Tikka barrel swap adventure

[Pharmseller]

Here’s my load data:

All rifles are 1-8,” all bullets are 75 gr ELDM, all primers are CCI400, all brass is R-P. All loads are max so work up. No pressure signs.

First, Carlos: shoots great in my brother’s Varmint.
25.0 gr Varget
1.915” BTO, or 2.451” OAL.
2853 fps
A little crunchy (compressed) but not bad.

Long Carlos is 1.940” BTO, or 2.477” OAL. Shot pretty well in Blue Lightning. Well enough, in fact, that if Varmint Cong likes it I might just switch if I run out of Benchmark.
2892 fps
Not as crunchy as Carlos but still not bad.

Kyle
23.5 gr Benchmark
1.940” BTO, 2.477” OAL.
2836 fps
Not compressed. Benchmark meters very well. Shoots great in both Varmint Cong and Blue Lightning.

1.940” has the bullet barely touching the lands, so 1.915” is .025” off. I’ve found better accuracy loading long with these bullets.

Varmint Cong shoots Kyle at 2915 fps. It’s the load I’ve used the last two years to fill my deer tags.





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[SloppyJ]

I'm going to try your "kyle" load in my 223 barrel that has a bit more freebore. Gotta dial in a load for my S2HU class in June then load 1k of them. It absolutely loves the 75eldms long like yours but I have 75gr BTHPs for it cause I got 2k of them cheap. Hopefully they'll shoot close to as well as the eldms.

Then I'm going to try it in my son's tikka. Getting tired of fusing with crunchy varget and 77tmks in that one.

Appreciate you sharing.

 

[Pharmseller]

Glad to help. I’m still way behind in getting help/giving help ratio.





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[wind gypsy]

Range day results, BL didn’t care much for Carlos, but liked Long Carlos and really liked Kyle. Eight-shot group went a hair under 0.7”, which is good enough for the girls I go out with.

Varmint Cong shoots Kyle a little better, but not much, and the brass is interchangeable between them. One load, two rifles, not bad.

Shooting the skinny gong at 210 yards, no misses. Pretty good for me.


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That's awesome, I wouldn't have sold you that barrel if I had 75s shooting that well with it! Glad it's working well for you.

 

[Pharmseller]

That's awesome, I wouldn't have sold you that barrel if I had 75s shooting that well with it! Glad it's working well for you.

Thanks again for an easy transaction.




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