My .223 would have shot better, faster if I had taken the time to break it in. It finally settled down to 1/2MOA and less after about 400 rounds.
My .223 would have shot better, faster if I had taken the time to break it in. It finally settled down to 1/2MOA and less after about 400 rounds.
just finished my 223 build by adding a long baffle from a 10. I wish I'd taken time to set up the mill to remove the indexing tab as my grinding job looks like hammered dog shit. I can still clean it up with the mill so its not a total loss, Midway has the baffles for $5 so its a cheap mod.
Reminds me of an incident a while back. Father-in-law was Navy and was stationed on Guam during the mid 60's. A friend of his had been stationed there several times (he was married to a local) and had a house there. He was on orders back to the states where he was going to retire and he had a bunch of guns that just would not be legal in the US. Acquired over the years from various islands in the South Pacific. So, they had a boat party. A real one. They took the illegal stuff out to sea and dumped them. Several Thompson sub guns, couple of bazookas, one BAR, Japanese machine gun, etc Even a couple of mortars. Something like 20 items went into the ocean.
And just so it would not go to waste, many of then were fired for the last time before they went over. Even one of the bazookas still had a couple of rounds to go with it.
ninner - Sweet!!
Got out to range on 20-Feb and sighted in at 25 yards. HEAVY trigger, ugh. Returned to range on 21st and shot at 50 yards. Moved through scope power from 3 to 9 and got consistent point of aim. Spent some time on 26th adjusting/reducing trigger pull. Got on 100 yd on range 28-Feb, first shot called flyer, next 4 shots in bullseye for a 1" group. Really looking forward to getting comfortable at 100 and moving out to 200 and 400 yards over next few weeks.
Appreciate the tips provided,
Dave
Are you still using the 55 grain Winchester? Handloads might shoot better but some factory loads shoot well too.
Not sure if you're asking me, or someone else Mr. S. At any rate, I'm just using the 55g for getting some range time with it. Still working on getting back out there and making some more empty cases. After ~100 or so (might take all 150 of 'em to get 100 to fire though), I'll start experimenting and working up some loads with several different boolits.
If this question was to me, then I have started with American Eagle 55 gr FMJ. I bought 2 boxes of them as the cheapest ammo for rough sighting in use. Got my hands on 400 rounds of Winchester 55 gr FMJ, they will be next up the spout to compare against the AE rounds. Considering starting reloading perhaps in the summer as I expect to shoot more when the days get longer.
Dave
My Axis shoots the best with the Sierra 77 grain Match King. Charlie B suggested them and they are just ever so slightly better than the 69 grain Sierra Match King. I also shot some 52 grain Hornady that shot pretty well. I tried some 68 grain Hornady and they didn't seem to work very well at all but I can't really say for sure since I didn't shoot many. It might have been an error my part. I will try they again and see what happens. Of course, your rifle may be different but mine and Charlie's seem to work very well with the Sierras.
Thanks. CFJunkie has a long post on his .223 development efforts. He and I also had trouble with the Hornady 68gn HPBT match bullets. But, the Hornady ELD bullets do very well.
For factory stuff, if you can find it, try Black Hills or Federal Gold Medal Match ammo with the Sierra 69gn Matchking bullets (or 77gn if you can find them). They have an excellent reputation for accuracy.
I had bad luck with almost all the less expensive .223 or 5.56 ammo. 1 1/2 to 2" groups were the norm for me.
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