New Toy - Bullet Selection RANGE REPORT!

wilbar

wilbar

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Well it's 6 months until my Birthday but my new toy will have to count as my present.

Rem 700 SPS (Varmint?) In 223 Remington. Barrel cut to 20" Boyd's thumbhole stock, Sightmark 10-40x Scope with illuminated Mil-Dot, PRW rings, PTG bottom Metal, MDT mags, and a Smith tuned trigger
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My question is with a 1in12 twist what bullet do you recommend? Punching paper and coyotes, Ridgedale only has 200yds which will have to do for a while. I know stability mostly relies on bullet length and velocity. There are long 55gr bullets and short 62's. Berger lists up to 64gr flat base with a 1in12 recommended twist. I hope to start stretching out the distance to 400yds by fall. Favorite bullets?

Also wondering about cheap ammo like TulAmmo is it risky using laquered steel cases in my bolt gun?

Thanks,

Willy
 
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I hadn't really considered that...I'm just planning to find some Federal Rem or Win ammo that shoots alright and keep the brass for reloading....I like reloading. Then again I also want to be able to practice when I haven't had much time to reload so I do plan to shoot factory ammo at least some of the time.

Any particular Match Ammo?
 
1:12 kind of limits you in long range .224 die bullets i have a 1:8 and have shot 45-80 gr projectiles but have hunting friends with 1:12 barrels and cant shoot heavier than 60 gr pills without tumbling or printing groups not worth talking about, that being said you will find alot of head aches switching back and forth between low end bullets such as the lacquer coated stuff you mentioned and higher end projectiles as the jackets of the lower end stuff will really mess up your barrels copper profile that other bullets have layed down in the bore you wont be happy wih the groups those bullets print either and the lacquer will gum up your chamber and cause issues extracting and chambering cartridges, stick to match grade stuff and reputable brands, i havent shot alot of lapua or sierra .224 bullets but you really cant go wrong with hornady .224 bullets they are really high quality id say go for the 75gr amax bullets if you had a 1-8 or 1-7 twist but the 53 gr amax should shoot great for you but you will need to experiment with the stability of such loads
 
55 grain V-max for both reloading and factory cartridges! It's actually really consistent stuff.

I would stay away from the surplus unless you want to deal with crimped primer pockets. Huge pain in the butt unless you buy a nice pocket swage like the Dillon. Just my 2 cents..
 
Thanks guys,

I bought some JHP and Soft Point ammo today Rem, Fed, and Win....I reload a lot of Hornady and have had excellent results. I'll try some Hornady factory ammo too.
 
dusticles said:
55 grain V-max for both reloading and factory cartridges! It's actually really consistent stuff.

I would stay away from the surplus unless you want to deal with crimped primer pockets. Huge pain in the butt unless you buy a nice pocket swage like the Dillon. Just my 2 cents..
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100%! 55 gr V-Max is hard to beat for the money. He's also right about the crimped primers, I'm dealing with some now. Time consuming, and I loose about 10 % of my primers trying to stuff them in the slightly screwy pocket with my cheap priming tool.
 
I successfully did the Maynard's 1moa challenge with stock 1-12 barrel shooting 60gr Sierra varminter over benchmark powder.
 
Anyone with a decent rifle should never fire that cheap junk ammunition. As has been said, it is not good for practice because it is inaccurate, and causes problems. Use good brass like Lapua or Norma and decent bullets from the likes of Sierra, Hornady, Nosler, Berger and so on.
 
Range report

Well I took my new toy to the range today....

I took the following factory ammo:

Federal American Eagle 50gr JHP
Remington UMC 45gr JHP
Winchester Super X 55gr PSP

I used Wipe Out this week so I could start on a clean barrel. I "assumed" that it would be on paper at 100yds...it was only 2 8.5x11 targets to the right and 1 target down. With the rifle firmly in my Steady Point rest I re-acquired my Point of Aim and dialed the scope to cover the 3 shot group. I fired my second group of the day into the top left BR target, point of aim and point of impact matched(scope mechanicals are A-OK).

I worked down my targets Alpha-vertically Federal are top row, Remington middle, and Winchester Bottom Row. The 3 BR targets served as sighter/foulers and went Fed 0.7" Rem 0.9" Win 0.7" (all my measurements today were done quickly). Then I settled in for 2 groups of each ammo fired Round Robin with the scope at 10X. All were pretty much MOA +/- with me getting a feel for the rifle. All shot on my old standby Diamond targets 2 per paper(8.5x11).

