New Loads with Coated Bullets.....

[Vartarg]

I'm very satisfied with 25.1 gr of RL10X under 39gr Sierra BK bullets, and have been using that load on a regular basis. For the time being I plan to continue that load in my DPMS .204, but plan to use WrzWaldo's coated bullet concoction in my Ruger VT and Remington LVSF. I plan to start at 25.1 and work up in .2 gr increments for a safe and accurate load using the coated 39gr BKs. I just curious what experience anyone else may have had in moving from uncoated to coated bullets with RL10X and the 39's......Thanks. George

[Rick in Oregon]

Vartarg: I've gone to WS2 coated bullets in all my high volume colony rodent varmint rifles, and in my Sako 204, I use RL10X under both the 32 and 39 SBK's.

Using the same load as uncoated bullets, velocity dropped off by 60 fps, but the accuracy is still there, so I have not bumped the load back up to what I think is about the same pressure and velocity level.

With the 32's, I'm running 26.5grs, and an even 26.0grs with the 39 SBK, both a tad over the Sierra max, but mild in my rifle: nice radius on the primer edges, no cratering, less than .0005" case head expansion, and easy bolt lift. Both loads are like a death ray on our ground squirrels.

Here's some 32 SBK's during a shoot over this past weekend, with excellent results I might add (excellent for me, Skippy may feel differently though....)



The big benifit to using the coated bullets is less cleaning and more shooting, and to me, that makes it worth the effort. I've not noticed any change in accuracy, even after shooting 50 shots in a row without cleaning the 204R.