Revelations with the Barnes 250MZ (pictures)
 

Based on what I have read and the photo's I've seen, the Barnes MZ bullets seem to be the perfect close range whitetail bullet. For whatever reason, the Barnes MZ bullets with the huge open front have been some of the most accurate bullets in my Knight ML's. However, the Barnes Spitfire with the boattail have been some the the most inaccurate bullets in my guns. Go figure.

Anyway on Thursday, I picked up a new Knight 0.50 cal Elite and was excited to try it out on the range. There was only enough light on Thursday to get it on paper and shoot one 3-shot group at 100 yards. The first group measured 1.5" with a 300 grain bullet.

Yesterday morning I went to range with the idea to only shoot Barnes 250 MZ bullets and vary only the powder charge. In the past, I had a tendency to change bullets and powder charges which made it difficult to see any bullet/load patterns.

After the shooting session yesterday, I started digging through my targets and a pattern started to appear. Instead of concentrating on the loads and powder I started to concentrate on velocity. It appears that the 250 MZ perfers a certain velocity range.

I'll start with the slowest velocities to the fastest. These groups were shot with both my Knight Long Range Hunter and my Knight Elite. Using Blackhorn, Triple 7 fffg and Triple 7 ffg. The slower velocities were with the Blackhorn, the fastest with the ffg powder.



Long Range Hunter 0.983"



Long Range Hunter 1" c-t-c 9/26/09


Volume Measured Triple 7 ffg Long Range Hunter


Long Range Hunter Average Velocity 1971 fps


Volume Measured Triple 7 ffg Long Range Hunter

L

Long Range Hunter Triple 7 fffg



Second group shot with the Elite 89.1 Triple 7 fffg



I started with a hotter Triple 7 ffg load of 96 grains weighed



Triple 7 ffg load of 97 grains weighed

My next step is to try and zero in on that 2019fps to 2025 fps range with Triple 7 ffg and Blackhorn powder and see if my groups shrink.

This testing is fun but expensive. kl

Here is the info in table form

Barnes 250MZ

78.1 Blackhorn Average Velocity 1929fps......0.983" c-t-c
78.1 Blackhorn Average Velocity 1930 fps.....1.0" c-t-c
79.8 Triple 7 ffg Average Velocity 1970 fps.....0.817" c-t-c
86 gr Triple 7 fffg Average Velocity 1971 fps....0.808" c-t-c
79.8 Triple 7 ffg Average Velocity 1978 fps.....0.786" c-t-c
89.1 Triple 7 fffg Average Velocity 2019 fps....0.765" c-t-c
89.1 Triple 7 fffg Average Velocity 2025 fps....0.566" c-t-c
96 gr Triple 7 ffg Average Velocity 2077 fps....2.6" c-t-c
97 gr Triple 7ffg Average Velocity 2083 fps....2.5" c-t-c

All charges were weighed except the two 79.8 gr Triple 7 ffg loads. These two load I volume measured at the range.

nice shooting.. I agree the trouble with Barnes is, they are expensive. I shoot them too, but found a person selling out and got 15 cards from them. So I have plenty for a few years.

klundin2000

Keep it going you certainly are on to something... That really is niffty shooting..

That's what I call "smiling groups" Kludin - keep you smiling for hours. Good shooting! I couldn't get the Spitfires to tighten up either.

Believe me Semisane....I'm smiling. I added some more groups that I found out in the garage that never made it inside the house. I also added a table for easier viewing of the results. It pays to be systematic when developing a load. I wasn't and it took me a long time to start seeing the pattern. kl

very nice report,dang your good....karl

Thanks Karl

Actually yesterday was really productive for me. I brought two muzzleloaders and my Sako 22-250 to the range. It helps to have numerous guns on hand so the barrels have time to cool down a bit. I have been fine tuning my 22-250 load which consists of 39.8 grains of Big Game and a 55 grain Nosler BT.




I think these groups are minute of coyote.



In collecting the 250 MZ groups I also came across some 300 MZ and 300 PT Gold groups.



These were shot with my Long Range Hunter. The four on the left are 300 MZ's and the two on the right are 300 PT Golds.....I think the smallest is in the 0.7's. Most of the 300 MZ are just under 1"

Great report, I gots ta get me one of them thar LRH's or elite's.

Awesome shooting! Looks like you got it figured out. I wish I had the patience to do that.

78.1=110gr of bh209

I'm working on 85.2 right now. I think...