I have come to a point in my life where I realize that there is no perfect gun for my; but in 223, the 527M1 American Synthetic comes pretty darned close! Hmmmm, I wonder if there is a Winchester-style 3 position safety that Martini could........BAD THOUGHTS, BAD THOUGHTS!!!!!!
I'm looking forward to doing all sorts of load development for this rifle, though as I say, I will buy a large amount of the Hornady bullets, and WW735 powder for shooting stuff, and also as a control load. By this, I mean that when I go to the range with a new load, I will always take a batch of stuff that I know exactly how it shoots; if it shoots the same that day as it does any other day, then I'm getting actual results of the load that I'm testing, and it's not just bad because of my shooting that day. A control load doesn't have to be the most accurate thing in your gun; just consistent.
Both of my other 223's liked the Hornady 55gr bullet, so this rifle shouldn't dislike them too much, though, they where both Remingtons. I may just have total fun, and see how light of a bullet, and how heavy of a bullet that 1 in 12 rifling will actually stabilize; why not, it's going to be my toy!
Mike