New Ultimatum 223rem build TEST TARGET sub.5moa

[lee_enfield223]

Hi All
Well I am sure you have all heard about these new actions, which a dealer has been selling. Well I have been doing a LOT of testing over the years,and I have been shooting since I was 10 years old and am about to turn 51.
Anyway I used to always use remington 700 actions in all my rifles, but of late,the last 20 years the finish just is not as good,plus it's like trying to build a target rifle on a mauser 98 action,they are NOT as ridged as an omark 44 or what ever else you are using. and trying to get sub 1/2 moa groups. about five years ago I bought a sako TRG22 in 308 and sub 1/2 MOA groups were the norm all day long, but the stock was just too bulky, But I discovered something that was in plain site ! ,a big stiff action shoots better with hot loads than a light action with a big ejection port, so I decided to replace all my rem700's with custom rem700 style actions, the first of these was a stiller tac30 in 308,then a stiller spectre action in 260rem and finally an Ultimatum action in 223rem. Now here's the interesting part, the barrel 223rem is an early Border button rifled barrel called an archer, it never shot really well with 69gr sierras or 80gr pills about one MOA but it loved 60gr nosler balistic tips which were always sub 1/2 MOA. All these while screwed into a rem700 action which when fitted saw no more than 250 rounds. anyway the rem700 action was sold off and the barrel was fitted into the Ultimatum action, But BUGGER the action was supposed to have 16TPI threads not 20TPI which is Savage small ring size, anyway I had to get the gunsmith to rechamber it with the same reamer used originally and rethreaded to suit the new action, The barrelled action was then mounted into a GRS varmint stock and glass bedded and an atlas bottom metal inletted into the stock, and a Nightforce 5.5x22x56 NSX mounted on top.
I took the rifle to the range on saturday and sighted it in at 50m with the OSA 69gr sierra factory ammo and proceeded to shoot two 5 shot groups into the size of a base of a 22lr round (that's the outside group size), and I thought WOW this thing never shot this well before. Anyway It was really windy about 30kmh so I couldn't do a proper test at longer range but there was a telescopic match on a moving positions target at 200m with a 50mm bulls eye which I thought was a good test of the rifles ability, so I shot the match and they give you 5 mins to sight your rifle in at 200m. I selected a 25mm white target patch on the target and hit it 2 times out of 3 after adjusting the height and windage settings on the scope, which was nice and clear, well I just knew if I did my part the rifle would do it's part.
The match started and I shot the first ten rounds into the 50mm bull for a perfect score of 50 points,,,now if I can just do it again !! during the second half I shot one shot slightly high and only got 9 out of ten into the black bull, the high shot was 12mm high out of the group , well I still had a great run and considering the high wind I am more than happy with the way it's shooting.
I do intend to shoot it at silvadale range in western sydney just to see what it will do, I also bought some 75gr Bergers to try out as it has a 1 in 7.5 twist barrel, so ill keep you all updated on the results

Hi all I shot the rifle at silverdale range at 100m and with 24.6grs of 2208 and a 75gr Berger it's a sub half MOA performer, now I am quite happy with that !!! if you look at the groups of 24 and 25grs they are ok but nothing to rave about but 24.3 to 24.6 are quite good and at 500m plus should be better than a 308win with a 168gr sierra.

Oh here's a ballistic chart comparing the two cartridges at long range,, the 223 with vld bullets has come a long way !!!! and the figures from the 308rem chart are from my 308 PRS rifle

[Brad Y]

Looks the goods mate. The new 80smk’s come factory pointed on the meplat and seem to shoot well in an 8 twist. But with the 7.5 twist I would probably try the 80gr eld first.

[lee_enfield223]

I have about 250 off nosler 80gr and about 1000 off 75gr bergers plus some 75gr hornady match projectiles , I hope the bergers shoot as I have lots of them, and they are VLD's and their down range ballistics are really good

[lee_enfield223]

Hi all I shot the rifle at silverdale range at 100m and with 24.6grs of 2208 and a 75gr Berger it's a sub half MOA performer, now I am quite happy with that !!! if you look at the groups of 24 and 25grs they are ok but nothing to rave about but 24.3 to 24.6 are quite good and at 500m plus should be better than a 308win with a 168gr sierra.
I posted this text above plus a pic of the target groups

[MISSED]

Great write up ,build and results.

I look forward to seeing a couple of winners trophies in the not to distant future.

[lee_enfield223]

thanks missed, yes It's all up to me now,, ill shoot it at 300m and 700m at anzac/malabar and also run some rounds through my crony so I know the bullet speed but I think it's close to 2850fps and ill stick a ballistic hold over chart to the stock so when I shoot it in the precision service rifle matches all my zeros should be real close.