New here, with a used Mod. 10 FP .223

Hi all, New to the forum here and glad to have found it. I just picked up a used Model 10 FP in .223 w/ 20" barrel today.
I've just taken up Coyote hunting, so this will be my coyote rig. The scope is a BSA Mil Dot 4-16 x 40 mm w/ lighted reticle (will upgrade to better optics later). Stock is Choates Ult. Varmint w/ Harris bipod (not too keen on the camo job) so Im gonna strip and repaint it later on.
The only ammo I have on hand is some Rem. 45 gr. hollowpoints, so Im not expecting anything too spectacular as far as accuracy right off as Ive come to expect with Rem ammo. Hopin to get some rounds on paper tomorrow though.

Just curious if anyone else has a 10 FP in .223 and what to expect accuracy-wise with quality ammo or handloads. Thanks.
[img width=600 height=450]http://i46.photobucket.com/albums/f139/mhill69/MikesToys.jpg[/img]

You should be able to get 1" or better at 100yds. it's a very accurate rifle. If your just using factory ammo you might try the federal value pack at wally, it's 50gr. jhp and works well in mine. The camo doesn't look bad from here, but i guess it depends on where you hunt for it to work. I shoot better without the bi-pod. O, welcome aboard, blue

Assuming the bore and crown are in good shape, 1/2" grouped handloads at 100 yards would not be unreasonable to expect. Might take a bit of time and testing to find just the right load, however. If this barrel has a 1:12 twist, look at 50-53 grainers to yield the best accuracy; if 1:9, look at 55 grainers and over, with 60-68 most likely to give the best results.

Hey Flatlander
First off ,welcome...My favorite pdog gun is a short 223 like yours. Mine will shoot under .5 on a good day with hand loads. It hates the rem 45 hp, have trouble getting 5 in 1 .5". Thats still a way dead yote thou. I have no doubt you'll really be pleased with your new savage. I really like that stock for shooting varmints. I found I needed to change up my bag set up using this stock for bench work. I too have a 20" varmint contour barrel and mine loves 50 gr vmax over 26gr of H335, set .005 from the lands. 3200ish fps. Work up thou, this is a fairly hot load, more so in hot weather, but I have had no flat primers. Bill

Thanks for the welcome guys, and the info. Im not an avid reloader, but Im no stranger to it either, so Im looking foward to getting back into that aspect of it as well. The twist rate is 1:9 and the condition of the bore looks immaculate, as well as the crown. Actually, the gun just doesnt look like its been used much at all. Im not expecting the Rem HP's to be very accurate, as I have had experience with them in the past in other rifles. I buy them mainly cause its the cheapest thing I can find and have reloadable brass. I will deffinately get some better fodder for it when I can afford it though. I always had good luck with Federal Match Grade ammo, but dont even want to think about what a box of 20 cost nowdays.
I stripped the old camo paint job off this morning also. My intentions were to do a re-paint...but, now I'm leaning more towards leaving it all black so that I can camoflage the gun according to the seasons using camo/white/etc. fabric strips. I know youve all probably seen one before, in the same configuration but here it is freshly stripped. ;D
[img width=600 height=450]http://i46.photobucket.com/albums/f139/mhill69/Savage10-FP.jpg[/img]

Great rifle, I have one in 223 and a matching 308. Very handy with the 20" tube and the stock is easy to shoot with well. My wife likes the 223 so much it&#39;s hers now, and with a mild 50 gr V-Max handload lets her shoot all morning and not booger her shoulder up more. She consistently shoots <.5 MOA 5 shot groups, and while she has excellent eyesight and reflexes she doesn&#39;t consider herself an experienced shooter. I figure a handload is good enough at .5 MOA with Savages. Maybe if I get a fancy barrel I will expect more, but I&#39;d rather shoot more and experiment less.

Per info on this site, I did bed the pillar area and the back of the recoil lug on both rifles. If it&#39;s been shot enough you will see wear marks where the action shifts a bit in the stock (at least both mine did). An application of JB Weld might be in order.

As for commercial ammo, I&#39;d buy the horribly inaccurate (for me) Winchester 45 gr HP over Remington anything, as I&#39;ve had much better results reloading with Winchester brass. Federal commercial and match brass I&#39;ve tried has been very soft and is NOT something I&#39;ll invest time in prepping (308 FGMM, 308 hunting, 270 WSM hunting, 223 hunting). Federal took over Lake City Arsenal, though, and if you see the WallyWorld 100rd value pack of M193 in a Federal box, the brass is good hard LC stuff.

I bought several different varieties of Black Hills Blue Box when I got it, it was cheap ammo back a few years ago. Black Hills uses LC brass and has good quality control, so you get good ammo to shoot cheaply (USED to be cheap) and you have decent brass left to reload. The Black Hills 52 gr MHP gave excellent accuracy at 200 yards (the furthest my club range goes) so I don&#39;t think the 1:9 twist is a problem for light bullets, at least not from 50 gr on up to 69&#39;s.

I can&#39;t shoot 75 gr VLD&#39;s in the 20" tube, but I did get a 26" 12FVSS to replace the rifle my wife took, that 1:9 twist with a hot load will drive them fast enough to stabilize. I have had excellent results with 50/60 gr VMax, the Nosler 52 gr HPBT, the 69 gr SMK and Nosler, the 52 gr Hornady MHP that was in Black Hills but NOT the 68 gr MHP (???). Anyway, I use H322 for the lighter <55 gr bullets and Varget for the heavier stuff. I have som 53 gr flat base I need to work up but it&#39;s low priority. I haven&#39;t worked up anything lighter than 50 gr so maybe the very light bullets won&#39;t like the 1:9 but you have a LOT of options to work with.

Depending on what/how far you want to shoot, you might look into a one piece rail when you go for better glass, I have Farrell&#39;s on all 3 of my Savages but there are several choices out there. You can get a 20 MOA rail if you want to go WAY out there and a lot of the high mag varmint scopes seem to be a little short of elevation. Have fun!

Regards,
Brian in CA

My 3 .223 FP10s hated the win 45gr hp bullets. They all shot cruddy, all over the place.
But Hornadys 40 gr Vmax went .50" as well as 50 & 55 gr vmax. 69 sierra match kings are at .333", at about 2900 fps.
All mine sport the 24" bbl.

Thanks for all the great info guys. In reality, the areas I will be hunting coyotes with this rig will probably be limited to 200 yard shots the vast majority of the time...so Im really hoping to find a factory load that will give me acceptable accuracy for coyotes out to that range. But, knowing myself the way I do...the lust for tiny one-hole groups will prevail and I will delve back into the reloading scene again.
I have my Father to blame for that ;)...he was a major accuracy freak and he passed that on to me. I miss our little bragging rights shoots we used to have.

My 10 FLP .223 will shoot .1-.2" groups with preferred handloads. When I do my part, I&#39;ve even squeezed out a few one-hole three shot groups at 100 yards.

Onefavorite is the 60gr Vmax over 24.5gr Varget, Win brass, CCI400 primer.
another is the 50gr Vmax, 25.0gr Imr3031
another good one is the 75gr Amax, 23.8gr Varget

I have found that i can reload the fed-value brass 5-6 times. the early stuff had a blue ring around the primer, this is very soft and easy to over ream the pocket. The later stuff i have is marked lc with a red ring and is easier to ream. (harder pockets) most of my 1/9&#39;s do very well on 50gr vmax and 25-26grs of benchmark. blue