Barnes 62gr TTSX load

[alamo5000]

Hey thanks for the info, I'm gonna be working up a load for the Barnes bullet soon... In your opinion which is best for an AR/15 16" 1-9 barrel...

Length of the bullet matters more than just the grain weight for stabilization in slower twist barrels. Because copper is lighter than lead you get physically bigger bullets for the same grain weight, and since they can't grow in diameter they grow in length.

I have a 1/8 twist that shoots 69gr SMK like a dream. You may or may not be able to get away with the Barnes 62gr or 69gr in your 1/9 but you would have to test it out to know for sure.

I have no idea what the limits are on a 1/9 barrel but going and just buying a box or two of heavier grain ammo and trying it out will answer that question. If you say bought one box of 69 gr and you can test for stability out of your gun. Bullet wobble or keyholes is obviously not acceptable, especially if you are shooting suppressed.

If your gun will stabilize a 69gr I would venture to say that it will handle the Barnes 62gr as well. Other people might know about this already but I don't since I stay away from 1/9 twists.

In the chart above those loads for the 62gr [for Varget] are almost identical to what I use for my match 69 gr SMK loads.

In short I 100% concur with Former11B. He knows his stuff. Wise advice and worth $20ish to test some 69gr MatchKings before you get too far off into the weeds.

Edit: It's also worth noting that your desired range to shoot at is also a consideration. If your shots are all going to be maybe 200 yards and in that's one thing, but if you have too slow of a twist rate as the bullet goes down range it will lose momentum and hence stability at longer ranges. Usually I would say for an AR 300 yards is about the turning point.

So in theory if you shoot a bullet out of a 1/9 twist it could be perfectly stable off your bench at 100 yards, but at 300 after the bullet itself and everything else slows down it will quickly erode stability. Somewhere between 200 and 300 yards is where you can see this difference.

A faster twist rate will keep your bullet stable at farther ranges, if that's your thing. At 200 yards or less it's not really a consideration.

I just thought about that last part so I figured I would add that little note here in to this post.