what is your favourite 223 load?

[trevort]

I was only using the 223 as I had sold my factory 204 too early and the custom took a lot longer than expected awaiting the barrel (just over a year).

Theres a few posts on the board featuring my 204 atm I'm yet to fire my rebarreled 223 (JAB 20) at anything.



Thomo dropped the ball and went and sold his 204 ended up with a 243 for varminting. Traitor!!!

[James270]

Theres a few posts on the board featuring my 204 atm

Yeah, that 100m shot you pulled off last week was long range varminting at its finest Trevort

[trevort]

I cant actually think of a comeback so I'll just laugh James

[andy303]

hi guys my ruger is a 1-12 twist ,what grain pill would you think this rifle would prefer ?i know that different rates of twist shoot different weights of bullets better because of being more stable in flight i just dont know what mine would prefer hence my question .....thanks guys regards andy

[trevort]

55gn and below. Try 50gn SBKs, 52gn HPBT nosler shots, 50 vmax 55 NBT etc etc. It wont stabilise any longer than those.

[WhiteMeat]

Andy - I used to run 60 grain vmaxes in the 1:12 twist tikka I previously had, if I had more than 3 projectiles left in the box i'd send them to you to try out

[17MachIV]

Andy,

I use 55gn Sierras (1365's), 25 grains BM2 in mine, spotlighting heaps of furries, doesn't let me down.
Only thing is it is a bit savage on foxes if you want the skins.

regards
Steve

[Dr G]

Andy my current load for the 223 is using 40gn Blitzkings using BM2 powder. I wont bother listing the charge here as I am a strong beliver that you need to work up loads for yourself for your own rifles in the climate you shoot in. With this load my floated and trigger jobbed but otherwise bog standard Rem SPS sporter is putting five shots into 35mm at 200m from the bench. This blows out to 50mm when using a bipod across the bonnet of the landcruiser.

FWIW the best shot to date with that rifle was a cat at 413 paces which given my average pace length of 75cm in this terrain works out at very close to 310m (measured and witnessed for the nay sayers) which I have mentioned elsewhere I think i would be lucky to make 2 times in 10 in the same conditions with the same rifle.

Chris I fully agree that a 200m shot spotlighting is approaching a long shot buts its still within my 90% certainty of a hit range. As ranges approach and exceed 250m I find spotlighting accuracy starts to diminish for me with the SPS. I have regularly spotlight the same boundary fence fo about 4.5 years now and know the distances to the base of the sand dunes and key landmarks. Under a spotlight I cant count the number of times I have initially overestimated distance but have checked myself because I actually know the distance. When shooting in unfamiliar territory I used to miss a few as I overestimated the distance and shot high. I try and practice my distance estimation as much as possible these days and I have found my accuracy improving as a result.

If anyone is interested for the method in working out your average pace for a given terrain let me know and I will write it up for you. We did it as an exercise in biostatistics at uni and it has proved to be remarkably accurate and usefull ever since

Dr G

[Curtley78]

G'day Andy,

I had a Mk II Ruger for many years that was chambered in .223. It was my favourite rifle, if not one of the most accurate rifles I had owned.

I only ever used CCI benchrest primers.

For a 55 grn Nosler I used 25 grns of BM2.

For 50 grn Bergers and Noslers 26 grns of BM2

And for 52 grn Sierra Match Kings I was using 26.5 grns of BM2, this was the ultimate load and performed very well and ran consistent velocities of 3250 fps with variations of 5-8 fps.

I also began developing a load utilising a 45 grn Sierra and 25 grns of BM2 and another using the 35 grn V-Max with 22 grns of 2207.

Finally I had another load using 19 grns of 2207 with a 55 grn Hornady V-max.

All of these loads were sub moa with the load consisting of 26.5 grns of BM2 and the Sierra 52 grn MK sub MOA at 200.

P.S Hope this helps and I would advise that with these loads that you begin 0.5 grn under what I have specified.

Regards

Sean

[chris thomas]

Sometimes at a new place we wil sight our rifles in under the spotlight at 200m . After a few laps around a propety you soon learn the ranges.

The 40 grain load sounds good i bet it shhots flat. I have the Barrel from my VSSF still and have thought about fitting it to my sako .17 or Tikka .222 and setting up a spotlighting load using the 40 grainers.

Then there's the .204 that really interests me as a spotlighting rifle !!!!!

Most of the shots i miss at night are from over shooting and now only aim on as a low shot miss is easier to see than shooting over the top.

One of the best things i did when shooting at propertys that are very open is put a smaller 50 and 75 watt globe in my light . The 50 watt will just show the body of a fox and if i only see eyes i know it's over 250m. I did this for a couple of years untill i learned the art of reading distance and stopped trying for those really long shots that looked a lot closer than they were in the 100w light

[andy303]

thank you one and all for your replys l iam interested in this powder BM2 enough to try it out with my load development for my 223 it certanly keeps cropping up in various posts i will still experiment with 2206h as well because i have a few containers of it and i will also buy some of those 40 grain ballistic tips to try as well once again thanks guys as a relative newby (i did dabble about 25 years ago with one of those lee loaders you put together with a mallet )it is good having such a great reference at your finger tips your knowledge and experience is appreciated regards andy