223 1/9T and light bullets??

Longarms
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Ha all, I’m about to pick up a Howa VT223 with 9 twist barrel…YaY!!! My question is, has anyone had much luck shooting more garden variety .22 cal bullets of 50,52,55gn in weight.? Guess I won’t know till I try. I think the 9T is most suited to 60-70gn fodder…The Hornady 68HBPT match look the goods. First hand accounts appreciated thanks MJ

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Mate unfortunately I can’t give you anything definitive as my .223 is a 1:12, however it is my understanding that 55gn (I know it is determined by length and not weight) generally are the crossover and shoot well in both 1:9 and 1:12.

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1-9 will shoot 55’s to 75s.
Some will top out at 69gr.
All Howas shoot 55’s very well.

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Just debating what projectiles to buy/try first…I have some speer 52gn HPBT to try so far…

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52s should work fine. I know people shoot 50s without issue. 55 seems the sweet spot though.

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I use Speer 55gr (#4711) pills I bought in bulk when Reloaders Heaven was selling things off and a bucket (literally) of brass I grabbed from range scrap, to feed my 7615. Because it’s a filthy hobo and doesn’t deserve love or pretty things! Anyway, I just looked it up, it’s 1:9 and 16.5". It shoots 55gr pretty well. It’s really a plinker to 100m with red dot, but it does shoot them very well. I also have 1:8 which I use 55 - 80gr pills. 55 grainers seem to work just fine in everything.

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I’m working on a theory of a bullet with a .3+ BC and maintaining 3000fps. Worked very well in my fullbore days…

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I run 62gr in my 1 in 9 twist 20 inch barrel. The heaviest I tried were the Hornady 73gr Eld M.
But also shot the Hornady 68 gr Bthp and 69gr Sierra (both the match king and the Tipped match king) the Hornady 62gr TAP are the cheapest and shoot extremely well and perform well on game.

I also tried the the 40gr Zmax and 35gr Vmax. Which worked fine. I reckon the the 1 in 9 twist is pretty forgiving. Unless you want to run 75-80gr projectiles. The new Howa’s are now 1-8 twist.

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Well I picked up my Howa today…and it’s a 1/8 twist YAY!!! 75gn bullets here we come!!!

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