I have been doing some testing with 35grn NBT lead free in my ranch. I am in CA and we are lead free so my calling rifles need to be lead free. Last year I settled on 38.0 of Varget with a 40grn and a 35grn with 40.0 of CFE223 for my Savage 22-250, both loads shot about 3/4 inch. My rifle used to shoot ragged holes with 50grn Vmax and 37.5 of Varget but those days are gone for hunting I guess. I took a few coyotes with the 35grn (4150fps) and it did just fine, I never used the box of 40grn bullets last year.
On to the Ruger American ranch in 223/5.56. My son will be using this rifle this year so I started spooling up some loads with the 35grn bullets. I tried H332, H335, W748 and CFE223. All loads shot pretty well as most do in the RAR but 28.5 of CFE223 with a COAL of 2.240 by far shot the best. I shot a few ragged hole groups with it, next step is to chrono them.
On to the Ruger American ranch in 223/5.56. My son will be using this rifle this year so I started spooling up some loads with the 35grn bullets. I tried H332, H335, W748 and CFE223. All loads shot pretty well as most do in the RAR but 28.5 of CFE223 with a COAL of 2.240 by far shot the best. I shot a few ragged hole groups with it, next step is to chrono them.
