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  #1  
Old 10-10-2019, 02:42 PM
20VarTarg 20VarTarg is offline
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Default 218 Mashburn Bee-MUST READ

About 6 months I purchased a new Cooper 38 chambered in the 218 Mashburn Bee. I struggled to find any reliable source for data and outside of a few members on here trying to help me out I came up pretty much empty handed. I struggled to get the rifle to shoot accurately and I demand Cooper's accuracy guarantee or better. The factory target showed 1 ragged hole so I knew it could shoot. But Cooper's load is barely at best a mediocre 218 Bee load. I figured why make it a Mashburn if your going to shoot regular Bee loads in it. Well I finally found not 1 but 2 loads that my rifle absolutely loves. Here is the thing, I wasn't pushing the loads fast enough!!!! I was worried about pressures the entire time and wouldn't go much above published 218 Bee Max loads. So I set out on a mission to find a node and my lord did I find a load. Actually 2 loads. So here is some advice for anyone with a Mashburn Bee. I take the published MAX load for 218 Bee and add 10% to it. That should be a good starting point. I tried 1680(Gun hated every load), N-120, RL-7, and CFE BLK. I found the more powder I put into the case with RL-7 the better it shot. And trust me, I thought I couldn't get anymore powder in the case until I started to use a drop tube. I settled on a load with RL-7 and CFE BLK. I'm shooting 40 grain Sierra Blitzkings and found a very very promising load with the 35 grain Nosler Ballistic Tip. That little 35 grain bullet has gotta be screaming along. I will test over a chronograph within the next couple of weeks. My rifle hated the 50 grain Speer TNT bullets. It didn't matter what powder or charge weight it shot like crap. My best group of the day yesterday was .193" at 100 yards. And had 2 other groups one being .473" and the other .524". Prior to yesterdays range day I couldn't get this rifle to shoot better then an inch at 100 yards. I hope this will help anyone out that is struggling with data for the Mashburn Bee. I like this rifle so much I may never own another centerfire 22 again.
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  #2  
Old 10-10-2019, 03:24 PM
Intel6 Intel6 is offline
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I also struggled with my Cooper 38 in 218 MB. It didnt seem to like the lighter bullets (they were not getting anywhere near the rifiling lead) I was shooting in it even though the previous owner had used the 40 gr. Sierras. I didnt have any of those but tried others I had for my hornets including the 40 gr. Vmax which gave terrible results. Then an article came out in Handoader about the Cooper 38 in 218 MB and the author did some loading and he found the lighter bullets shot OK but found a 50 gr. Vmax load that shot really well with H4198. I happen to have a bunch of 50 gr. Vmax for my .223 so I tried some with H4198 and started having great results. I settled on a load with H4198 and a Remington 6.5 primer that gave great results and made the gun shootable.

I was happy to get it shooting but was hoping to be able to use lighter bullets for a higher velocity but I wasn't ablet to find anything it liked. I figured if the gun liked the bigger bullets I might try something else. I recently picked up some Nosler lead free 40 gr. Ballistic Tip bullets that are basically the same size as a 50-55 gr. bullet but are lighter. Thinking the gun likes the longer bullet and I can get it closer to the lead of the rifiling like the 50 gr. bullets but it will shoot faster due to the lighter weight. Since I don't live where I can shoot critters with my Coopers I just punch paper with them so I havent gotten around to loading them yet.
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Old 10-10-2019, 11:05 PM
20VarTarg 20VarTarg is offline
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Very interesting!!!! I tried a 40 grain Nosler which is a boat tail and my rifle did not like those either. The rifle has drove me nuts for months now and I'm so happy that I found something that it loves. If you haven't tried CFE BLK yet you need to give it a try. The velocity's that are published are out of this world. And the craziest thing is, the pressures are still relatively low. Hodgdon has data for the CFE BLK in the regular 218 Bee. They show an 18 grain max charge. I ran some at 19 grains with zero pressure signs and groups were right at 1/2" at 100 yards. I'm going to play around with that a little bit more. CFE BLK meters very very well which I like a lot.

Something else I found in playing around with the Mashburn was I always like to get as close to the lands as I can. I was loading my rounds really long, just like you I couldn't get close. So I decided to start seating the rounds deeper(closer to OAL of a 218 Bee) and well it started to really shoot some groups. Most all of my rifles the loads are only a couple thousands off lands but this little Cooper likes a jump. Who would have thought!!!???
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Old 10-11-2019, 02:20 PM
SEM SEM is offline
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Most of my .224 barrels both pistol and rifle length most of which are 1-12shoot the 35gr Vmax and the 30gr Varmint Grenade with amazing accuracy, seating caliber depth in the case and powder charges at near book max and warmer, all have the JUMP that drove me nuts eliminating SEAT !! out to the lands geeze, still do on long enough pills but stopped worrying about it as gospel

Oh yeah forgot to mention my very first wild cat was a 218 Mashburn Bee wish I still had it

Last edited by SEM; 10-11-2019 at 02:23 PM.
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  #5  
Old 10-11-2019, 03:32 PM
Bayou City Boy Bayou City Boy is offline
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I'm not where I can look at my records to state exactly how long I've had it, but I've had a Cooper Model 38 218 M Bee for quite a few years. It likes bullets in the 40-50 grain range the best when using both IMR and H4198. The 45 Grain Sierra Hornet bullet works extremely well.

I've never looked at the 218 or the Mashburn version as long range cartridges beyond a max of 250-300 yards. Instead I load my 218's for accuracy and not speed. I have other far better longer range cartridge/rifle combinations for reaching out 300+ yards and beyond.

JMO - BCB
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Old 10-11-2019, 07:59 PM
20VarTarg 20VarTarg is offline
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I didn't buy the 218 Mashburn to be a long range shooter but figured since it was a Mashburn it was meant to be pushed harder then a regular BEE. I believe with a 40 Grain Blitzking and a load of CFE BLK will get the bullet moving around 3400-3450. The 35 grain Nosler Ballistic Tip may get over 3500 FPS. This little cartridge is awesome. With speeds like that, small powder charges and accuracy pushing in the .2's consistently I don't see a need for any other .224 caliber rifle. Of course, that doesn't mean I don't have plenty of others to play with

I'm always going to be partial to the 20 VarTarg and I'm confident it will reach out to 450 yards. And someday I will get a .204 or a 20 TAC.

I'm very excited about my findings if you can't tell. Heading to the range again on Sunday!!!!!
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  #7  
Old 10-14-2019, 12:42 AM
20VarTarg 20VarTarg is offline
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Well I was just about spot on with my guess on velocity. My RL-7 load was right at 3100 but SD was 26. The CFE Load was 3450. The craziest thing about the CFE BLK load is that I loaded up 19.0, 19.2, & 19.4 grains. I shot 3 rounds of each and there was really no difference in velocity. But the 3 I shot at 19.4 had an SD of 7. So......I'm going to test that load and see how accuracy is. Very happy with the results so far.
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