700 SPS tactical .223 Tell me about yours.

M70-338

M70-338

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Need a 223 and really considering an SPS Tactical. Reasons are mainly because of the 20" barrel and 9" twist and I really like the limitless options and accessories available to 700 owners. I know about the decreased velocity of the shorter barrel but it's a trade off I don't mind because it's a range and varmint rifle and in the field I really struggle to connect with sage rats beyond 300 anyways.

I really like the 5R but does a guy really need to spend $500+ to assure himself better accuracy. The stock is a beauty but I could live without it for the sake of the savings between the two.

If anyone has a 700 SPS in .223, What is a reasonable accuracy expectation with a new trigger and hand loads? MOA? 0.5?
 
Mine is a bitser. SPS Tac barrel installed on an action that I had, all in a MDT LSS chassis. Shoots very well. Isn't a half minute rifle, though. 20" barrel is fine, unless you want to shoot F class out to 900m. I think in terms of it having an effective range similar to a 20" AR.
 
Love mine. I upgraded the stock to an hs precision i got on the EE for a hundred and fifty dollars. Other than that it is stock. It's a consistent 3/4 minute gun, with some groups around 0.6. This is shooting hand loads with the 69gr sierra match king.
 
M70-338 said:
700 SPS tactical .223 Tell me about yours.
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Mine belongs on the hunting and sporting forums and not the precision forums. i use the 16.5 1/9. expect 1 MOA and over on a good day. i reload 68 bthp. 62gr ivi shoots fine, but federal xm855 62gr sucks hard. 55gr ae sucks and norinco 55 was the worst. 77gr black hills and 77gr remingtons shot fine. imo you need 77gr and over for gongs over 500m otherwise you wont hear it. the 16.5s need a flash hider and is loud as sin.
 
heres mine

this one dosent say sps just tactical could be the same thing though.my first four shots out of this were to show the RO at silverdale i could shoot properly.after 4rnds were in the same whole i was good to go.that was at 50yds though.its very accurate
 
Mine is one of my favourite rifles I own, always surprises me how well it shoots. Mine also loves handloaded 69gr SMK's. Has a HS precision take off stock also.

 
Jay and submoa223 both of you are very lucky to have found HS takeoff stocks. In order to guarantee that heavy barrel doesn't rest on the stock it's pretty important to have that full bedding block in there like the HS has. That stock is over $500, you scored big time!
 
M70-338 said:
Jay and submoa223 both of you are very lucky to have found HS takeoff stocks. In order to guarantee that heavy barrel doesn't rest on the stock it's pretty important to have that full bedding block in there like the HS has. That stock is over $500, you scored big time!
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These stocks are on the EE often for 250-350, if your patient thou they can be found cheaper. I've bought a few over the years and the most I paid was 200 and have got them as low as 100. Great stock for the money. Even at $500 it would be hard to beat.
 
I can shoot moa at 100 yards with an sps varmint with hornady steel match. Shooting off a bipod with no back bag so I'm sure I'm the weak link in the chain. My cousin has a 5r in .308 that is also excellent. The 700 short action hs precision stock is fairly common in the EE. I picked up a 700 VLS stock because I liked the laminate stock better. The faster twist of the tactical would be nice. The shorter barrel would be better for field work as the 26" barrel is a beast.
 
Mine shoots better than me. Aside from the tac bolt knob installation (thanks ATRS for the knob), I ran it stock for years. Last year I pulled the trigger on a Rifle Basix, but that's just because it was on special. I don't have a problem with the stock at all, for a short rifle it's perfectly fine (unlike the SPS non-TAC plastic PoS). The limiting factor on this rifle is the shooter, depending on how much practice I was doing on it, I was getting between 1 and 0.5 MOA, and that's the shooters problem not the rifle.

I reload for it, range pickup or norc brass, federal or CCI primers, Hornady bulk 223 55gr, and 24.6gr of IMR3031. BTW that's the powder that this round was originally designed to use, but doesn't seem to be that common with reloaders here who tend to use Varget. IMR/H4895 is also a decent powder for the round, similar or slightly higher charge weight. I tried Nosler bullets with this rifle but it didn't like them (68gr?).

