Ladder questions; 224Valkyrie

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Have been running some 224 Valkyrie ladders/Hornady 75grain ELD loads with CFE223 and Varget.

For CFE223, on the plus side, two different ladders have both consistently indicated possible loads at 25.8-26.0 and 26.6-26.8. I'm going to try a 26.7 load this time (velocity at 2900fps) since a previous trial load at 26.0 was disappointing. On the down side, the two different ladders were done at 50F and 65F and the velocity results were far apart (26.0 was 2873fps@65F and 2796fps@50F) so CFE223 doesn't seem to be very temperature stable (same brass and OAL used) and I don't know about using it long term even if it groups well. Have others had better temperature stability with CFE223?

I hoped that Varget would give me a better load, and ran a ladder yesterday but the ladder curve is almost straight sloped, with no obvious nodes. Would you try the 24.6-24.8 area? 24.6 grains was 2838fps and 24.8 was 2847fps. I should add that the 25.0-25.4grain Varget loads may be showing ejector marks but the 24.8 grain loads appeared fine.

CFE223 capture.JPG
varget ladder.JPG
 
I've been playing with the 224V for about a year now. What I have discovered is that it has a very narrow node band. I've had my best luck with Varget, near the top end using the 80gr ELD-M bullets. The 75gr BTHP-M bullets were not quite as good. I've had terrible luck using the CFE223 in the 224V. Never got anything consistent. CFE233 does give it more velocity though but not the accuracy and repeatably I was looking for.
 
Blue68f100, what load are you using on the 80gr ELD-M? I may try those as well. I've already tried Berger 90's and Hornady 88 ELD's and been less than satisfied there as well. Which is why I went to something lighter.
 
I started on the light bullets and started working up. I was looking for the cheapest bullet to shoot. The heavier premium bullets are just as expensive as the ones for my 6.5CM. So if I want to shoot a heavier bullet I just grab my 6.5 CM. It's a lot more forgiving than the 224V. The 224V from all the testing I have done has a very narrow load band unlike the 6.5 CM.

I'm using 23.9gr of Varget, Fed GM205MAR primers at 2.260" (max magazine) and Starline brass. I'm getting 2650 out of my 24" heavy barrel.

For the 75gr Hornady HPBT-M bullets I'm using 25.3 gr of Varget same GM205MAR primers.

I've turned all the necks on the Starline brass to even them out.

I'm getting sub MOA out of both the 75gr and 80gr bullets with the edge going to the 80gr. The longest I can shoot is 300 yrds at my place.

Now surprisingly I was playing around with some 52gr SMK and 26.3 gr TAC. These are loaded to a OAL of 2.110" which does not give you much neck tension, so I single feed these. These are only 0.005" off the lands in my gun. Shoot sub moa out of my gun but the wind sure moves these light bullets around.

These are shot out of my custom AR-15 that I built a year ago. Shillen barrel.
 
Thanks for the update Blue. Any other opinions out there on CFE223 or Varget in 224Valk behind a 75 grain bullet?
 
25.8 - 25.9 gr of CFE-223 under the 75gr pills gave me the best results. What I dislike about CFE is it's seams to be very temp sensitive. You do get impressive velocities with it.

I posted the data I had with Varget.
 
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