Newbie here, but learning rapidly. My situation: bought some parts for a project rifle 7-8 years ago, and finally put it together. 28” Shilen barrel, 1:7 (used; 1400 rnds), on a Savage action. It was a way to learn the ropes with a barrel that worked, and an approx proven load. Learning how to load rifle rounds, plus learning how to shoot a precision rifle at the same time. 
This barrel has a deeeep throat, made for 90gn VLD. Jam length only leaves about 0.10-0.11” of bullet in the neck. Thankfully, it works with 0.11” jump, using some old 90gn JLK bullets I have.
Shooting shorter bullets like 69gn SMK, etc may not work since they are too short to tune. They need to be good long jumpers.
My range is short, at 100m max. Back when I bought this, I belonged to a 300 yd range.
So, trying to wrap my head around this because I’ve read conflicting info about heavyweights in 223, but is this a good summary and an ok approach to my situation:
- Shooting short range, say 100-200 or maybe 300yds, ideally you’d use a barrel with a shorter throat to tune 60-70gn bullets from jam to some amount of jump.
- Shooting longer range, say beyond 500+ yds, is where the deep throated barrel meant for the 80-90gn heavyweights at high velocities to help with wind, will shine.
- Ideally, reload at as high fps as will work well to help with wind, and in some cases, the higher speed is needed to stabilize bullets
So I’m using a deep throated barrel, lobbing 90gn JLK/VLD at 100m at a low velocity of about 2340 fps, which is a waste of their capability, but fine for learning. I’m not going to be shooting 500 yds anytime soon. I don’t care about the wasted potential or cash. I’m learning; installed my first barrel, learning about quality reloading and shooting, and that’s worth something.
Once I figure out what I want to do, then maybe I’ll build two rifles. One built for short range, and another for longer range.
Have I missed anything critical? I don’t want to get into all the nuances, just the broad strokes
Recent groups: all three targets are 5 rounds, with the identical load. Carefully weighed and measured. Difference from the group on the left and the two on the right is my grip. I moved my thumb to the right side of the grip. Apparently I don’t isolate my thumb.... Top right is 0.53”, bottom is 0.41”. These softballs are doing ok. Thanks!
This barrel has a deeeep throat, made for 90gn VLD. Jam length only leaves about 0.10-0.11” of bullet in the neck. Thankfully, it works with 0.11” jump, using some old 90gn JLK bullets I have.
Shooting shorter bullets like 69gn SMK, etc may not work since they are too short to tune. They need to be good long jumpers.
My range is short, at 100m max. Back when I bought this, I belonged to a 300 yd range.
So, trying to wrap my head around this because I’ve read conflicting info about heavyweights in 223, but is this a good summary and an ok approach to my situation:
- Shooting short range, say 100-200 or maybe 300yds, ideally you’d use a barrel with a shorter throat to tune 60-70gn bullets from jam to some amount of jump.
- Shooting longer range, say beyond 500+ yds, is where the deep throated barrel meant for the 80-90gn heavyweights at high velocities to help with wind, will shine.
- Ideally, reload at as high fps as will work well to help with wind, and in some cases, the higher speed is needed to stabilize bullets
So I’m using a deep throated barrel, lobbing 90gn JLK/VLD at 100m at a low velocity of about 2340 fps, which is a waste of their capability, but fine for learning. I’m not going to be shooting 500 yds anytime soon. I don’t care about the wasted potential or cash. I’m learning; installed my first barrel, learning about quality reloading and shooting, and that’s worth something.
Once I figure out what I want to do, then maybe I’ll build two rifles. One built for short range, and another for longer range.
Have I missed anything critical? I don’t want to get into all the nuances, just the broad strokes
Recent groups: all three targets are 5 rounds, with the identical load. Carefully weighed and measured. Difference from the group on the left and the two on the right is my grip. I moved my thumb to the right side of the grip. Apparently I don’t isolate my thumb....
Top right is 0.53”, bottom is 0.41”. These softballs are doing ok. Thanks!
