.223 1 in 12" twist and bullet weight?

[Old Savage]

What bullet weight on the high side can I expect to stabilize.

[arjunky]

Winchester 64's shot decent out of mine, never tried higher.
Byron

[flatnose]

A 12 twist will stabilize a bullet heavier than 55 grains. Group size wil probably be better with 50, 52 or 53 grain bullets though, and may be satisfactory with the 55 grainers. Go with 9 or 10 twist for heavier bullets.

[Sixgun]

A 12 twist will stabilize a bullet heavier than 55 grains. Group size wil probably be better with 50, 52 or 53 grain bullets though, and may be satisfactory with the 55 grainers. Go with 9 or 10 twist for heavier bullets.

Could not have been said better. I have 4 Colts, all with 1-7 that shoot everything......easily-----6

[Griff]

I have 1:8 in my hand built gun seems to like 'em all... but anything over 77 grains is a noticeable difference... tho' still 1 MOA. The 1:9 in the Windham Weaponry like the 64 & under weights best!

[JohndeFresno]

Those charts always seem to be a bit confusing. Great answers - Saved!

[Old Savage]

Sounds like most of you fellows have become AR types with those fast twist rates. Just using an old school bolt here. Flatnose, that has been my experience thus far. 55s open up the groups a bit.

[AmBraCol]

Sounds like most of you fellows have become AR types with those fast twist rates. Just using an old school bolt here. Flatnose, that has been my experience thus far. 55s open up the groups a bit.

Fred, the 1 in 12" rifling would be for your lower weight bullets. I'd start with the 40 grn and work my way up. My guess is that anything over 50 is likely to not be sufficiently stabilized with that twist rate. AR's are fairly standard with 1 in 9" for use with the 55 gr FMJ loads. Some folks get them to shoot the heavier bullets with no problems and decent accuracy, others go to a 1 in 7" or at least a 1 in 8" for the heavier bullets. Even in a bolt gun instead of an AR you'll probably have issues with heavier bullets in the 1 in 12" rate of rifling. That rifle should be a doozy with 40 grain at higher velocity for ground squirrels and other vermin.

[cas]

The "go with" line made me laugh as well.


I tried some 53gr Barnes X-bullets in my .22-250 last year and with their added length they wouldn't come close to grouping.

[earlmck]

I wore the barrel plumb out of a .225 Win (1964 model) with 14" twist, using 55 grain bullets. Of course, those were just plain old Speer and Sierra spitzers. Sierra made a 63 grain semi-spitzer that also shot well, and the 70 grain Speer round nose shot well. 12" should handle those same bullets at 223 velocities I'd think.

[mikld]

I have a single shot .223, Handi-Rifle with a 1-12" twist. Lighter bullets in the 40-52 gr. range give me good accuracy, and bullets of 60 and up, the accuracy deteriorates as the weight goes up. I've shot 1 1/2" groups @ 100 with 50 gr. HPBT (that's good for me) but 60 gr don't give better than 4" and 69 gr. groups weren't measured...

[piller]

The M16A2 has a 1 in 7 twist. The old A1 had a 1 in 12 twist. When the A2 was adopted, the bullet weight on the standard M885 ball ammo went up by 10 grains, I think that was it. The A1 was less accurate with the new standard heavier weight bullet.
Your bolt action will probably see similar results. Heavier or longer bullets usually require a faster twist for stability when they are of the same caliber. HOWEVER, as I am sure you know, velocity and the rifle both are factors which may make what is typical become a real challenge for all handloaders.