70gr Gmx accuracy question

[Shartman1433]

So I was thinking about using the 70gr gmx bullet for deer hunting this year and in the Hornady guide, it said it can be pushed out of the barrel at 3000fps with cfe 223 so since the velocity seems great I was wondering if the accuracy was there aswell. Does anybody have any experience with it?

[Divernhunter]

You will not really know your FPS unless you run them over a Chrono.
"My opinion" is a 22cal bullet is a poor choice for deer hunting in Ca especially on public land. Show the animal you are trying to kill more respect.

[JackEllis]

IMHO a .223 bullet is too small for deer. The minimum caliber I would use on a deer is 6mm/.243.

Deer have probably been killed with pellet guns but as Divernhunter points out, the animals deserve a hunter's respect, and that means using a suitable round and a suitable bullet.

[destrudo]

What barrel length, what twist rate, how much effort are you willing to go down to get to the meaty goodness when 100's cost 28-30 bucks a pop?

Keep in mind everything below was my experience, about a year ago when I started doing load development for an AR with copper solids. This is a small sample

The hornady GMX lots (4 separate) I got awhile back were majorly inconsistent. Grouping based on ogive and oal was enough to get solid consistency ~1moa; but it was only something like 50% in the `middle of the road` range.

The ogive spread was probably about 0.020-0.030"; and the OAL was into the 0.1" range; I think max-min was 0.15" or something strange like that. And it wasn't just extrusions on the meplat; it was like some were.. different.

Weight was generally consistent excluding the extreme ends.

3k FPS would be a fairly hot load out of my 18" but it's doable. Out of a 16? Prepare to do a really shallow seating well outside of COAL limits. 20+ would be 100% good no questions asked; but you'd obviously want to chrono and group.

I seem to remember the barnes lots I got being a bit more consistent; actually surprisingly somehow more consistent than the lehigh 62's (Which I actually ended up loving for target shooting) but not as memorable as the GMX's.

[AGGRO]

I'm loading the same bullet for the wife's gun. I'll have some to ladder and chrono shortly.

[Shartman1433]

I am using a 20-inch barrel and 1:8 twist and I am definitely willing to put some effort into developing that load. What twist rate did you use for yours?

What barrel length, what twist rate, how much effort are you willing to go down to get to the meaty goodness when 100's cost 28-30 bucks a pop?

Keep in mind everything below was my experience, about a year ago when I started doing load development for an AR with copper solids. This is a small sample

The hornady GMX lots (4 separate) I got awhile back were majorly inconsistent. Grouping based on ogive and oal was enough to get solid consistency ~1moa; but it was only something like 50% in the `middle of the road` range.

The ogive spread was probably about 0.020-0.030"; and the OAL was into the 0.1" range; I think max-min was 0.15" or something strange like that. And it wasn't just extrusions on the meplat; it was like some were.. different.

Weight was generally consistent excluding the extreme ends.

3k FPS would be a fairly hot load out of my 18" but it's doable. Out of a 16? Prepare to do a really shallow seating well outside of COAL limits. 20+ would be 100% good no questions asked; but you'd obviously want to chrono and group.

I seem to remember the barnes lots I got being a bit more consistent; actually surprisingly somehow more consistent than the lehigh 62's (Which I actually ended up loving for target shooting) but not as memorable as the GMX's.

[Shartman1433]

I'm loading the same bullet for the wife's gun. I'll have some to ladder and chrono shortly.

Let me know how that goes I am really curious how accurate it is.

[AGGRO]

Let me know how that goes I am really curious how accurate it is.

Will do. I'm trying 8208 or 4895 for powders.

[destrudo]

I am using a 20-inch barrel and 1:8 twist and I am definitely willing to put some effort into developing that load. What twist rate did you use for yours?

1:7.

Good luck; make sure you have the ogive measurement tools. If you don't see a bunch of variance between the ogive and OAL it'd be good to know because they were good after filtration.