Review: Nosler Lead Free BT Varmint
Lead free projectiles have been around for some time now and with the increasing push by the anti’s, we’re seeing areas in the United States being declared lead free zones which has limited the choice of projectiles that hunters can use. Fortunately, manufacturers were quick to respond by increasing the range of lead free projectiles available.
As some of you may be aware I ‘m a huge fan of Nosler’s range of projectiles so naturally, I jumped at the chance to review their lead free Ballistic Tip Varmint projectiles. The box I received was their 40grain .224 projectile which would be perfect for my Remington 788 in .222 Remington.
The first thing I noticed when I opened the box was the length of the projectiles. They are really long in length and I had to weigh one just to be sure that they weren’t a heavier projectile that slipped through into the wrong packaging! No doubt the lack of lead means that the projectiles are going to be longer in length to make up for the lack of weight. In fact, they are only a tad shorter than a 50gr V-Max.
Nosler’s lead free Ballistic Tips are a flat base design which differs from their usual Ballistic Tip range. They do however have the polymer tip which has a metallic colour to it. Being a Varmint projectile means they are designed to fragment and cause massive damage with very little penetration. More on that later.
I used my usual method of working up some hand loads by using the starting load in a well know loading manual and moving up in charge weight from there. After some pressure loads were fired, I settled on 23.5 grains of AR2206H which gave me a warm but safe load in my rifle. As always, work up to your loads as each rifle is different. I decided not to play around with different charge weights until I had tested this one at the farm.
The first day I had free I headed off to the farm for some range testing and as it turned out it was a perfect day for it. I only had one day for accuracy and game testing so it was nice to have the weather working with me for a change. Things just got even better when I started putting some groups down range. You know how some days everything just seems to work out perfect? They are few are far between but this was definitely one of those days! I won’t go into group sizes, I’ll just let the pictures do the talking. Even though my Remington is a particularly good shooter, I wasn’t expecting to find such an accurate load on the first attempt.
A five and ten shot group
With the range testing over with, I decided to head off to a nearby Rabbit warren. I was almost there when I spotted several crows feeding on a sheep carcass. They were only 150 meters away and with the bipod attached I knew I had a good chance of bagging one. Lying prone, I was rock steady and with a squeeze of the trigger there was a puff of feathers and it was all over for one more nuisance crow. On inspection the projectile had passed through taking the crows insides with it.
Moving onto the Rabbit warren I was surprised to see two Rabbits sunning themselves even after the commotion of a nearby gunshot. Lying prone once again I felt confident enough for a headshot, but I wanted to see how the projectiles would perform when punched through the shoulders. Placing the crosshairs on the closest Rabbits chest, I squeezed off another shot and watched the Rabbit flip over with hardly a kick. The projectile had passed through both shoulders but had caused massive damage on its way through. Whilst there was no “explosive” effect at the modest velocity obtainable with the .222 Remington, I’d expect there to be some spectacular results when pushed out of a 22-250 Remington.
Exit hole on a Crow
Unfortunately I didn’t get a chance to test the Ballistic Tips on a Fox which was my main goal for this review. I’ll continue to use the Nosler’s for the next few weeks so hopefully I can add some input to their performance once some more game has been taken.
If you’re trying to find an accurate load for your .22 Calibre Varmint rifle, then I’d suggest you give the Nosler Lead Frees a go. Whilst we aren’t suffering from the Lead Free crisis at our local Rabbit patches (just yet anyway), they may end up being a short cut to that accurate load that you’re looking for.
http://www.nosler.com/Bullets/Ballistic-Tip-Lead-Free.aspx
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Category: Articles, featured, Jason Lownds, Reviews
I wonder what ya clean ya barrel with after using them ?
Hi Mick,
You would clean it like any other bullet. All of these bullets have at least copper jackets if they aren’t entirely made of copper.
So you would clean the barrel the same way you would clean it with all copper jacketed bullets.
Hope this helps.
Great article by the way Jase.
Keith they have cut off the post on “bullet performance on game”.
I wanted to say that I agree with Jason that I am a bit of a “sook” and should not expect the respect to which I am accustomed. Age and illness does tend to weary me.
Since i cannot access the above site and I owe something to Stephen Barrett:
Steve:
Consider that you are seated on a rotating merry-go-round with an apple in your hand.
You are in what I call a noninertial frame of reference.
The apple is not moving in respect to you. You would probably consider it to be in a state of equilibrium. If you release that apple it flies out as if under the influence of a force directed radially outward. You would probably call this “force” which supposedly is acting on the apple a “Centrifugal” force. It did not fly out before you let it go because it was “balanced” by a centripetal force in your hand.
There are a number of things to note here: Both the very real Centripetal force and the assumed “Centrifugal” force are both acting on the same apple.
The released apple seems to fly directly outward away from you.
Let us repeat the experiment but this time you are standing out and it is your friend who is seated on the merry-go- round. When the apple is released it flies in a direction at a tangent to the rim of the MGR; In other words following Newton’s first law under inertia. So you would now say you say that this “centrifugal force” is fictitious. Being very intelligent you would not confuse it with the “reactive centrifugal force” which is acting on the hand not the apple. Nor would you confuse it with the “reactive centrifugal force” which is acting on the axle of the MGR. You have these entirely different set of observations and conclusions because you are operating from a different frame of reference an inertial frame of reference.
You do not have to invent any fictitious force if you operate in an inertial frame of reference.
You do have to realise that the apple (or the wobbly bullet) is not in a state of equilibrium and the only forces acting on of every little bit of it are Centripetal forces (acting toward the centre of mass of the rotating bullet). When you work in this inertial frame of reference; which is what you should do if you are talking about bullets. (You are not riding along inside the bullet are you?). You need to consider the moments of inertia involved. Some people are quite happy to use the “fictitious centrifugal force” most Physics educators would say that it is inappropriate. I prefer Newtonian Physics but even that is an approximation when you consider the advances of Einstein. Some people told Einstein that he did not “understand” physics.
If you are worried about my use of the word “centrifugal force” in the hammer example I was only treating forces on the hammer which are all centripetal.
If we consider the reactive force on the athlete as far as he is concerned it is a centripetal force directed toward the centre of mass.
It is not a good idea to quote out of context which some people are inclined to do.
Jack, theres no cutting off of discussions. Your comment is on there.