Why .223

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Chago

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I just spent the whole day going through the sticky of guys proving there guns to be sub 1/2". A lot of really nice pieces of equipment. Now one thing I noticed which seemed like a 90% favourite was a lot of the guns were calibered in .223. Is there a reason why guys love this one so much? Whenever I use a ballistic calculator 22-250 and 243 both seem to shoot flatter. Isn't that a big deal when it comes to paper shooting? What about the 223 makes it so attractive?
 
Just happens to be easy to get components that shoot well from it.It is just so common.

.223 brass is probably the easiest to find along with .308.

Rifles chambered in .223 are also easy to find in many different styles and prices.

It is like hitting the easy button.Get an SPS in .223 and the sky is the limit for upgrades and additions.

Some guys can take it out to a mile with consistency with heavy VLD projectiles.
 
I was just telling guys in black rifles I want one those for next rifle as I have so many target rifles. But after reading that whole sticky I think I want to get into this instead.

I am liking the tikka tac. Comes in a 223 with a varmint barrel. I'm assuming most guys are basically changing the barrels anyways? All the sps guys really have nothing Remington left I suppose besides the action. This rifle building is interesting to me.
 
Chago said:
Whenever I use a ballistic calculator 22-250 and 243 both seem to shoot flatter. Isn't that a big deal when it comes to paper shooting? What about the 223 makes it so attractive?
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* Some classes of competition only allow .308 Win and .223 Rem. For this reason you'll see quite a few very good .308 Win and .223 Rem rifles out there.

* for target shooting at known distances, flatness of trajectory doesn't matter at all. When I shoot at 600 yards, I dial in what is needed. I keep a records book for each rifle, and I dial in based on what I used the last few times I shot at 600y. Doesn't matter to me one bit whether that's 12MOA up from my 100 yard zero or 15 MOA up from my 100y zero.

* for target shooting at longer ranges, the amount that the bullet is blown by the wind (wind drift) matters. So you'll mostly see heavy-ish bullets with very pointy noses and nice long boattails used for target shooting.

* .22-250 and .243 are higher performance cartridges than .223 and .308. This is both good and bad; you get higher performance (which for target shooting means less wind drift), but you also get less barrel life. If a .308Win or .223 Rem barrel gives you satisfactory barrel life for 3500 rounds, you'll find that a .22-250 or .243 will give you satisfactory barrel life for 1200-ish rounds. Not the end of the world by any means but one of the factors that need to be considered in your choice of calibre.
 
Flat trajectory is over rated.

If you examine the difference between these various calibers in depth and focus on the difference in drop at various distances you will find the bullet choice has more influence on the bullet path than the caliber it was fired from. That being the case guys shoot a 223 with 80 grain bullets with a BC of about .500 which is quite high at close to 3000 fps if the chamber is right.

You will miss because of wind by more than the spread in drop - but all too often guys don't even consider wind drift in the comparison.
 
I am VERY new to this category of shooting, I choose this calibre because it it less expensive to shoot. I am also a complete newb at reloading. As my shooting ability, and reloading skills grow. I can off load all my poorly reloaded ammo through my .223 black rifle.
Seems like a win win to me.
 
willisworms said:
I am VERY new to this category of shooting, I choose this calibre because it it less expensive to shoot. I am also a complete newb at reloading. As my shooting ability, and reloading skills grow. I can off load all my poorly reloaded ammo through my .223 black rifle.
Seems like a win win to me.
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While .223 is a good first choice and is certainly cheaper to feed than a .308 you probably know that reloading for the .223 can be a bit finicky - small case capacity - so make sure you get a real good scale as tiny differences in charge weight have greater effect than would the same difference in a larger calibre. You may also find that your reloads won't fit your AR or other Black Rifle. Good luck with the journey.
 
Tomochan said:
While .223 is a good first choice and is certainly cheaper to feed than a .308 you probably know that reloading for the .223 can be a bit finicky - small case capacity - so make sure you get a real good scale as tiny differences in charge weight have greater effect than would the same difference in a larger calibre. You may also find that your reloads won't fit your AR or other Black Rifle. Good luck with the journey.
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Thanks for the reply! as I stated I am VERY new to this. I am one of the idiots with more money than brains at this point.
I do tend to persist at things until I reach the more brains than money point though.
I will be using a very good scale.
 
223 is cheaper to shoot, and has low recoil.
Long barrel life also.
308 is 2-3x as expensive to shoot.
If money was not an issue I would shoot a 300 win mag all day.... but it costs a buck per bang and has a low barrel life.
 
absolutely agree!!!
BadAsMo said:
Flat trajectory is over rated.

If you examine the difference between these various calibers in depth and focus on the difference in drop at various distances you will find the bullet choice has more influence on the bullet path than the caliber it was fired from. That being the case guys shoot a 223 with 80 grain bullets with a BC of about .500 which is quite high at close to 3000 fps if the chamber is right.

You will miss because of wind by more than the spread in drop - but all too often guys don't even consider wind drift in the comparison.
Click to expand...
 
I shoot a Savage 25 Lightweight Varminter in .223 and it is a tackdriver, that is with my handloads...I enjoy it because it shoots well, looks good and is cheap to shoot...I also have a .308, synthetic Savage Axis which I don't shoot as much because of the cost of ammo, however I'm going to start reloading it as well...Harder kick but it's a nice shooter too, just need to put a better scope on it.
 
Kryogen said:
223 is cheaper to shoot, and has low recoil.
Long barrel life also.
308 is 2-3x as expensive to shoot.
If money was not an issue I would shoot a 300 win mag all day.... but it costs a buck per bang and has a low barrel life.
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I reload and calculate my costs to be about 1$ per bang with .308....

300 win mag is a lot more than that!

I'd like a .223 next I think. As much punch as the 300 win mag has, it's not very economical to shoot. You can do a lot of practice on a .223 for a fraction of the cost even shooting .308.
 
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I used to reload 300 win mag for 75 cents using imr 4350 and hornady bulk 150 grains FMJ.
I can reload 223 for 25 cents using hornady bulk 55 frains BTFMJ and higginson surplus powder.
I don't know about 308 cause I don't have a 308.
25 cents a pop isnt bad for 200 yards shooting.
 
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