New to me "used" .223 Barrel shows promise to be a Shooter!
I have been in the market for a short, varmint weight .223 barrel for a while now....just for an informal range/fun target rifle. Whenever I go to shoot my rifles, I always take a .22 or two to shoot while in between the big guns and I've been wanting to build up a nice .223 for similar fun. I found a used 20" barrel in the classifieds a couple of weeks ago at a good price (thanks Bowbrother) and got it screwed on and ready to go. Last weekend, I grabbed a few different miscellaneous varmint loads I have worked up for a couple of other rifles just to get the scope on paper and see what potential was there. It shot pretty dang good with those random loads, and printed a couple of groups in the .5" range. I was excited and ready to get to working on a good "accuracy" load for the barrel.
This morning, I sized up some used PMC brass, grabbed a jug of Varget, and loaded up some 69 grain SMKs from 24.0 up to 25.5 in .3 increments. For seating depth, I just picked a suggesting starting OAL of 2.26" I found online. The first shot of the day was low, and then the fun immediately began with the next 4 shots making a nice litte 1/2" group! I then shot 5 three shot groups moving up the ladder of powder charges. The worst group of the day (if you discount the very first fowling shot) was right at .75". The best group is in the "teens" at 24.6 grains, and three of the other 4 groups are in the .3's. This is by far the best set of groupings I've ever had a barrel shoot during developing a load and I haven't even touched the seating depth or started to fine tune the load at all. It think it is safe at this point to say that this barrel is going to be a shooter. This afternoon I have loaded up a bunch of rounds with the 24.6 charge, and I'm going to see if it is consistant there. If so, I may just leave it be and enjoy. Below is a pic of the rifle and the test target from today with all the rounds I shot. Building and Shooting these things is so much dang fun, and then when a plan comes together and they start to print tiny little groups, it's just plain rediculously fun!!
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