon and other stuff on it. Acts very close to once fired brass that way.

Otherwise, VLD type stems from redding or hornady (A-tip stems?) or custom seating stems for forster seating dies helps prevent deformed tips as well.

 

[Ucsdryder]

Holy smokes. Thats a ton of neck tension. Get an expanding mandrel and run them through it. I’ve gone through something similar and the ball expander didnt work.

 

[wind gypsy]

Holy smokes. Thats a ton of neck tension. Get an expanding mandrel and run them through it. I’ve gone through something similar and the ball expander didnt work.

I've seen it as much or more from the friction on the inside of the neck with squeeky clean brass as it is the neck tension.

 

[Ucsdryder]

I've seen it as much or more from the friction on the inside of the neck with squeeky clean brass as it is the neck tension.

Graphite does help but as deformed as that bullet is, I don’t think graphite alone will do much. I’m surprised he didn’t split any necks.

 

[Lawnboi]

Graphite never worked for me. It dosnt stick to annealed necks like you would think, and not consistently. I havnt touched one since I tried the above method.

Fresh brass gets imperial lube in the neck, a carbide turning mandrel, and a one hour dry tumble in semi dirty media. Chamfer as normal and it loads like fired carbon covered necks.