The Varmageddons proved accurate enough for small prairie dogs, even if they didn’t come all the way out of their holes.
John’s wife, Eileen Clarke, a frequent Varmint Hunter contributor, helped out on the initial test of Varmageddon .17s, shooting a .17 Fireball.
along any of my own 223s, but did bring the 17 Fireball, 17 Remington, 204 Ruger, 22 Hornet and 220 Swift. Both days of the shoot I partnered
up with Shawn Finley, the national sales director of Nosler’s rifle department – who’s also a really good rifle shot! We’d gotten to know each other a little on a deer hunt down in Texas, but got to know each other better after a couple of days spent together in the field and the cab of my pickup. The shoot was organized by Eric Albus of Milk River Outfitters, and rather than babysit us, Eric gave direc- tions to several dog towns on the ranches he leased. This was fine with Shawn and me, as we’d both shot prairie dogs before, and I’m pretty familiar with that part of Montana. The plastic-tipped bullets also ex-
panded more violently than the hollow- points from the 204 and three 224 car- tridges. The star “lifter” was the 32-grain plastic tip from the 204. Shawn had never seen a 204 in action before, and was aston- ished by the flights of several dogs. The hollow-point also performed best in the 204, though it more often field-dressed dogs rather than rocketing them upward like the plastic-tip. The 40-grain in the Hornet also
performed very well. From the 26" barrel of the Ruger No. 1B the muzzle veloc- ity is around 3,100 fps, making the little cartridge a genuine 300-yard rifle, and a very economical one at that. Another star performer was the 55-grain from the new Nosler rifle. Shawn and I shot one batch of dogs
while side-by-side, me with my old 220 Swift and Shawn with the AR-15 223. It was a great demonstration of the effect
Page 44 Spring 2013
The plastic-tipped version expanded more violently, but the hollow-point version worked pretty well, especially in the .204 Ruger.
of rifling twist on bullet expansion. The listed muzzle velocity of the Varmaged- don 223 55-grain ammo is 3,100 fps, while the same bullet in my Swift handloads started around 3,800 fps, but the “slow” bullets resulted in far more lift and sepa- ration. This is because of spinning about 30% faster, thanks to the 1:8" twist in the 223 barrel as opposed to the traditional 1:14" twist in the Swift barrel – yet another reason so many varmint hunters are using faster twists in their 223s and other rifles. (One of my recent acquisitions is a custom 224 Texas Trophy Hunter, the 6mm Rem- ington necked down to 22, with a medium heavy Brux 1:8" twist barrel. It wasn’t quite ready for the Varmageddon shoot, but it will get tested on prairie dogs ASAP. No doubt a 55-grain bullet at 4,000+ fps will kick things up a notch!) In every one of my rifles the Varma-
geddons shot just about as well as Ballistic Tips or other good varmint bullets, and some of the combinations shot a little better. Obviously Varmageddons are well- made, but the square base is probably an additional factor in their accuracy. In many rifles, square-based bullets tend to leave the muzzle a trifle more consistently than boattailed bullets, the reason most short-range benchrest bullets are square- based.
The lack of a boattail does tend to
reduce ballistic coefficient a little, at least most of the time. Nosler tests for ballistic coefficient in their indoor range, and the 32-grain 204 Varmageddon’s listed BC is actually slightly higher than for the 32-grain Ballistic Tip, 0.209 to 0.206. But the other three Varmageddons available in the same weight and diameter as Bal- listic Tips show a drop of 0.010 to 0.024 in
All the Varmageddon bullets shoot very well. John’s .17 Remington is an early 700 BDL made in 1973, and it liked ’em a lot!
BC, about 5-9%. This really isn’t much, especially
when compared to the drop in BC with hollow-point bullets. The loss in BC for the hollow-point Varmageddons compared to the tipped versions ranges from 14% to 35%, with the biggest loss in 17 and 204 calibers. The least loss of BC is with the 55-grain 0.224 hollow-point, something to consider if you want to save a little ad- ditional money. The only Varmageddon bullet I
haven’t tested so far is the 55-grain 6mm, but it should be a great performer, based on my experiences with the 55-grain Ballistic Tip at 4,000 fps from the 243 Winchester. Many prairie dog shooters prefer the 55-grain 6mm Ballistic Tip in the 243 to 55-grain Ballistic Tips in the 22-250 and Swift. The 243 easily reaches 4,000 fps with 55s, just about impossible with the 22-250 and even a strain on the Swift except in very long barrels. The 243’s standard 1:10" rifling twist also results in noticeably faster bullet rotation than the traditional 1:14" twist in the 224s, and also can stabilize a longer bullet. Normally a smaller-diameter bullet
of the same shape and weight as a larger- diameter bullet will have a lower ballistic coefficient, but bullet manufacturers must make sure their 0.224" 55-grain plastic-tips will stabilize in the 1:14" twist of most 22- 250s and 220 Swift. A 55-grain 6mm, on the other hand, can be as long and sleek as possible, the reason the 6mm Varmaged- don has just about exactly the same BC as the 55-grain 0.224. I’m really looking forward to trying the 6mm from the heavy 26" barrel of my custom 243!
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