Nice.
The 223 is an excellent cartridge when the barrel has enough twist as to stabilize the heavy for caliber bullets. With the 70 and 80 grain lead tips the cartridge is certainly deer sized game capable and of course varmints don’t stand a chance.
I built a fast twist 22-250 and it uickly became my favourite shooter. I think I’m going to sling the 95 grain sierras for this coming season.
Anyway for varmints checknout the 53 grain vmax,unless you’re after mucho velocity,then the 40 grain vmax are absolutely explosive for anything small. Pink mist all day long.
As I was testing bullet weights,as my barrel is a 26” 7 twist shilen but I was basically flying blind since load data for 90 grain projectiles was tough to find at the time,so I started with 80 grain projectiles and worked up to heavier bullets based on the data acquired using a specific piwder(superformance).
Anyways my point being I had some mind blowingly tight groups with minimal load development using the hornady hpbt. They shot so well I almost stuck with them,almost. And they are inexpensive too.
Enjoy the new rifle.