5.56x45 and 69 grain Tipped Match Kings.

[kilotanker22]

So I finally found a bullet/Powder combo that shows promise in my Ruger American Ranch rifle.

69 grain Sierra Tipped Match King, with a pretty stout charge of Varget.

Warning! The following load data is listed as a maximum load in the Lyman 50th manual using different brass, primer and bullet of the same weight. Use at your own risk! This is a pretty hot load in my rifle and may not be safe in your rifle.

Ruger American Ranch Rifle 16" barrel
69 grain Tipped Match King loaded .025" from the lands.
COAL is 2.470"

26 grains of Hodgdon Varget
CCI 400 primer
Norma 223 Remington case fire formed and trimmed to 1.750"
Using a full length sizing die and bumping the shoulder back .002". Which coincidentally is fully sized.

Average Velocity: 2830 fps
SD 12 fps I don't remember what the ES was, but it was around 30 fps.

My first 5 rounds went into a .3" group. the second 5 shots in the group opened it up to .9" for a ten round group. I can live with that. I am certain the rifle and load would shoot better, but I was not the steadiest today and I shot these groups at 6x magnification. at that magnification the crosshair takes up the entire bullseye.

I am very happy to get a sub one inch ten round group and 2830 fps from a 16 inch barrel.

I would like to see a tighter SD, but since all of the other loads I have tested with this rifle have had an SD of at least 20 fps and the fact that I will likely never shoot this particular rifle in this configuration past 400 yards, I can live with these results.

in comparison my Savage 6.5 Creedmoor shoots half inch 10 round groups at 100 yards regularly.

[Old_School]

Originally Posted by kilotanker22

So I finally found a bullet/Powder combo that shows promise in my Ruger American Ranch rifle.



69 grain Sierra Tipped Match King, with a pretty stout charge of Varget.



Warning! The following load data is listed as a maximum load in the Lyman 50th manual using different brass, primer and bullet of the same weight. Use at your own risk! This is a pretty hot load in my rifle and may not be safe in your rifle.



Ruger American Ranch Rifle 16" barrel

69 grain Tipped Match King loaded .025" from the lands.

COAL is 2.470"



26 grains of Hodgdon Varget

CCI 400 primer

Norma 223 Remington case fire formed and trimmed to 1.750"

Using a full length sizing die and bumping the shoulder back .002". Which coincidentally is fully sized.



Average Velocity: 2830 fps

SD 12 fps I don't remember what the ES was, but it was around 30 fps.



My first 5 rounds went into a .3" group. the second 5 shots in the group opened it up to .9" for a ten round group. I can live with that. I am certain the rifle and load would shoot better, but I was not the steadiest today and I shot these groups at 6x magnification. at that magnification the crosshair takes up the entire bullseye.



I am very happy to get a sub one inch ten round group and 2830 fps from a 16 inch barrel.



I would like to see a tighter SD, but since all of the other loads I have tested with this rifle have had an SD of at least 20 fps and the fact that I will likely never shoot this particular rifle in this configuration past 400 yards, I can live with these results.



in comparison my Savage 6.5 Creedmoor shoots half inch 10 round groups at 100 yards regularly.

Wow! Nice job. Getting those velocities and that kind of accuracy is outstanding.

Sent from my moto z4 using Tapatalk

[Shadow9mm]

Hornady manual, for 5.56 nato(not 223), has a 68g bthp match at a max of 25.1g of Varget. Going up to the 73-75g bullets they list a max of 24.6g of varget. 5.56 brass can have slightly smaller case capacity than 223 brass which can cause increased pressure (but I'm sure you knew that). If your shooting fire formed brass you might have touch more capacity due to not resizing the walls, but that is just a guess and i have no idea how much. Check for over pressure signs, primer flow, primer cratering, don't blow yourself up. All in all it sounds like your gun really likes that load, good shooting!

[kilotanker22]

Here is the ten round group. I measured again and it is .98" center to center.

[kilotanker22]

No ejector marks on the brass, but I do have some primer cratering. Sierra has the 69 grain Tipped Matchkings loaded to 2.280". Since I converted this rifle to take the Ruger Precision Rifle magazine I can load them a lot longer, right now I am loaded to 2.470".

Sierra also lists a max charge of 26.1 grains of Varget with the 5.56 and a 69 grain bullet.

[Shadow9mm]

Originally Posted by kilotanker22

No ejector marks on the brass, but I do have some primer cratering. Sierra has the 69 grain Tipped Matchkings loaded to 2.280". Since I converted this rifle to take the Ruger Precision Rifle magazine I can load them a lot longer, right now I am loaded to 2.470".

Sierra also lists a max charge of 26.1 grains of Varget with the 5.56 and a 69 grain bullet.

If its in sierras load book says its good it should be. loading longer helps too, and if your still .025 off the lands you should be in great shape. That's good stuff! Also each gun is different with primer cratering and flow. my new gun has cratering and flow with every factory load I have fired out of it. I just try to make sure it is no more than factory when I'm loading.

[Rod47]

Maybe some primer brand tinkering

[kilotanker22]

Originally Posted by Rod47

Maybe some primer brand tinkering

I considered other primers, but I have thousands of the CCI primers. Also the velocity spread is good enough for me. And it shoots well. So I am gonna load another 20 rounds and chronograph another 10 and shoot another 10 round group to verify my results.

If results are similar I plan to load a few hundred of them.