Accuracy of bulk 223 ammo ?

Niko-PG

Niko-PG

CGN Regular
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Location
Kamloops/Africa
Hi guys,

I’m considering buying a precision rifle in 223 for cheap plinking. I will NOT reload for it anytime soon (too small bullet and I’m busy with 308) and hope to be able to shoot cheap ammo (55gr AE for instance). My goal is to maximize shooting time, punching paper as far as I can, as cheap as I can. It will also make a nice gun for my son who starts to be bored by the .17 HMR.

So here are my questions: from a quality rifle, what kind of accuracy can I expect with 55gr AE or similar cheap bulk ammo? Is it just a waste of money? I am not planning to win any competition, just learn more about long distance shooting (wind, pressure etc…) while saving my 308.

Ideas, comments ?
 
My experience is that cheap 55 gr bullets shoot like crap out of good target rifles. .223 is about half the price to reload match ammo compared to .308 match ammo. I do agree that those little tiny bullets are a PITA to seat with sausage size fingers:p

With a fast twist barrel shooting 80 gr bullets your elevations and wind is the same as shooting 155 gr bullets from a .308. If you have a 1:7 twist to shoot 90 gr bullets you are up around the 175 gr .308 when it comes to shooting in the wind.

Get some 55 gr AE and have your son turn them into empty cases for you to reload:D
 
Out of my Benelli MR-1 AE 55 gr dont shoot extra 2.5 to 3.0 inch at 100 metres this rifle with my handloads Amax 52 gr is giving me .8 to 1.2 all day long, so cheap ammo dont shoot good, buy match ammo or start reloading, much more satisfaction there... JP.
 
Based on recent experiments with a Savage 10FPL in a Robertson stock, and a friend's similar experience with a Savage BVSS, the cheap ammunition is much too erratic even at 100 yards, and worse at 200 yards.

He was shooting WWB 55 grain and it was so bad we thought something was wrong with his rifle or scope until he switched to different ammunition. In this case it was another lot of WWB 55 grain (Israeli vs. the U.S. stuff he was using) but it made a big difference in group size.

Later we tried Federal Gold Medal Match (69 and 77 grain). The GMM is ridiculously expensive but both weights produced a significantly smaller group sizes than the WWB, Privi Partisan and other cheap ammunition we tried, all other factors unchanged.

Our conclusion is that we need good quality ammunition but we can't afford the GMM at ~ $1.60 per round.

Another friend is shooting handloads in his BVSS with very good results. So we need to source suitable components and get busy loading this ourselves.

There is only so much time for shooting, so in my view it is just too frustrating and time consuming to try to learn and apply the skills needed for precision shooting (especially wind reading) with a rifle / ammo that shoots large groups.
 
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