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Ultramag

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I have a 1-8" twist .224 barrel blank that's been collecting dust and i want to use it for a .223 project but i would prefer bullets in the 50-60 grain range but am worried i'll have trouble with too much spin and/or poor accuracy.

Your thoughts and experience please!
 
It will be fine with those bullets. As mentioned, it will also work well with heavier bullets. 1:8 is perhaps the most versatile twist for .223.
 
It will work great I have made more 1-8 twist .224 barrels than anything else and they work good with the lighter bullets in anything even in the 220 swift don't hesitate.
 
I had a 6-284 with an 8 twist barrel to shoot 107's a long time ago. I was going to Nebraska on a PD shoot and loaded up some Nosler 70gr BT's at 4100 IIRC. They shot the same 1.25"-1.5" groups at 300 as the 107's, so it's my belief you can't over spin a bullet.
 
PGW Steve said:
I had a 6-284 with an 8 twist barrel to shoot 107's a long time ago. I was going to Nebraska on a PD shoot and loaded up some Nosler 70gr BT's at 4100 IIRC. They shot the same 1.25"-1.5" groups at 300 as the 107's, so it's my belief you can't over spin a bullet.
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Unless you vaporize the bullet. Have heard of guys using 6.5 twist to try and stabilize 90gn Vld, only to have the separate in flight.
 
Nothing new here! I've used 1:8 twist brl's for these past 2 plus decades for both my personal and my customers re-brl'ing jobs, starting the use of these fast-twist brl's already as far back as my time gunsmithing in NZ during the late 80's! They've always worked fine with any bullet-weight up to the edge of stabilizing, depending on calibers and the loads. l've never experienced any problems whatsoever for hunting nor match shooting. In fact: my own rifles seemed to shoot anything in the 55-80gr weight-class accurate enough, with the standard 73gr HPBT Berger being a real favourit and the 80gr VLD following as a close second! Haven't tried anything heavier then the 80gr though, as I simply don't see any benefits of shooting anything heavier in such a small case. I've been using mostly Ted Gaillards & BM for these past 5 years, with the odd other brand thrown in; no matter the brand, they all seem to work just fine.
Another thing I found is in those early days of changing from standard to faster-twist brl's in the hunting-scene in NZ: from day one, due to the increased revs of the projectiles, they just seemed to be much more deadly on game then any previous standard twist brl's used! No doubt in my mind; reason why for example the 6.5 has always been such a good performer on any game!
 
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This is what happens when you spin a bullet too fast.


This is a 223 1-7 twist with a long barrel pushing a 52gr Speer HP. Watch for a small puff of smoke approximately 25 yards out from the muzzle. May take watching it a time or two to catch it.
 
Suputin said:
Yes. What do you think is gonna happen to them?

The original 556 loading was a 55gr bullet and it worked just fine out to 500-600 yds.
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What do you think is going to happen out that far.
Will it be as stable as heavier bullet? .
Will it be as accurate as a heavier bullet?.

The OP asked and I gave an opinion as to what would preform best . Do you disagree ?
 
I will disagree with the fast twist for light bullets. The 1 in 12 twist is better for the 50-60gr bullets out to 300mts. For pure accuracy the slow twist using a custom barrel will always produce smaller groups. The best example is the 6PPC shooting a 62-68gr bullet, the 1 in 14 twist will shoot accurately to 300mts.. However the slow twist does restrict you to light bullets and approx. 4-500mtrs. The barrel you have will do the job just not as well as 1 in12.
Enjoy
 
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