220gr Sierra & 200gr Accubond - 8mm RM bullet & load test

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Handloader
Dec 26, 2007
4,973
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220gr Sierra & 200gr AccuBond - 8mm RM bullet & load test

Well, it was a long wet, rainy morning and my 220gr SBT still showing great accuracy and velocity wise but the bullet does not hold up at 25yds with 4287.3 ft pounds of energy. The 200gr AccuBond is shooting ok at 1 1/4" using RL-25, MRP was great velocity but poor accuracy, RL-22 poor velocity and poor accuracy and I did not have enough IMR7828ssc to finish three rounds so will do that later. RL-25 was not a max load for my rifle or nor was it a book max load, but was giving me 3117fps on average and it did as all Accubonds are intended to do, it held up at 25yds hitting the water jugs with 4183.7 ft pounds of energy.

Frist - here is the test with the 220gr Sierra at 25yds hitting the jugs with 4187.3ft pounds of energy.


Note: 8 jugs of water and I had to use a bungee cord to hold them on the short table.

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There is no bullet to show you - because it went through five jugs and barely marked the 6th jug with a small fragment and bounced off. I could not find any pieces of the bullet, that is right, it totally after five jugs disintegrated. I did this test a second time and the same results, five jugs a small mark on the 6th jug from a fragment and I could not find any pieces of the 220gr Sierra. I looked all in the grass to try and find just a piece but couldn't. Needless to say, the 220gr Sierra is not for up close in the 8mm Rem Mag. It is obvious a 100yd to 600yds on deer and elk size game, but not for dangerous game. I would only use a 220gr A-Frame on dangerous game out of the Big 8 or if it existed a 220gr AccuBond.
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Second - here is the test with the 200gr AccuBond moving 3117fps hitting with 4183.7 ft pounds of energy at 25yrd, going through 7 jugs ending up in the 8th jug knocking the 9th jug off the table.
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Needless to say I will be working on tweaking the RL-25 load for the 200gr AccuBond because I was not at max yet for my rifle nor at book max. The 220gr gr load will still be a long range load, but at the moment I will be working on the 200gr AccuBond as an all around load and will later work on the 220gr A-Frame as my dangerous game load until Nosler sees fit to produce a 220gr .323 bullet.
 
I used to have a great load for my Big 8, with Winchester Magnum Rifle Powder. But they don't make it any more. Then I switched to Accurate 8700, another good load. I never tried the AccuBond, just the Partition.
 
Great test Mike. That AB is very impressive. That load would do just about anything that needs doing I think.
 
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