Bulk 55gr. Winchester FMJ Results

Hehe... no, the 10 ring is 1" in diameter.
The group of three is .329" ctc, the best four is .819" ctc... I'm not sure if that fifth shot was me or the load (probably me), but if you count it, the 5-shot group is 1.638". At any rate, I'm sure I could have done better - this was essentially the only group that I can count because I wasn't paying as much attention with the previous groups and the barrel was also heating up pretty good.
 
It's pretty much a well known fact that Winchester 55 gr. FMJ's are a waste of time if accuracy is your main consideration. Why people here are utterly surprised with this is a mystery to me.
 
2bad4u2 said:
It's pretty much a well known fact that Winchester 55 gr. FMJ's are a waste of time if accuracy is your main consideration. Why people here are utterly surprised with this is a mystery to me.
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I've come to realize that haha. But now I'm just enjoying trying to find the most accurate load for these despite their plinker bullet tolerances. As far as I know they're the cheapest .224 dia bullets available, and so spending a little time reducing the average spread of groups (even though they're mainly used for shooting apples by myself) is worth it.
 
Seamus, no Pro Trapper uses bulk Winchester .224 projectiles around here as they are inconsistent junk........nothing wrong with their .270 projectiles though.
 
2bad4u2 said:
It's pretty much a well known fact that Winchester 55 gr. FMJ's are a waste of time if accuracy is your main consideration. Why people here are utterly surprised with this is a mystery to me.
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Couldn't agree more. On the other hand , Hornady bulk 55 FMJ's have given me 10 shot groups under an inch @ 100 yds with any half decent .223. In over a dozen different 223's I,ve owned , WW748 has been the best powder for these bullets varying from 26.0 to 27.5 gr depending on the rifle.

:sniper:
 
Well I was rushed for time being that I just started to fire 5 shots and a one of the neighbour farmers stopped me and said I got lots of groundhogs come shoot them, well I spent 2 hours stalking and looking around and only saw one... so I gave up and went back to shooting targets.

Anyways I am sad to report that my grouping weren't much better then Seamus, I was able to keep them under 1.25" at 100 yards and didn't even bother continuing on to 200 yards. I guess that being said these are cheap bullets, but I still expected them to group less then 1" at 100. Powders that I used where IMR 3130 H3130 and H335, they where all reduced loads for my short barreled Ar-15 between 18-20 grains of powder.

I just loaded up some quickly using my quick powder dispenser and not my auto powder measure and scale from rcbs, that I normally use to make precision ammo.

I also tested out 55 grs V-max which where full varimint loads and they grouped 1"-.75" 5 shot groups. I was surprised that the 68 grs match could not do any better but I have a slow 1-12 twist barrel and you could feel the difference in recoil it was really pushing those 68's out there fast.

Other thing is this was the first time out target shooting in a long time maybe a year and half but I do shoot alot indoors with my 10/22 and practice trigger control and grouping, it was slightly windy out too.


What do you guys think are the winchester's 55's still worth it or should I look for something better, keep in mind the winchester's are $9 per 100 and if I picked up hornady 55 FMJ's they would be about 15+ dollars a box.

Like I said the main reason I brought in the winchester's is for guys who shoot alot of rounds through ar-15's and don't care to much about grouping.
 
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What do you guys think are the winchester's 55's still worth it or should I look for something better, keep in mind the winchester's are $9 per 100 and if I picked up hornady 55 FMJ's they would be about 15+ dollars a box.
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What's stopping you from bringing in Hornady bilk 55 gr. FMJ's? When I was importing directly from Hornady you could buy these in quantities of 7,000 per box if I remember correctly.

I still have about 3,000 on hand. Accuracy is better than Winchester but it's not a match grade bullet by any means.

If you want an inexpensive accurate bullet then try some Hornady SPSX's. Just don't try driving them exceptionally hard in a fast twist barrel. The jackets are thin enough that they can blow apart in flight if the RPM's are too high. Hell, try a box and see what you think.
 
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Nothing is stopping me from bringing in Hornady FMJ's. Let me check out the price.

We are looking at $140 per 1000 Hornady FMJ's I will call my supplier and see if they are available. .308's are on back order till june.

Is there any interest in an spsx?
 
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msg.drew said:
Nothing is stopping me from bringing in Hornady FMJ's. Let me check out the price.

We are looking at $140 per 1000 Hornady FMJ's I will call my supplier and see if they are available. .308's are on back order till june.

Is there any interest in an spsx?
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I think the 1000 packs of Speer softpoints and TNT are around $140ish at WSS. No need to go stateside.
 
Assuming they actually have them... every time I ordered from them in the past they have been out of stock or no longer carry half the stuff on their site. I will see what can be done about the hornady FMJ price points
 
I think that the Winchester 55gr. bullets are still worth selling, within 2 MOA is certainly acceptable for plinking purposes. As far as I know these are the cheapest .224 diameter bullets available and I'd hate to see them go. I intend on buying more once my 130ish remaining bullets are gone. They make great ammo for fun times on the range when a person gets tired of trying to shoot sub 1/2 MOA groups!
 
There is a notation in my Nosler book in the 55gr section that says H335 was the most accurate powder they found for this bullet. Hmmmm. I will load up some first round. Also mentioned with good results in the 30cal section.
 
H335 is small and meters well unlike IMR 3130 which is large rods. I think thats why its the best because you can measure it really quite accurately. The only type of powder that would be better would be actual fine powder like flower or salt but I think as far as powders go H335 is one of the smallest
 
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I see Varget mentioned a lot too. I have the Varget, H335 and 2 other more standard Hodgdon I dont remember now. I will load all of them up when I start reloading. Waiting for my new CZ 223 to come in so nothing to shoot yet. My club (Mission Rod and Gun) is putting on a tutorial for beginners by the pres who shot comp for a very long time so I am going to start up after that. Even the experienced loaders say they learned a lot from this. Looking forward. Lots of brass prepped and ready to go.
 
msg.drew, I bought some 55gr. V-max bullets today just to try out, I'm interesting in hearing which load you were using to get your 1"-.75" groups.
 
SeamusMac said:
Yeah might be that, when I got home I adjusted them to 55 ft/lbs with my torque wrench. Should be good from now on.

I'm going to try as many of the different powders as possible but as far as changing bullets goes.. I still have over 150 of them haha. So I'll be back on the range Monday with more Varget loads since that's all I have atm. I'll sandbag the rifle and we'll see how she goes. It's supposed to be a bit nicer here on Monday (15* wewt!) so I won't have to contend with cold fingers :D
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55 Foot pounds? I hope you meant inch pounds?
 
Remember any advice on here should always be verified with another reliable source.


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