Hornady 68gr BTHP for varmints?

[1911 guy]

I've been using 60gr Hornady bullets in my .223 for a while now, they are great for groundhogs and 'yotes. I've been playing with different loads, though, and found that the 68gr bullet gives me slightly smaller groups past 100 yards. The problem is that the 68gr bullet is listed as a "match" bullet. I've yet to shoot an animal with it and am wondering about expansion and terminal effect. Pushing this at about 2800FPS, wold this be an acceptable varmint load, or am I better off losing a small bit of accuracy and staying with the 60gr V-Max?

 

[Art Eatman]

You figure the slowdown with distance, and that 2,800 ft/sec 68-grain is maybe gonna get below "blowup" velocity. Generally, the success of the centerfire .22s depends on a high-enough velocity that the bullet comes all apart inside the animal. Me, I've always done well with 50- to 55-grain bullets.

For coyotes, though, I'd figure than anything close to one MOA or better is plenty-enough accurate. For all that I never had to try a shot beyond a hundred yards or so, even my Mini-14s gave me one-shot kills.

 

[Shawnee]

Try it. I'm betting it will work just fine.

 

[Al Thompson]

I had bad results with the 168 grain .308 matchkings on deer, think you may have problems here too.

 

[fineredmist]

Take it from a long time prairie dog shooter, match bullets are not designed for varmint shooting. They a built heavy and they do not expand properly whereas varmint bullets are built with thin jackets and are designed to fragment. Many varmint bullets have "speed limits" as they will disintergrate if they are driven too fast. Use the match bullets for paper and varmint bullets for critters.

 

[kmrcstintn]

match grade fmj's are not meant to disintegrate on impact (jacket too thick); match grade hollowpoints are not designed to expand or disintegrate on impact (jacket too thick & hollowpoint for ballistic stabilization by putting weight toward back of projectile; even softpoints might be built too heavy for varmints (depends upon weight of bullet) since some rounds are designed for bigger critters

 

[sscoyote]

I've used my 223 AI AR 9 twist with 65, and 69's for 5-7 seasons on coyotes and couldn't be happier with the results i'm getting. I've found the 69 Nosler Comp. bullet very effective to about 500 yds. on coyotes (very explosive tho.). I now use the 65 JLK Low Drag bullet on them and have had better results, but they always exit.

 

[rcmodel]

If you are hunting in populated areas, or cow country, I'd stick with the purpose-built lighter varmint bullets like the V-Max you are using.

Much less chance of one staying together and skipping across the country for 3/4 mile or so.

rcmodel