The rifle shoots soft and very accurate.
 
Don't exclude a 1-12 twist if your only going 300 yards!
I put my sps varmint in a mdt lss chassis out to 610yards with 50gr vmax.
Still enough energy to rival a .22 at that distance! (Oddball will tumble lol! That's a little far for that pill)
With a quality scope and good ballistic measurements/drop calculator, 1st shot hits are completly doable up to 500yards with mild-light wind.

25.9gr benchmark, 50gr vmax at 3390fps
 
snooze98k said:
Don't exclude a 1-12 twist if your only going 300 yards!
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I might have made a boo boo here going for the 1 in 9 twist but I've already committed to buying. I'll post up the 700 rig I've pieced together tomorrow night.
Hope it shoots frangible bullets, like vamageddons and varmint grenades decently out to 300, I don't think they come any heavier than 55-60 grain. If not you'll be seeing it on the EE.
 
M70-338 said:
I might have made a boo boo here going for the 1 in 9 twist but I've already committed to buying. I'll post up the 700 rig I've pieced together tomorrow night.
Hope it shoots frangible bullets, like vamageddons and varmint grenades decently out to 300, I don't think they come any heavier than 55-60 grain. If not you'll be seeing it on the EE.
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Dude you are 1000% better off with the 1:9 over the 1:12.
My recommendation is to shoot the 69 grain SMKs and absolutely forget everything else. If you aren't a hand loader there's someone out there who loads them for a reasonable price. If you are a hand loader then great. I have never seen a bullet do a better job in 223 on a wide range of critters = real world experience but from a 1:7 twist. I have also used the 1:9 quite a bit but it is not as good as 1:7 for terminal effect, but certainly better than the 1:12. Currently I use 1:8 with 80 grain SMKs on my tricked out Sako that I've used mostly from 300 to 600 yards, but my next barrel might be a 1:7.

If a guy is stuck in the 1970s you can run light bullets, but nowadays nobody does-on purpose.

If you can back out of the 1:9 deal go find a 1:7 and shoot the 69 smk or even heavier. You wont believe how well it'll run for ya.

What you need to think about regarding lethality is how fast the bullet is rotating.
2800 FPS from 1:12 is spinning 168000 RPMs
2800 FPS from 1:9 is spinning 224000 RPMs
2800 FPS from 1:8 is spinning 252000 RPMs
2800 FPS from 1:7 is spinning 288000 RPMs
You’ve heard of centrifugal force right? So what do you think will happen when a bullet spinning 288000 RPMs on impact compared to a bullet spinning 168000 RPMs?
 
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My shopping journey is nearing its end thanks to a couple good local deals from fellow CGN'ers. Thanks guys! Still need action bolts/screws, Picatinny rail and a Timney 510 (let me know where to get these at a good price). I'd like to go HSP DBM but for $500 clams I wanna make sure it's shooter first. I realize there is more economical DBM options but it would be nice not to inlet the stock for that, HSP would be drop in.
Here's the build so far: a lightly used low round count (40) .223 20"HB 9" twist with factory floorplate and an unbedded HSP 5R takeoff stock. All for about the price of an SPS tactical after tax and shipping.

 
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These are a great little rifle. Had mine shooting clover leaves with 69 gr SMKs. Reaching out to 500m it was still sub-moa. The only thing I didn't like was the weight. To carry that gun for gophers was torture. Ended up selling it in favour of a CZ. As a target gun though is was a fantastic shooter.
 
Very nice! You're going to have a great rifle once you get some glass and some good ammo! Relatively inexpensive to shoot, and loads of fun.
 
223submoa said:
Very nice! You're going to have a great rifle once you get some glass and some good ammo! Relatively inexpensive to shoot, and loads of fun.
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I bought a Leupold VXII 6-18 AO on sale almost two years ago and it's been in the box since then. This scope will be fine for my purposes and if I find a pet load, it'll be sent in for CDS upgrade.
Can't wait to complete this and get shootin'!
 
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