shot my first 223 reloads
Well my son and I went to the range and shot my first reloads. Wow, unbeleiveable how much more accurate they are than factory loads. I'll never buy a factory load again. My groups shrunk so much that at 50 yds they touch. At 75 I am way under moa and I am a terrible shot. Hit the bulls eye at 100yds. Even on fast fire, firing as fast as I can acguire the target, I have tight groups. Even my son, 14 had better groups. We had a blast. Now I'm running low on bullets.
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Good job. You sound like the guy that will not save any money reloading because you will shoot three or four times as much. 0 -
Ah HA!
Got another one!!!
Ramdino, So glad you are including your son!!!! What do you have for equipment? Scales? lube? Powder measure type?? do you use a powder trickler??0 -
Congrats and welcome to the club. I shrank groups from 7" at 100yds to .4's" at the same distance using tuned handloads instead of factory ammo in one of my .223's Yes, that's from seven to point fours. There was other work done to the rifle such as restocking and bedding but without the tuning of the ammunition, it would have never been possible. 0 -
I don't know what kind of factory ammo you guys have been shooting but it must not be anything I've shot. I spent most of yesterday morning working on a load that would shoot smaller groups than Fiocchi V-max. Finally changed primers and hit the goal. Overall, the current domestic factory 223 ammo is as good as any off the shelf ammo in my history of shooting. The selection is impressive and covers a wide spectrum within the confines of the 223 capabilities.
Welcome to reloading and I hope you enjoy it for many years. Be safe, use care, and don't get ahead of yourself or your capabilities.0 -
Congratulations on your new hobby. Yup, definetly going to shoot more. Have a ball and keep your son shooting! 0 -
quote:Originally posted by Mobuck
I don't know what kind of factory ammo you guys have been shooting but it must not be anything I've shot. I spent most of yesterday morning working on a load that would shoot smaller groups than Fiocchi V-max. Finally changed primers and hit the goal. Overall, the current domestic factory 223 ammo is as good as any off the shelf ammo in my history of shooting. The selection is impressive and covers a wide spectrum within the confines of the 223 capabilities.
Welcome to reloading and I hope you enjoy it for many years. Be safe, use care, and don't get ahead of yourself or your capabilities.
Well, every gun is different, but out of mine, Wolf, Silver Bear, and Ultramax all ran about 2-2.5" at 100 yards. Handloads run .3". Never spent money on premium .223 ammo, it's a waste when I can load it myself for half the cost, but sometimes just for blasting I do get some of the cheap stuff.0 -
quote:Originally posted by Mobuck
I don't know what kind of factory ammo you guys have been shooting but it must not be anything I've shot. I spent most of yesterday morning working on a load that would shoot smaller groups than Fiocchi V-max. Finally changed primers and hit the goal. Overall, the current domestic factory 223 ammo is as good as any off the shelf ammo in my history of shooting. The selection is impressive and covers a wide spectrum within the confines of the 223 capabilities.
Welcome to reloading and I hope you enjoy it for many years. Be safe, use care, and don't get ahead of yourself or your capabilities.
Well in my case, I have a remington 700 .223 that I decided to finally get out of the safe and shoot for the first time. I grabbed an empty box of black hills that was full of spent brass. The weight threw me off and I didn't realize it was empty brass until I got to the range. Obviously spent rounds don't group well... [B)] All I had left in that caliber was wolf that I had brought for the AR. My remington 700 does NOT like wolf it turns out. It was printing 7" "groups" at 100 yards. For what it's worth, it shoots much better from the AR. Anyways, over that summer I switched to a Boyds stock over the synthetic original, pillar bedded it, free floated the barrel, fine tuned the trigger, and added better glass in addition to dialing in handloads which by the end of summer would give consistent .4's Not too shabby from a factory barrel.0 -
"Not too shabby from a factory barrel"
That's great accuracy, but not surprising....many, many factory barrels are inherently accurate, particularly Remington, Browning, etc. But many gun owners fail to break in new barrels correctly.
Even so, what's needed is to figure out which loads shoot best in which firearms; something that's much easier to do when hand-loading. Many of the posts in this and other sites show how: "I reduced/increased powder by 2 gr." or "changed primers to..."
So yeah....you're hooked.0 -
quote:Originally posted by jonk
quote:Originally posted by Mobuck
I don't know what kind of factory ammo you guys have been shooting but it must not be anything I've shot. I spent most of yesterday morning working on a load that would shoot smaller groups than Fiocchi V-max. Finally changed primers and hit the goal. Overall, the current domestic factory 223 ammo is as good as any off the shelf ammo in my history of shooting. The selection is impressive and covers a wide spectrum within the confines of the 223 capabilities.
Welcome to reloading and I hope you enjoy it for many years. Be safe, use care, and don't get ahead of yourself or your capabilities.
Well, every gun is different, but out of mine, Wolf, Silver Bear, and Ultramax all ran about 2-2.5" at 100 yards. Handloads run .3". Never spent money on premium .223 ammo, it's a waste when I can load it myself for half the cost, but sometimes just for blasting I do get some of the cheap stuff.
Very true- Ultra max .223 55gn BT's is the only factory ammo out of my AR that will run one hole at 100 yards. I can't beat it with reloads.0 -
Nope, I'll probably spend more now than I ever did. But it is a lot more fun now than it is when you go to wally world to get your ammo. I even got my 12 year old daughter into it. She helps me reload.
Just the bullet seating part. She works the press and puts them in the box after I do a final inspection. She calls herself daddy's little bullet maker. JustJump I have mostly green stuff ( RCBS) My old scout master gave me a RCBS RS press and a 5-10 scale. I bout a RCBS uniflow off fleabay. I use a 30-06 shell for a trickler. Usually only need two or three grains with the uniflow, sometimes none. Also bought new rcbs AR 15 dies. The seem to work great. So far I like my hobby. My wife misses me though.0 -
Great post! Sounds like a real fun caliber to get into...
Any pics of your set up?0 -
ramdino , What powder/bullet are you using for the 223's ?
I'v been having good groups using either H-335 or benchmark , can't make up my mind which one to stick with because they both shoot great .
55gr ballistic tip , 25.6 gr's H-335 , and a rem 6 1/2 primer or
55gr ballistic tip , 26 gr's of Benchmark , and a rem 6 1/2 primer
Both loads shoot great out of the Remington VTR [:p][:p][:p]0 -
[8D] Man the .223 is SO KEWL-
I've had great success with "match" cases-55gr hpsp (Speer) and AA2230c powder-
I've seperated the bullets in groups within .1 grains (Digital Scale) and my Remington 700 BDL has grouped (3) under,.2" at 100 yds-
I'm gonna try some new Speer 68 gr BTHP and see how it does 200/300 yds-
I guess that'll depend on the bbl rifling and I don't remember what the twist is, we'll see
The .223 is a fairly inexpensive cartridge to shoot accurately-fun !
[:o)][:o)] JIMBO0 -
375H&H I am using 55 gr lake city fmjbt with 25 gr of varget. 0
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