Derrick put a new barrel on my Ruger Hawkeye a while back and squared up the action. The original barrel shot Ok, but not great. I wanted a real shooter. I've been working with the 40 grainers that I like to use on varmints, but the groups, though small, weren't terrific. Still, that twist of 1 in 9 isn't best for the little pills. So yesterday I got out the box of 55 gr Nosler BT's and started working up loads. A midrange load yesterday put 3 in a cloverleaf of 3/8 inch center to center, so today I cleaned the barrel (which didn't take much work at all) and shot two foulers and then took the gun back into the A/C to cool off. Once it was cool I took that promising load back to the bench and put three into one hole. Only the third bullet enlarged the hole a bit. Yup, I think I have the shooter I wanted. Next is the 65 gr Sierra GK's.

The powder behind all bullets is H335. Primers are CCI BR-4's. Lapua brass.

Now for some cooler weather and I can take the 12 year old grandson pig hunting. The pigs are BACK. The grandson is excited and so am I.

Barrel make? Contour? SS? Congrats on a great project. I've got the bug for another 223 bolt...

BTW, if you can't get the 65s to shoot, try a little slower powder. I had marginal results with the 65 grain Sierras and H335; and the results rocketed to dismal with the 69 grain SMKs (1:8 and 1:9 twists.) I switched to RL-15 for both weights and the results are fantastic!!! I still use H335 for 55 grain and under... it meters like water.

I actually was planning to use a slower powder with the 65 gr GK's, but the H335 was already in the powder measure, so.....

If it shoots great with the H335, so be it. If not I have other powders to try. Was gonna try some more loads in the morning, but a local kid wants a tennis lesson, so Thursday maybe.