243 and 90 grain Game Changers

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pyscodog

Active member
Two rifles, ones a Winchester, the other a Tikka 595. Two different bullets and brass. The Winchester, 87 grain V-Max, H4350 and Winchester brass. The Tikka, 90 grain Game Changer, H4350 and Nosler brass. Powder charges were the same, started at 42 grains and worked up to 44.5. I started with the Tikka. WOW, shocking but not in a good way. Groups were so bad I thought my Leupold took a dump. The Winchester shot pretty decent. Back to the Tikka and it didn't get any better. I did have two rounds of factory 100 grain Winchester left over so I thought I would try them just to see how they acted in the Tikka. Side by side maybe a half inch apart. Hmmmmm~ So now I have 3 of the V-Max left and 3 of the Game Changers left so I did a switch. I shot the 3 V-Max in the Tikka and got a nice little group a bit larger than a dime but the Winchester shot about an inch and a quarter group. But still much better than the Tikka. Now I have to figure out what I did wrong with the Game Changers but at least it isn't my scope and the Tikka likes the V-Max.
 
I'd be curious what the twist rates are on your rifles. If I had to guess, the GC is barely stabilized in a 1-10". It's a pretty pointed bullet. I've tried them, but didn't spend much time fine tuning. Groups were so-so, whereas the 87 is a pretty easy bullet to get to shoot well in any thing I've tried. It's a great bullet ime.
 
I think the Winchester is a 10 twist. Not sure about the Tikka 595. Both are older produced rifles so I'm guessing they both have slower twist rates than newer rifles made today.

The Tikka is also a 10 twist.
 
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I've got a Tikka t3 10"twist. It LOVES the 87 vmax with H4350... it didn't care for the came changers with H4350.

Its just a twist issue. Sierra says 1-9.25 minimum. You could measure the twist of each, Winchester may be just a touch faster that 10" and the Tikka could be a touch slower... even these days there are tolerances for all manufacturing processes.
 
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