Varmint Grenades

[cjclemens]

This might be an old story, but I was thinking about trying some barnes varmint grenades in my .223 Handi.  Has anyone used these before, and how well do they work?  My handi is one of the older ones with 1:12 rifling, which brings about another question.  I had a look at the 50gr VG's, and I noticed that they are pretty long for a lighter bullet.  Does this mean they handle more like the long 68 or 75 grainers, or do they still handle like a normal sized 50 grain bullets?  I did see that they recommend 1:9 or faster twist rifling for these.  Is this related to accuracy, terminal performance, or both?  I've been using, and had most luck with, 45gr sierra varminters, but ive had some time lately and I thought I might start trying some other options to see what my handi can do.

[LaOtto222]

Stabilizing a bullet is dependent of the twist rate and the length of the bullet. Not the bullet weight. The only time bullet weight might have an impact is if you are on the ragged edge of stability and you need just a little more velocity to get the spin rate up to stabilize. You could push a bullet a little faster to get it stabilized. How ever if you are already at top velocity, there is not much you can do but shoot a shorter bullet. It is by far more dependent on the bullet length. I have tried the 36 grain VG with not much luck. They are about the same length as a spritzer style 50 grain bullet. I shoot slower twist rifles in .224 caliber guns and they just do not seem to shoot well for me, but 50 grain bullets shoot very well. I have not tried the 50 grain VG bullets, because I am pretty sure they will not stabilize in 1-14" and 1-12" twist barrels. You may find different results with the 36 grain VG bullets. Every gun shoots differently. Good Luck and Good Shooting

[shaner]

ive  been eyeballin those too for my 22/250 with the cost i hate to change to something that dont shoot as well , 

[Hairtrigger]

I have found the Hornady SPSX bullets to be more accurate and much cheeper. Hornady does not make the SPSX bullets in 36gr.
 The SPSX bullets are meant for <3600fps so I shoot Calhoun DBHP bullets at higher velocities

[Graybeard]

Varmint bullets need to do two things well and ONLY two things. One they must be accurate to hit distant small targets and two they must explode on contact so as to not create danger beyond first impact. Beyond those two things I know of nothing more expected of a varmint bullet.

So long as a bullet means those two criteria the only other thing I care about is cost and less is more in this regard as the less they cost the more you can shoot. The one thing you cannot say of Barnes bullets is that they are low in cost.

So why not check out the Midsouth Shooter's Supply proprietary brand of bullet. They are very accurate or those I've shot so far have been at least and I haven't found a lower cost varmint bullet so far. You can pick up 2000 of them for less than what 500 of most others will cost for your .22s. Ya really should be thinking along those lines rather than of the Barnes in my opinion.

[Steamin]

I was just talking to a good friend that shoots the grenades or I should say he shot them.
I would say that it depends on the environment and the application for whick you are going to use them.
He was shooting them out of a .243 A/I, he was using them for 'yotes and he was having them come apart in grass or in corn stalks. He thought that they would be great for whislte pigs, but he just didn't have much luck in the field for 'yotes.

I know it wasn't a 223, but it was real world and thought it might help you out.

Take care and be safe

Steamin

[Inrut24/7]

I posted this before,  i tried them, In my opinion they didnt perform to well,  the first picture is a groundhog shot through the shoulders with my 223, 32 grain vg on top a hefty charge of h322, the next pic is with my 222 with the varmint grenade.    the first picture was around a 100 yard shot, a good varmint bullet shot from a 223 at this range would have no exit hole what so ever and you can see here that the exit is not a very big hole meaning the bullet didnt "Grenade"  I thought maybe it was just a piece of the bullet, but the groundhog was not very squishy like they are with a v-max.  the second was with the 222 at close range its been a few summers ago but if i remember right it was around 20 yards, I good varmint bullet at this range would have made a real mess out of this hog, but as you can see it wasnt to explosive considering the distance i shot the hog.   i shot probally 10 or so more hogs with these bullets and had the same bad performance, I hear others say the are very explosive, but that wasnt the case for me.  I also had a few ricocet.

[PHATINJUN]

I gave a half a box of them away sometime back as I was never able to get them to shoot out of my 1-9 there was just to much of a fine line between them disiegrating in mid air and actually hiting the target first 2 or three from bbl would be fine and then nothing hitting the target. Any thing less and they were just expensive varmint bullets. GB I wonder if the Mid south are the same as the Midway dogtowns I have had good luck with those but would rather buy from site sponsors. Kurt

[cjclemens]

Thanks for the input, guys!  From what I see here, I'll just forget about the varmint grenades.  I was thinking that maybe if they worked really well, they might be worth looking into, but that doesn't appear to be the case.  So far, i've been using the 45gr sierra varminters because that was the first good load that I stumbled into, and I haven't seen any other brand 45gr bullets that weren't thin jacketed hornet bullets.  I'd be interested in trying some of the midsouth bulk bullets if I had a 50gr load that worked really well.  Anyone have any suggestions there?

[Hairtrigger]

What about the Sierra bullets is there that makes you look for a different bullet?
I have used Hornady since the early 1980's and some Calhoun bullets along the way too.
Last summer I was in Sedalia and bought some Sierra bullets (seconds) to try as I felt it necessary to stop at the factory. The bullets I bought are 6mm which I have just started shooting.

[cjclemens]

There's nothing wrong with the sierra's that I use now.  I just thought I might start looking around at other options to see what else my handi might like.  The load I'm using currently is a product of one afternoon at the range and about a half dozen different loads I put together with stuff I already have sitting on the reloading bench.  I'm all about trying new things, so I figured spending a little more time with it might produce some better results.  Sierra does make a great product, and I like the results Ive been getting, but their bullets are a little more expensive than the bulk midway and midsouth bullets, and I have a happy trigger finger.  I'm just fishing for suggestions on things I might try.

[Graybeard]

GB I wonder if the Mid south are the same as the Midway dogtowns I have had good luck with those but would rather buy from site sponsors. Kurt

Dunno Kurt I wondered the same thing as the name is quite similar. I've never tried the Midway bullets as I seldom buy from them and never anything that Midsouth sells. The ones I've loaded for my .22-250 so far have outshot the same load using both Hornady V-Max and Nosler BT but that is NOT to say that I might not find a more accurate load with them just that when trying all three with same initial load the Midsouth bullets outshot the other two. Since I was short on time getting ready for the PD shoot I didn't experiment further.

What about the Sierra bullets is there that makes you look for a different bullet?

One possible answer to that might be cost. You can pick up 2000 of the Midsouth Varmint Nightmare bullets .224 55 grain for a few cents less than $140 according to my current catalog. The same Sierra runs $91 for 500.

[tykempster]

Hairtrigger how much off were the Sierra seconds?  I'm down there every year showing hogs at the State Fair and if there is a big discount I might save my money for a Sierra shopping spree at the end of the summer!

[cjclemens]

I get the sierra varminters for about $14 per 100, which isn't bad(at least I don't think so) for a premium bullet.  I just stuck with em because they grouped a little better than the 50 gr dogtowns i tried.  However, my 50gr load might need some fine tuning. What powder/charge is everyone using with their .223?