Now with the barrel fouled and a feel for the rifle I moved to the 5plex style targets(gapped crosses with a circle in the center) at 20X for some 5 shot groups. First I miss counted and put 6 Federals in the Mag (got a bit confused but made a group of it). Then everything lined up and everything felt right for every shot with the Remingtons 5-shots mag fed into 0.6". The barrel was just warm to the touch around 20 shots and again around 40. I decided to shoot the Winchesters with a warm barrel. The Wins were always low right and the warm group walked left and up into the POA.

To finish off I tried a group at 40X and a warm bbl group with the Remingtons. I also fired for Bullseye with my last 2 rounds of Federals once at 16X and once at 40X.

Here are my targets with notes:

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Summary: This rifle is exactly what I wanted; the ability to get a lot of trigger time, a setup that is repeatably MOA(hoping to get to 1/2 MOA with handloads and practice), and ready to go. I was surprised by shooting this rifle it is much heavier than my hunting rifles and sits solidly in the rest which makes it easy to aim. It has already begun to teach me, its a good enough rig that it can be very accurate yet it will still point out my mistakes quickly. I have a whole new understanding of calling a flyer. When I didn't feel good about a shot...the results were obvious on target. When I felt good the proof was right there on paper. I think this is going to be a great learning experience. I can't wait to get some more ammo and components and get down to business.

The best part of this rifle so far is the trigger, it's an old style remington trigger tuned by a smith...WOW! The worst part is the Scope. The mechanicals seem good, but resolution goes downhill at lightspeed after 20X. 24X is probably max useable power. 10X is crystal clear of course. The eyebox gets tricky faster than the resolution goes away. It will do for a year or so, but it'll probably be the first thing I change.

I also think it's time for a better shooting setup, considering a Caldwell "Rock" front rest with rear bag or maybe an F-Class type bipod...not sure which since I'd like to get into longer range shooting and a bipod seems easier than a portable bench. Bipod may also be better for coyotes.

Willy
 
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ya i was going to say something about your scope choice but i didnt want to discourage you or seam like i was talking down to you, for the last couple years i used a bushnell 10x elite tactical and it has been %100 reliable on tracking and im only now upgrading to a sightron s3 8-32x56 as i wanted more power but unfortunately you need quality glass to maintain the resolution and optical quality at high power
 
dusticles said:
55 grain V-max for both reloading and factory cartridges! It's actually really consistent stuff.

I would stay away from the surplus unless you want to deal with crimped primer pockets. Huge pain in the butt unless you buy a nice pocket swage like the Dillon. Just my 2 cents..
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The 53gr vmax has a way better bc of .290 not sure if 1:12 will be fast enough to stabilize them though. Also hornady crimps all 223 pockets.
 
PEI,

I bought this setup as is. At first i was going to try to get it without the scope for a reduced price but I researched the scope and thought I'd give it a try and upgrade later. I don't have a pile of money to play with so I'll have to keep trading on the EE and saving for a better optic.

Willy
 
pei precision said:
ya i wasnt trying to say anything in a negative way if its working for you go for it
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I agree with you, your elite would've been my first choice had I bought a rifle without scope. I'll be interested to hear about the Sightron when you get it. My current debate regarding optics is 6-24(5-25)ish or 8-32(6-30)ish. The classic power scopes will probably be cheaper but I still "want to have my cake and eat it too".

What reticle are you thinking? The Mil dots in the Sightmark are quite fine(I didn't try to size them but I will next time). I also forgot about my illuminated dot until I was home so haven't tried that at the range yet. Illumination doesn't seem necessary with the targets I'm choosing but a green or red dot(I have both) against a black circle target will probably be nice.

What's your target rifle setup btw?

Willy
 
not a target rifle at all really its a marlin x7vh in .223 (factory varmint rifle) 1-9 twist barrel on it but it shoots 75 gr amax and 80gr bthps into sub moa groups so im thinking the twist might be closer to 1-8 because they stabilize fine out to 600m (the longest i have shot them on paper) i was lucky enough to find a sightron with the moa-2 reticle in it other guys at my club have it and i really like it super fine lines with the floating 1/4 moa dot in the center.

we had a problem with that at our club to with he targets we use (the ftr/palma) style ones with the big black centers and the rings inside alot of us found our reticles getting lost in the centers of the target being black on black so we stuck white patches in the very center so we would have something to hold on
 
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