what grain 223 bullet?

[racinready300ex]

I'm putting a factory 26" varmint weight 223 barrel with a 1-9 twist on my savage. Most of my shooting will be done at 100 yards. I plan to use 52 grain flat base berger bullets for that.

I also want to do some longer range stuff, out to 600 yards. I'm thinking a heavier grain boat tail bullet would be better suited. I would guess at least 70 grain should work. What loads have you guys had good results with?

[GaCop]

When I had my 1/9 twist, my best groups/accuracy was with the 75 grain A-Max. I'm shooting a 1/7 barrel now and still working up loads with the heavier 80 grain bullets.

[PBinWA]

When I had my 1/9 twist, my best groups/accuracy was with the 75 grain A-Max. I'm shooting a 1/7 barrel now and still working up loads with the heavier 80 grain bullets.


What powders and how much were you using with those A-Max's? I've got a box of them I've been meaning to try out.

[hunt127588]

Some good powders for the 75 AMAX are RL-15, H335, Varget....Some have used Benchmark but it might be a little fast. I prefer RL-15.

[Quickshot]

I have same barrel on mod. 12 BVSS. Best accuracy with 60 gr. Berger flat base on 26.5 gr. Varget, win. primer out to 250, don't shoot much beyond that. Quick

[dcloco]

The go to bullet/powder/primer combo in a multiple of Savage 1:9 twist barrels and three AR15's is H4895/CCI 450/Nosler or Sierra 69 gr HPBT's. In two of the Savage's, this combo prints groups in the 2's (0.2").

[rjtfroggy]

Out of my mod.12 with the same barrel as yours I am using 23.8gr. of IMR4895 under a Sierras 63gr.smp. Prints right around .5-.6 at 200 if I am at the bench by myself concentrating on what I am doing(no distractions),primer is rem.71/2.

[Dirk]

That 1/9 barrel and 69 gr SMK isn't going to get it done at 600 yards with any great level of accuracy. You should try a 75 grain bullet, but not all 1 in 9's will stabilize such a long bullet. You need the heavier bullet so you can 'buck' the wind and retain some velocity at 600 yards.

[DGD6MM]

Over the weekend some fellas and I were shooting out to 857 yards at the range we belong too. One guy had a 22-250 with a 1-9 FV barrel using 70 grain Berger VLD Target bullets. His groups were impressive. Mirage was bad and the wind was present, if it was me I'd try the Berger's. I don't think the 75 grainers will work, but I'm like anyone else I could be wrong. Others are shooting 70's in .223 and being successful at 600.

[helotaxi]

75gn Hornady HPBT match shoot fine out of my 12 FV .223. Over 20.x of AA 2520 with Fed 205M primers were running well under 0.5 if you discount the first round fliers. Even with fliers, which were always the first round of the group which I found a bit odd, most groups from my development loads were around 0.75".

[racinready300ex]

I think I'm going to try the 75 grain hornady's first. If that doesn't work I'll drop back to the 70's VLD's or similar.

[racinready300ex]

I loaded up 19 rounds of 70 gr berger VLDs saturday. four different powder charges, 5 rounds of each. (one was only 4).

My first group, was the 4 shot group, measued about .27" at 100m. Let the gun cool shot a 5 shot group (.5 grain more powder) this group the 1st shot was a little high.(may have been me) The next 4 shots were about .25" if I count the 1st shot it was about .5". My third group opened up, (vertical string) a little over .5". (again this was .5 more powder then group 2) I didn't shoot my last group.

I need to do more testing, but these seem to shoot really well. This gun was a .243 before, and no matter what combination I tried with that barrel it never shot this good.

[lal357]

I think I'm going to try the 75 grain hornady's first. If that doesn't work I'll drop back to the 70's VLD's or similar.

thinking the same thing in my model 12lrpv 1-9" hoping to do a ladder test this weekend also gonna load up some 62grs that i shoot in my bushmaster