RPR in .223 any good?
- Thread starter Deathrawt
- Start date
58,000 on the 4895 load.
66,000 on the varget load. 112 % case fill.
For reference I was running around 70,000 in a tikka t3 with Berger 80 grainers. Flattened the cci 400's pretty good, but did not pierce or crater them.
Forest1488
CGN Regular
- Location
- South of Toronto
It will cost more, but a custom build would be my choice. And it was. Mine is a full-on custom build.
My choice? A chassis or a Macmillan A5. Action? KS (again, lots of choices). Barrel? Jury Custom. (although there are lots of choices) Barrel contour? That depends on what you want to do with it. Brake? For me, yes. Trigger? Trigger-Tech (again, lots of choices here)
It's not rocket science. But to buy an RPR? ....you can do much better. I know, it's an easy choice with a factory offerring. Somewhat of a lazy choice, IMHO. To do a custom build takes some work. But the rewards can and are much greater.
Here's mine:
Chassis: Cadex Field Open Top
Action: Remington 700 trued
Trigger: Trigger-Tech
Barrel: Benchmark heavy varmint contour finished at 26"
Brake: EMP Shockwave
Wow! A fine piece of work. Thanks for the reply. Very happy with Trigger Tech as I put one in my AR. RPR is off the list for sure in 223 but again my 243 RPR was freakishly accurate out of the box with factory loads so I got lucky there. Much to think about moving forward.
It will cost more, but a custom build would be my choice. And it was. Mine is a full-on custom build.
My choice? A chassis or a Macmillan A5. Action? KS (again, lots of choices). Barrel? Jury Custom. (although there are lots of choices) Barrel contour? That depends on what you want to do with it. Brake? For me, yes. Trigger? Trigger-Tech (again, lots of choices here)
It's not rocket science. But to buy an RPR? ....you can do much better. I know, it's an easy choice with a factory offerring. Somewhat of a lazy choice, IMHO. To do a custom build takes some work. But the rewards can and are much greater.
Here's mine:
Chassis: Cadex Field Open Top
Action: Remington 700 trued
Trigger: Trigger-Tech
Barrel: Benchmark heavy varmint contour finished at 26"
Brake: EMP Shockwave
Nice rifle but thats not even a close comparison.
Not much more work to get a gunsmith to put it all together for you... Resale on the custom rifle usually is not very good compared to a factory rifle.
I have a few high dollar rifles but would never discourage anyone from buying a RPR that can be bought for relatively low dollar, no wait time and shoots almost as good as a custom rifle.
I pretty much run a similar load in my .223 RPR:
IVI brass FL sized with approx 29.5gr H2O capacity trimmed 1.750"
80gr Hornady ELD-M seated to 2.402" COL (puts me at 0.010" off the lands of MY barrel)
Winchester Small Rifle primers
23.5gr Winchester 748
It makes for a very convenient loading session albeit I lose over 100fps when shooting in the colder weather. In 20 deg C weather or warmer, I am achieving 2800 fps or more if I reverse engineer my trajectory and elevation corrections. I have to do this because the front taper of the factory ruger barrel prevents the Magnetospeed from sitting parallel to the bore axis and makes for readings that are anywhere from 100-200fps less than they actually are. I know there are tapered spacer kits for the Magnetospeed; my buddy didn't have a set when we tested this rifle and worked around it. The good news is you can still use the magnetospeed to check SDs on handloads for consistency. In this case, my SD is 12fps with my loads; not mind-blowing / amazing but pretty good for ball powder loads semi-progressively loaded on a Hornady AP.
I can't remember what charge I worked up to but none of my load workup with Winchester primers and WIN 748 powder gave me signs of primer blanking / cratering or pierced primers for that matter. We tested Federal XM855 green tip ammo in the RPR to see what the primers would do; again, nothing alarming other than some slight flattening on the edges (and that ammo is very warm and seems hard on overgassed ARs.)
2800fps with an 80gr bullet out of a 20" tube does not seem that slow to me; then again, my loads aren't the hottest. My warmest outing with the rifle this year, it took 38 1/4 MOA to reach 1000m.
100m rifle zero
405ft Elevation
Approx 25 deg C
60% humidity
TacticalCanuck
Regular
- Location
- SW Ontario
Yes. 5.56 RPR is a dream to shoot. With the right ammo you will clover leaf at 100 yards. it really don't get better.
