Berger 75gr VLD load?

[JPeel]

I am trying to work up a load for the .224 Berger 75gr VLD bullets. The BC for these is significantly higher than for sierras or noslers so I'd like to have this load for long distance+high winds at 3gun. We routinely shoot to 500 - 600 yards so I get lots of practice at this.

My normal load is 23.8 gr of 8208 with a 69gr smk, 2900 fps out of a 18" JP barrel. The groups I've shot with the Bergers so far on the 8208 have not been good so I'm thinking I need a slower powder. I'd love to test Varget but cannot find any.

Anyone have success loading this bullet for 3gun?

[redial]

VLDs of any caliber are notoriously sensitive to seating depth and typically aren't shot from the magazine. In my experience, there are times when VLDs shoot well when jumped a very long way (80 - 100 thou), they are usually seated to kiss or jam the rifling which is impossible when loaded to 2.26" to fit the mag.

The Berger is a great bullet - just not the right bullet.

Mark

[Tom Freeman]

Try the Berger 73gn LTB. The 75 VLD takes a lot of tinkering to get shooting.

[Dan Sierpina]

The VLD's are suited for single loading, mag fed, not so much. Even the Sierra 80, Hornady 75 and 80 grain Amax bullets were designed for single loading.

[JPeel]

.....

The Berger is a great bullet - just not the right bullet.

Mark

That's what I was thinking when I was trying to get the seating depth right. Sure had to sink a lot of the bullet in the casing to get the length to 2.255.

Thanks all!

[ropsitos]

I had good results, so far, with the 75gr bthp hornady from my 18" Jp. 22gr of vv n140 starting load got me 2300 fps. I might scootch it up a bit.

I've only had the chance to shoot it at 100yd to check the load (i had not shot anything that heavy from the gun before nor had i reloaded anything that heavy) but the three 3 shot groups were all well under 1" and that was at 4 power using a Burris mtac. Off the bench with a bipod and rear bag.

[Dan Sierpina]

I had good results, so far, with the 75gr bthp hornady from my 18" Jp. 22gr of vv n140 starting load got me 2300 fps. I might scootch it up a bit.

I've only had the chance to shoot it at 100yd to check the load (i had not shot anything that heavy from the gun before nor had i reloaded anything that heavy) but the three 3 shot groups were all well under 1" and that was at 4 power using a Burris mtac. Off the bench with a bipod and rear bag.

That Hornady bullet, is designed to be a magazine length round. You'll be good with it, or, Sierra, or Nosler 77's, both meant to be loaded to magazine length.

[wgj3]

He was referring to the Hornady 75 gr Amax not being suited to AR mag length...

[Tom Freeman]

The 75gn Hornady BTHP is different from the A-Max. The 75 BTHP is designed for mag use where the 75 A-max isnt.

[Mturnbull333]

Used the 185 gr VLD's In my 308, accurate as hell, was shooting a 1000 yds with them but they wouldn't reliably cycle in my AR 10, would get jammed up in the feed ramp.

[38superman]

Try the Berger 73gn LTB. The 75 VLD takes a lot of tinkering to get shooting.

I just started loading my first ever purchase of Berger bullets.

I had high hopes for the 73 gr match BT.

Unfortunately, I experienced an issue I’ve never seen in 40 years of hand loading.

When seating the bullets (Nosler brass) there was insufficient neck tension to securely hold the bullet in place.

Resistance felt normal when the bullet engaged the neck, but as the bullet continued to seat, resistance became unusually light.

I pushed the nose of the loaded round against my bench and buried the bullet with little effort.

I thought I had a bad case but subsequent loadings produced the same problem.

I tried some Hornady and Remington cases and the issue persisted. That pretty much ruled out the brass as the problem.

I decided to try some different bullets and loaded a few Sierra SMKs and Hornady 75 grainers into the Nosler brass.

They produced normal resistance and were snug after seating. (I was able to bury a Sierra but only with excessive force).

With my curisosity piqued, I checked the diameter of an SMK with a micrometer and it measured .2244

I measured the expander ball in the die and it read .2224

The Berger measured .2248 at the base where the boat tail chamfer intersects the body of the bullet.

However the shank or body of the bullet appears to have a slight but continuous taper along the entire length of the bullet from boat tail to the tangent of the ogive.

I don’t know if this is a bad bullet lot or something related to my tooling or technique.

I need to solve this issue. I really would like to use these bullets but I can't risk a bullet set back

That could be disastrous.

I emailed Berger tech support for their thoughts but no reply yet.

I invite anyone that has experience with this particular bullet to share their findings (and load data).

Tls

Edited April 22, 2014 by 38superman

[JohnRodriguez]

both the berger VLD and the a-max are really suited to 2.5 OAL and being single shot loaded. I'm not sure what the HIgh power shooters are using these days and you may end up checking it out on one of their forums, but I would stick with 77gr sierra's they are designed for 2.26 OAL