RangerPark
CGN frequent flyer
- Location
- Near Edmonton, AB
Ever since our dearest Supreme Leader has outlawed most of my .223 toys I have had an itch to scratch. I have tried many bolt guns in .223 to compensate including the Remington 700 SPS, Remington 700 Police, CZ 527 and Ruger American AR Mag. All were good rifles in their own way but none struck me as keepers.
Having recently taken to Tikka I decided to give the T3x Varmint in .223 a try. After missing out on a great EE deal I decided to go looking for new and noticed they were mostly sold out. I found one at P&D in Edmonton and drove down there for it. Great service as usual and they had a great price on it too.
Mounted a Leupold VX-3i LRP 6.5-20 in Talley Medium height mounts and that was a perfect match.
The rifle won't win any beauty pageants but it's a good pair with the Leupold.
I will be moving in 3 weeks and won't be having time to work on a load for this rifle. I developed some solid OCW loads for the 700 Police I used to have and was hoping they would work well in this rifle. I cleaned the barrel and noticed there was barely any fouling in there. There wasn't any factory grease or residue to be seen either.
I used 10 rounds of milsurp to zero the scope and foul the barrel. I then fired 3x5 round groups of my previous reloads at 200 yards. From left to right:
- Hornady 50 gr Z-Max, H4895, IVI brass and Federal 205 match primer.
- Sierra 69 gr MK, H4895, IVI brass and Federal 205 match primer.
- Hornady 55 gr V-Max, H4895, IVI brass and Federal 205 match primer.
Well I was equally happy and impressed with .495 MOA, .730 MOA and .544 MOA. I'm not familiar with this rifle and still have kinks to work out, including a stiffer than I like trigger.
I wasn't in the mood to work on a load for this rifle and it looks like I won't have to. When life goes back to normal after hunting season I will really try to make the Sierra 69 gr MK work better. Until then, my Hornady reloads will do just fine.
For those of you considering one of those rifles, they definitely get my recommendation.
Having recently taken to Tikka I decided to give the T3x Varmint in .223 a try. After missing out on a great EE deal I decided to go looking for new and noticed they were mostly sold out. I found one at P&D in Edmonton and drove down there for it. Great service as usual and they had a great price on it too.
Mounted a Leupold VX-3i LRP 6.5-20 in Talley Medium height mounts and that was a perfect match.
The rifle won't win any beauty pageants but it's a good pair with the Leupold.
I will be moving in 3 weeks and won't be having time to work on a load for this rifle. I developed some solid OCW loads for the 700 Police I used to have and was hoping they would work well in this rifle. I cleaned the barrel and noticed there was barely any fouling in there. There wasn't any factory grease or residue to be seen either.
I used 10 rounds of milsurp to zero the scope and foul the barrel. I then fired 3x5 round groups of my previous reloads at 200 yards. From left to right:
- Hornady 50 gr Z-Max, H4895, IVI brass and Federal 205 match primer.
- Sierra 69 gr MK, H4895, IVI brass and Federal 205 match primer.
- Hornady 55 gr V-Max, H4895, IVI brass and Federal 205 match primer.
Well I was equally happy and impressed with .495 MOA, .730 MOA and .544 MOA. I'm not familiar with this rifle and still have kinks to work out, including a stiffer than I like trigger.
I wasn't in the mood to work on a load for this rifle and it looks like I won't have to. When life goes back to normal after hunting season I will really try to make the Sierra 69 gr MK work better. Until then, my Hornady reloads will do just fine.
For those of you considering one of those rifles, they definitely get my recommendation.
