KoreanRedneck, Try a 60 grain bullet, see how it does. Possibly the 75 grain bullet was too heavy to stabilize, what is your twist?

Blah blah blah! Man that wasn't worth reading!

I basically had the same problem this weekend. Loaded up 7 different types of 223 with 75gr amax and ramshot tac. Went from 23.2 to 25.0 in increments of 0.3gr. Loaded all them about 0.013-0.015" jump. These did horribly! The best was the lightest load at about 3.5" at 300yards, groups of 5. Got worse and worse the hotter the load. Hottest went about 15" group.

What should I take out of this session? Should I scrap the bullet or try another powder or give up and just throw away the rifle?
FYI, it was shot out of a 22" tikka varmint. I shot some freedom munitions 60gr Vmax at 400 yards and it was shooting good enough to easily hit the 6" steel the whole time.

I have a box of 65gr gamekings.

Thanks for info guys. I modified the magazine to accept longer loads but the limit here was the distance to the ands. I think I am going to give up on this bullet. I have a box of 65gr gamekings. I'm going to try them next as I want something I can hint with on this particular rifle. I was surprised how much longer the amax was vs the gameking for only 10gr more in weight.

I am loading for a Savage Axis II with heavy barrel. The barrel is 22" long and its a .243
My initial load was 35gr Varget for a Hornady 87gr softpoint bullet. I was loaded about 0.025 off the lands.
Shooting at 100 yards was grouping 1-1.25" (using bipod and rear bag)
Just figured it could be better than that

The Hornady 87 grain SP bullet is not a seating depth sensitive bullet, so you can pretty much seat the bullet to fit and feed in your mag, and tune it with the powder charge. Varget will work, but it's not the optimum powder. You'll lose about 100-200 fps to other slower burning powders. But it should work if that's the powder you plan to use.

When testing loads, it's vital important to keep your case prep as consistent as possible. So, make sure you are using all the same brand of brass, powder, bullets, and primer during testing, only changing one variable at a time. Also, I don't test loads or shoot for groups with a factory rifle and a bipod, until the rifle is proven to not have any issues with a bipod attached. MANY times I have shot a factory rifle and have bedding issues, or some kind of stock to action mating issue. A bipod will enhance these issues and cause POI shifts, which will show up as large or random groups.

I'm also paying attention to what the groups are telling me. The target I posted a picture of above actually has a common pattern to it for load work up. In Load A, the groups are stringing, or up and down. This tells me I have either passed a node or am approaching a node. Load B has a somewhat circle pattern. Load C the shots went in nice and tight, which I honestly could have stopped right there, and known this would be the load. So I shoot Load D, and it opens up some, and Load E opens up even more. It's a simple pattern and can generally be noticed at longer rangers than 100 yards. You have to have a rifle that will talk to you in it's groups and how it responds to your scope adjustments. I have had many rifles not respond to scope adjustments and kind of take a mind of their own, and you have to figure out what's causing what.