- Location
- West Quebec
Have to agree and getting pretty nice results..
Cheaper than 223?
- Thread starter calvados.boulard
- Start date
Have to agree and getting pretty nice results..
winchester12
CGN Regular
- Location
- Chatham ontario
What about 222 . The great old triple deuce. 19gr of powder and the same bullet as 223. It is very acurate,cheaper to load than 223 and older 222 rifles are cheap. I have an old savage bolt gun that does a great job. I use a dirt cheap lee loader and the results would suprise you. I have under $200 invested.
Pretty much but not exactly. Do not mix 223 and 5.56 brass in reloading batches. Read the sticky at the top of black rifles.
Agree'd, I like 223 but if you look at it from cost only then it isn't really worth reloading for over buying bulk. I reload so I can shoot premium for the price of bulk, I have bought a few hundred Hornady FMJ 55gr projectiles to try out and I hope they work well because they are a lot cheaper than a Nosler or Hornady varmint bullet.
If you go with a slightly used bolt action then you can get into 223 and have a very accurate rifle for around $500. Then spend at least $400 on glass and you're good to go.
- Location
- Over the rainbow
I have an unmodified factory Savage 10 PC .223 that I'm finding the right load for. Last time I was at the range I shot .5 MOA with it -- < 1" at 200 yards. It's a better rifle than I am a marksman.
Total cost for that was about $900 with tax.. plus about $700 in glass, mind you.
EDIT: Because, on the Internet, talk is cheap
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- Location
- Over the rainbow
- Location
- Over the rainbow
I think this is actually very relevant to what OP was originally asking about. Does hand-loading .223 make it cheaper? Probably it doesn't. That is, your cheapest hand-loads are unlikely to be cheaper than the cheapest bulk surplus ammunition. There was another thread on this forum recently about the cost of .223 reloads and most people came in around $.30 or so (although some people lucked into getting large bulk bullet deals and had lower costs, but I consider that an anomaly). MFS bulk ammo comes in at about that price point, and the Norinco bulk was even cheaper.
The difference is obviously in the quality-- for the same prices as the bulk crap, you're getting insanely accurate stuff that is absolutely tuned to your rifle and application. In fact, it's probably better than the very best factory stuff because you know that it's set up to behave optimally in your particular gun.
This is obviously for people who are concerned about maximum accuracy and precision. For someone who just wants to shoot a lot, I'm not sure all the time and investment required to get into .223 reloading is going to pay off..
boltonscouter
CGN frequent flyer
- Location
- parts unknown
I have an unmodified factory Savage 10 PC .223 that I'm finding the right load for. Last time I was at the range I shot .5 MOA with it -- < 1" at 200 yards. It's a better rifle than I am a marksman.
Total cost for that was about $900 with tax.. plus about $700 in glass, mind you.
EDIT: Because, on the Internet, talk is cheap
I have the same rifle & love it! Curious what load that was in your target & also ...... what computer program is that?
- Location
- Over the rainbow
Yeah, it's a sweet rifle. I had some doubts about it at first and had a number of accuracy and feeding issues, but it turns out that I just sucked. Once I fixed my suck a little bit, the rifle started performing like a champ.
That was a 60gr Hornady VMAX .224 with 20.7gr (the minimum load) of H322, in once-fired Winchester brass with a garden-variety CCI primer. It was shot off a bench with a bipod and no rear bag. The scope was a Burris MTAC 6-20.
The program is OnTarget. It's shareware.
It's pretty good, but it's a little buggy.
This was shot the same day with Hornady 68gr BTHP with the minimum load of H322. I was surprised how well the VMAX did against the bigger and heavier boat tails. It was a windy day.
