I am so relieved to have finally figured out my Sierra 39 gr BlitzKing bullets. One of the reasons i bought the .204 Ruger was to take advantage of the good BCs of the smaller bullets for use on predators and just target shooting. When I started key-holing 39 and 40 grain bullets I was devastated. I thought my Remington 700 just wasn't going to shoot the heavier bullets and settled on a good load for the Berger 35 grainers.
Through lots of reading on this site I found that the 1:12 barrels are just on the cusp of stabilizing the heavier bullets. I've also read that some rifles will shoot factory 40 grainers but not hand-loads. With this information I theorized that if one pushed a bullet fast enough, the 1:12 barrel would stabilize the bullet. I figured that Hornady's blistering-fast factory rounds must do the trick with stabilizing the 40 gr bullets.
After failing to stabilize my Sierra 39 gr SBKs using BLC2 and Benchmark, I bought some Re-10x to try. Loaded up a 10 shot Audette Ladder starting at 25 grains, going up past the max load of 25.1 grains all the way to 25.9 grains. After warming up the barrel with a few shots I started the Ladder. The first couple shots hit a couple inches off of center, but after that the shots started tightening up. I finally settled on the 25.9 grain load which shoots .4 to .5 moa groups consistently. To prove that complete stabilization had been achieved I hit 4 balloons at 500 yards in 4 shots in a friendly competition with my brother-in-law. He was quite impressed.
![Very Happy :D](./images/smilies/icon_biggrin.gif)
Has anyone else tried this method to solving the dreaded rate of twist problem with the 1:12s? I am so relieved to have a good bullet working in my gun. I hope this helps someone with the same problem!
-Ben