.223 with heavy barrel

Aramis76

Aramis76

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Hi all,

Getting back into target shooting and currently have a Hera H6.

I notice that at 100 yards i can be very precise, but after a few shots, it starts to degrade.
Since that rifle is not heavy barreled i figured i'd ask what is a good rifle in .223 with a heavy barrel ?

I've seen ruger, savage and howa have some, but i prefer to ask the collective!

I prefer to stay in .223 since it's rather affordable and don't want to spend 2000$ on a rifle.

Looking forward to reading suggestions!

Thanks!
 
I have a Remington 700 with a Gailard custom heavy barrel 1:14 twist (light bullet shooter), with proper handloads and bullets ranging between 40-52 gr. it will put 10 shots well within a dime. A heavy barrel will enhance harmonics, also will take longer to heat up, thus enabling more shots before cool down
 
I just recently bought a used Tikka T3 (not T3X) stainless varmint 223 for $1100 but haven't shot it yet. It's got a 1:8 twist and the barrel is super thick, looking forward to it.

If you want to spend less than that, you can look at Howa 1500 223 HB, check the link below and give them a call, they've got it listed at $749, best price I've seen. They also offer a chassis for it if you're interested, apparently the stock it comes with kinda sucks.

Keep in mind different manufacturers have different barrel profiles, what Howa considers to be "Heavy" might not be as thick as Tikka's varmint profile.

https://www.canadiangunnutz.com/forum/threads/howa-inventory.2533489/
 
Maybe Aramis can get a fan to help cool the barrel? Some have small tube to go into barrel to speed cooling. I have a Ruger 223 Standard and take 'extra rifles' to keep me occupied while giving Ruger a 10-15 min 'cool-down' break. A couple HB 22LRs can take 50 rounds of 'normal paced' shooting b4 heating. I clean the 223 around 30 shots Or after a range trip and I clean those 22s around 100 shots. Guess I've become anal about cleaning since I've seen what chamber carbon does to accuracy in the 22s.
 
20YearsOfTannerite said:
I was debating buying one used, went with the Tikka Varmint instead. How often do you clean it, I heard it's pretty picky and requires cleaning after 40 shots to maintain tight groups. Have you ever put 5.56 through it? Thanks!
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That hasn't been my experience. My 1-7 heavy barrel has worked quite well, and gets cleaned maybe twice a season. More if it gets wet. I also have 223's with 1-9, 1-12, and 1-14 twist. All can be made accurate with handloading, but the slower twists do restrict which bullets you can use for that. - dan
 
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The best value to performance is to start with a 'less expensive' donor and spin on a match quality prefit barrel. Then you get the spec you want AND consistency/stability in the pipe.

Factory barrels are all over the place and you can easily get poor results... I rather build up with quality in the right places and save alot of headache overall.

Good donors include - older Rem 700SAs, Rem 783, older Savage SA/Stevens 200, howa, Tikka. A prefit with a barrel nut will shoot as well as a gunsmith build and can save alot of costs... and time.

26" BULL contour, thread for a muzzle brake/tuner if interested, twist to suit the bullets you want to use (8 twist is a great all around for up to 82gr). The SAAMI 223 Rem chamber is ideal except if you want to single load the heaviest bullets (over 82gr to 90gr)... then a 7 twist and a Wylde chamber is great

Bed properly into the stock and work up your load. Enjoy

Jerry
 
20YearsOfTannerite said:
I was debating buying one used, went with the Tikka Varmint instead. How often do you clean it, I heard it's pretty picky and requires cleaning after 40 shots to maintain tight groups. Have you ever put 5.56 through it? Thanks!
Click to expand...
Hand loads only and I do not treat this gun gently, it is my favorite gopher gun, so it gets dirty. We do however clean our shootin irons after each day out on the gopher patch.
 
if you buy quality to begin with you don't have to spin bbl's questionable action to begin with
if you don't reload then it becomes very much a questing game know mater what rifle you have 700$ or 2700$ it a crap shoot a best with factory ammo u will get ok results
 
I have a rem 783 action with a heavy 17" IBI stainless barrel spun on it. Finally getting it nailed down with the 75 gr vld tips. You can see my thread on the shooting and loading I just went through with it in this forum.

Its going to the long range this weekend, is the plan anyways with 100 reloads for testing out to 1000M. 500M was doing okay before I tried to tune in the numbers and tweaked the tune. Should be even better this time out.
 
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