Berry's 55 Grain .224 FMJ

[oldengineer]

I picked up a box of 500 at Cabelas the other day for $41. They look like good bullets and I was surprised about the dearth of information about them, including the Berry's website, which lists only their 30-06 bullets in their FMJ catalog.

Does anyone have any experience with them. My standard .223 round is Xtreme 55 gr FMJ over 25.8 gr of Varget but the last box of Xtremes I bought from their website had a bunch without a cannelure so I'm thinking of changing suppliers.

[Unclenick]

Collect the ones without cannelures and load them with no crimp and see if they're more accurate for you. Rolling a cannelure in has to be done just right to avoid upsetting the balance of the bullet. This will be a way to tell how good Xtreme is at doing that operation, which may also affect your choice of suppliers.

Just call Berry's ((800) 269-7373) and ask what you have and for load data. They'll fill you in. If in doubt, try them out with light Trail Boss loads, single-loading, until you find out what you actually have.

[T. O'Heir]

Berry's site lists only their 110 grain .30 Carbine bullets. Anyway, it really doesn't matter. Load the .224's with your regular Varget load. The construction or maker doesn't matter.

[Unclenick]

Originally Posted by T. O'Heir

The construction or maker doesn't matter.

Wrong. Behind the times. See Allan Jone's article.

[m&p45acp10+1]

I have a box I bought last night at home. When I get home I will open it up, and take some measurements. From what the guy at Cabellas said they are similar to other cheap lead core 55 grain BTFMJ bullets. He said from his testing with a TC Encore accuracy is on par with Winchester or Remington bulk 55 grain bullets.

[MarkCO]

In my rifles, the Xtreme and Hornady bulk 55s are right around 1MOA. The Win, Rem, Montana Gold, Berrys, Armscor are all around 2-3MOA.

[oldengineer]

As suggested above I segregated some loads into cannelured/non can. and tried them at 100 yards with a 16" carbine. There was a significant difference in accuracy but the cannelured rounds performed better in my rifle. I did the test alternating 2 shot salvos to try to keep things even.

[oldengineer]

Also as a follow up Xtreme is sending me a free box for my troubles and Berry's said that they only sell their .224 55 gr FMJBTs thru Cabelas and Bass Pro Shops so they don't show them in their catalog.

[Jeffm004]

Xtreme has been good to me as well. I wish they made a heavier bullet. My 1/8 is not a fan of 55s. Well, well.... 62s right there.

[Unclenick]

Originally Posted by oldengineer

As suggested above I segregated some loads into cannelured/non can. and tried them at 100 yards with a 16" carbine. There was a significant difference in accuracy but the cannelured rounds performed better in my rifle. I did the test alternating 2 shot salvos to try to keep things even.

Interesting result in your test. The uncrimped rounds will have lower start pressure, and that may have detuned the load a bit, moving it off a sweet spot, but the difference seems like a lot. Out of curiosity, did you double-check that they weighed the same and measure the same? Manufacturers typically mix bullets off different tooling and could even have mixed from a different lot that wasn't as well made. Curious. Unexpected for bullets that are otherwise genuinely the same.

[oldengineer]

Interesting result in your test. The uncrimped rounds will have lower start pressure, and that may have detuned the load a bit, moving it off a sweet spot, but the difference seems like a lot. Out of curiosity, did you double-check that they weighed the same and measure the same? Manufacturers typically mix bullets off different tooling and could even have mixed from a different lot that wasn't as well made. Curious. Unexpected for bullets that are otherwise genuinely the same.

I don't weigh bullets but I do check and trim case length to 1.75" and weigh each powder load on a 5-0-5 and verify with a Dillon DTerminator. I use the Dillon carbide dies in my 550B and it makes a pretty uniform OAL round, 2.215" for these bullets. Xtreme said that they had problems, since corrected, with their 223 FMJs so that may be the main reason for the inconsistency.

[Unclenick]

I could be they are getting them made on contract and had trouble getting the contractor to do the job right. That's becoming increasingly common in the industry.