Barnes Varmint Grenade

[Lowedog]

I loaded up a few 36gr Varmint Grenades and went out to try them out today.  Gotta say I was disappointed with the results.  My rifle (rem 700 VSSF in .223) shoots just about everything you put in it really well.  These shot about an 1.5" group @ 100 yds.  I shoot a lot of Black Hills reman'd 55 gr sft points that shoot well under an inch out this rifle.  I guess I will have to play around with the VG's and see if I can get them to shoot.  Only other bullet I have had poor accuracy with for this rifle was the Barnes 45gr XLCBT.  I never spent the time to try to get those to shoot better because ammo was so cheap back then. 

Anyone had success with the Barnes VG's?

[dontgetcrabs]

Might be the twist on your barrel? What is it?

[fishnate]

I have a .243 used the 62gr with RL19 and they grouped well at a hundred but drastically opened up at 200 did not like them. 

[Lowedog]

Might be the twist on your barrel? What is it?

1-12"

[Straight Shooter]

Have you tried the loading data directly from the Barnes' website?

http://www.barnesbullets.com/images/223RemingtonWeb.pdf

[swift]

 The 36 grainers like to go fast I'm running them @ 3650 fps out of a 28 inch 223 barrel

[Lowedog]

Have you tried the loading data directly from the Barnes' website?

http://www.barnesbullets.com/images/223RemingtonWeb.pdf

 The 36 grainers like to go fast I'm running them @ 3650 fps out of a 28 inch 223 barrel

I have their volume 4 manual.  Went with the load data there.  went from 24 up to 25 grs XMR 2015.  Velocity shown in book for 25 grs is 3755 through a 24" barrel.  Should be at least there with my 26" barrel.

May need to play with seating depth to get the groups to tighten up. 

Old boy at the range yesterday was working up loads for his 20 BR and went from about a 3/4" group to about 3/8" just by changing seating depth by .005.  He was shooting a 55gr. Berger bullet.

[CoryTDF]

Not the load or the bullets your talking about but i have had good luck with 24 grains of hodgden benchmark powder and 55 grain NBT. I have killed Coyotes at 300 yards and hit gongs at 450 with that load. It also gives me 1/2 groups at 100 yards.

[Straight Shooter]

Have you tried the loading data directly from the Barnes' website?

http://www.barnesbullets.com/images/223RemingtonWeb.pdf

 The 36 grainers like to go fast I'm running them @ 3650 fps out of a 28 inch 223 barrel

May need to play with seating depth to get the groups to tighten up.  

Old boy at the range yesterday was working up loads for his 20 BR and went from about a 3/4" group to about 3/8" just by changing seating depth by .005.  He was shooting a 55gr. Berger bullet.

That might be the ticket.  VGs will have a different length to weight ratio than traditional jacketed lead bullets.

[Gutpile]

I've had great accuracy with the Varmint grenade out of my swift and my AR. I really didn't have to tweak them at all. I run them at max though. The jury is still out on performance though. I shot 6 or 8 with the 36 grn in my swift last year. Some didn't exit, some blew up the yote bad. One was a 200ish broadside. I couldn't believe I missed this dog. It ran a good 200 yards and finally died. The hit was really good, right behind the shoulder. I've never seen a dog take that hit with any 22 centerfire and go like it did. That one still stumps me. The first kill with a VG was 60-90 (can't remember) and there was very little damage but the bullet did exit. Hit two at 300+ that did not exit and stopped them very well. Anyways, they're worth a look. I'm surprised the accuracy isn't working for you, hopefully it'll come around.

[carpsniperg2]

i like barnes bullets a lot and almost stoped buying there bullets because of the varmint grenade. let me tell you what happened to me. i bought a box of bullets in 22 cal for my 22-250 ans ar 223's they cam from cabelas. barnes bullets made a big mistake the mixed in 20 cal bullets with the 22 cal bullets never have i had this happen. i opened the box pulled out the first bullet seated it looked good. seated next one fine. then i went to seat the third one and it fell down into the powder. i was like what the hell, so i set it aside and grabbed another. same thing, so i got the bullet out put the caliper on it and .204 man was i was pissed i called barnes bullets and after a lot of chewing and reamin i got a refund for the bullets. but it could have been bad if one was a little bigger and i had seated it and it stayed i would of chambered it in my ar it would of knocked the bullet out of the neck and into the case. you know what would of happened at that point? can you say explode in my hands only bad experiance i have ever had with a bullet maker not good. still shoot a lot of the bullets in my guns glad they made it right and i was watching what i was doin.

[Big10gauge]

Not to be on the negative side but a thrown rock probably has a better BC than the 36 grain VG at .149 bc. I tried them on coyotes and was disapointed . If you sight in for 200 yards you have almost 7 inches of drop at 300 yards and 500 fpe, while a 40 nosler BT with a bc of .221 has 5 inch drop and 738 fpe. At 400 yrds there is a 23 inch drop while to 40 gr has slightly less than 16. Not trying to bust anyone, just IMO. If you're shooting out to 200 yrds they will probably do the job on coyotes. If your shooting squirrels or rockchucks they should work fine.

[Lowedog]

Not to be on the negative side but a thrown rock probably has a better BC than the 36 grain VG at .149 bc. I tried them on coyotes and was disapointed . If you sight in for 200 yards you have almost 7 inches of drop at 300 yards and 500 fpe, while a 40 nosler BT with a bc of .221 has 5 inch drop and 738 fpe. At 400 yrds there is a 23 inch drop while to 40 gr has slightly less than 16. Not trying to bust anyone, just IMO. If you're shooting out to 200 yrds they will probably do the job on coyotes. If your shooting squirrels or rockchucks they should work fine.

Like you, I just wanted to try them and see how they shoot.  Did you have any luck with accuracy? 

[Big10gauge]

Like you, I just wanted to try them and see how they shoot.  Did you have any luck with accuracy? 

I had the same trouble as Fishnate, They grouped at slightly less than 1 MOA at 100 yds 7 shot string then the group enlarged greater than it should have , I was using a AR .223 with a 24 in bull barrel 1 in 14 twist.  They seemed to be somewhat erratic on whether to explode on impact or not on coyotes.  I was more concerned with the poor ballistics compared to copper and lead bullets. And I couldn't hit the 3800 mark, more like 3780 but didn't try very hard. Some people love them but I can't get the performance for shooting them at coyotes. I have shot quite a few sage rats with them and they do turn into a red mist.