Silver rapids .223 powder coated bullets.

[Ds J]

Have you tried the same cartridges in another rifle? It would indicate whether the rifle is to blame.

[Treeman]

Rifle at this moment shoots between 10 mm and 20 mm group with 5 other reloads from Mono to V Max. The problem is the bullet rifle combo, I forgot to shoot without a silencer, as you suggested - I really believe that for some reason these bullets are touching the baffles - nothing else I know of can cause such extreme flyers.
Problem is, I am so used to shooting with a silencer, it just never occured to me to remove it, even when I knew to test it. I will give this one more try, I will also leave silencer with note on it " do not use next testing"

[JamesNotBond]

loving this Treeman, your frustration is of great amusement to me
What was it you said to me (6 beers later) - "I can make anything accurate, just need some time"
Gonna send Sliver Rapids a box a chocolates.
By the way, you looked a bit pale while telling the story         

[223]

From my own, very limited, experience:

I cast some bullets from a modified Lee .225" 55gn mould using 2 different alloys.
The alloys were straight Linotype and 50/50 Linotype and wheel weights.  Both are pretty hard.
The mould was modified by reaming out the gas check rebate and the lube groove.  This was done in an attempt to increase the bearing surface.
PC was applied by dry shake-and-bake method to get the best finish.
Bullets were pushed through a .224" Lee sizer die.

I shot them from my trusty Zastava M85 rifle with 1:12" twist. Powder was S335.

At around 2500fps I had trouble keeping them on paper at 30m.
Reduced speed to around 2000 and 1500 fps with same results.  Speeds are estimated, I did not want to risk my chrony before I know they are coming out in the right direction.
At 10gn of S335 the groups tightened significantly (+/- 2" at 30m), but I would not want to make a 22LR out of my 223, so this load was not deemed worth measuring the MV of.

My conclusion from the tests is that my PC is way too thin, or the bullets are too small, or both, and they are stripping, or misbehaving in another way, in the rifling. 

I will first try to make the PC thicker and size the bullets to .225".

Just a note on suppressor use with this type of bullet:  If the bases of the bullets are not perfectly formed, they can easily yaw a little when exiting the muzzle.  This yawing could be enough to let the bullets touch the baffles in the suppressor, causing wild flyers on (or off) target.

[Ds J]

While you are at it, test the other loads (50gr, 55gr etc) without the silencer.

[Treeman]

From my own, very limited, experience:

I cast some bullets from a modified Lee .225" 55gn mould using 2 different alloys.
The alloys were straight Linotype and 50/50 Linotype and wheel weights.  Both are pretty hard.
The mould was modified by reaming out the gas check rebate and the lube groove.  This was done in an attempt to increase the bearing surface.
PC was applied by dry shake-and-bake method to get the best finish.
Bullets were pushed through a .224" Lee sizer die.

I shot them from my trusty Zastava M85 rifle with 1:12" twist. Powder was S335.

At around 2500fps I had trouble keeping them on paper at 30m.
Reduced speed to around 2000 and 1500 fps with same results.  Speeds are estimated, I did not want to risk my chrony before I know they are coming out in the right direction.
At 10gn of S335 the groups tightened significantly (+/- 2" at 30m), but I would not want to make a 22LR out of my 223, so this load was not deemed worth measuring the MV of.

My conclusion from the tests is that my PC is way too thin, or the bullets are too small, or both, and they are stripping, or misbehaving in another way, in the rifling. 

I will first try to make the PC thicker and size the bullets to .225".

Just a note on suppressor use with this type of bullet:  If the bases of the bullets are not perfectly formed, they can easily yaw a little when exiting the muzzle.  This yawing could be enough to let the bullets touch the baffles in the suppressor, causing wild flyers on (or off) target.

Your post is valued, I think we thinking same line of thought, see OP regarding bases of bullets and then latest posts regarding silencer.
Thank you for input.

[Treeman]

While you are at it, test the other loads (50gr, 55gr etc) without the silencer.

****************************
Rifle is brilliant with anything else - silencer on or off, usually shoot a bit of other stuff after every test session.

[223]

Something else to consider:
These bullets are softer than any metal-jacketed type.  I should be a good idea to remove any jacket (copper) fouling from the bore before shooting these, as a little copper fouling could really mess up the softer bullets.

[Treeman]

Something else to consider:
These bullets are softer than any metal-jacketed type.  I should be a good idea to remove any jacket (copper) fouling from the bore before shooting these, as a little copper fouling could really mess up the softer bullets.

*************************
I am on the look out for a place with a swimming pool I can shoot these into and recover them, my usual spot is 180 km out of town and dunno when I will be in area.
Perhaps I will take a 100 lt drum to one of the closer farms. I want to get some bullets back that have not hit sand and rock etc just clean deformation from water, check the engraving, coating etc
.....................................its the silencer - the bases - I said so in my first post and did not heed self, you are correct I am sure of this.

[Treeman]

Shot without silencer.
1 hole by Cody  Allen, on Flickr

[Treeman]

Not even the wrong load does this.

[Tripodmvr]

Did you shoot a group with at least 3 shots?

[Treeman]

Did you shoot a group with at least 3 shots?

***********************
4 shots - one kept for velocity check if the load worked.

[Tripodmvr]

Only one shot on target?

[janfred]

Only one shot on target?

You can see three more shots off the paper. Two to the right and the last one just off bottom right. All marked with red arrows.