Match Grade 223 Rem 77gr. CC in slow motion

longrangehunter

Handloader
Jun 19, 2011
1,476
4
I bought these to test for case head expansion and to compare the velocity in a SBR Noveski Afghan with a 14.5 stainless steel 1:7 PT bbl. 16" oal. What I found was very disappointing. :shock:

These were Nosler Custom Ammunition in 223 Remington using the Custom Competition 77 gr. #60011 bullet. It shows a published velocity of 2750 fps @ 0.00' on the box.

So I ran these across my Oehler P35 on 04/03/2014 it was 51 degrees, DA of 2960, but the ammo and myself were inside my shooting room with just the window open.

Expected velocity loss due to SBR was 25-35 fps per inch. Since the gun is shorter by 9.5" it is a little further then the bolt gun to the chronograph.

Noveski Afghan N4 14.5" bbl. 16" oal.
2219 avg. fp@ 20'
ES 39 SD 14
H 2241 #4
L 2202 #5

So I ran the Nosler Custom 77 gr. CC's in my Remington 700 223 R5 w/ a 24" barrel to see what the numbers looked like.

Remington 700 R5 24" bbl.
2484 avg. fps@ 20'
ES 32 SD 11
H 2498 #5
L 2466 #2

Basically the Nosler Custom Ammunition is running roughly 250 fps slower then advertised. For the record it was very accurate in the Remington 700 although a tad slow. My own hand loads using a 73 gr. BTHP Berger and Varget was averaging around 2800 fps @ 20'. Case head expansion was .002" on all the brass from either gun using three different types of brass and ammo.

I did test another hand load I hadn't run over the chronograph in the Afghan:

Noveski Afghan N4
Hornady 68 gr. BTHP match
22.5 grs. N133 CCI-41 primer
MAST Brass @ 2.260 coal
2664 avg. fps@20'
ES 33 SD 15
H 2680
L 2647

Since I was basically only looking to check for velocity loss due to running a SBR gun that was an eye opener but the bolt gun did change the true level of velocity loss using a 14.5 bbl. The case head expansion was the other thing I was interested in knowing what a factory round does, so that was worth the price of admission..... I suppose but at $24.00/box of 20 rounds it a little disheartening and more so if I was wanting to use the data for bullet drop.... that would have been a nightmare!
 
Wow. That is really slow. Man, seems like a little more work in testing would be warranted. There is no rifle that could make up that difference in speed.
 
Maybe if the barrel was 34" long and had hurricane wind speeds from six o'clock? Makes me wonder back in the days before I reloaded and used factory ammo if those same results had been the norm?
 
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