223 rem bullet choice 1-300

Dildobaggins · Thursday at 10:17 PM

Asked this question on a other forum, and got a plethora of answers, all seem justifiable from 52 grain to 80. just curious what the thoughts over here are from this crowd more geared towards PRS.

Gathering parts for a 223 rem bolt action build.
Just wondering what bullet you fellas would use for shooting between 1-300 yards?
I was thinking a 9 twist and bullets from 55 to 73, but alot of folks seem to think the lighter ones will get blown around too much.

Just shooting for smallest groups possible and plinking. 80 percent of my shooting will be down from 1-200 yards. Absolute max of 300.

Edit: 20-24 inch barrel paper and steel

Thanks fellas

oldrifleman · Thursday at 10:39 PM

What are you shooting at and how fast? I guess I would start at the 77 grain Berger OTM. I am building a 223 bolt gun. My choice is the 80.5 full bore Berger.

XP1K · Thursday at 10:39 PM

I'd go 8 twist. Hard to go wrong with the 52 and 53gr sierras. The 8 would give you the option to shoot the 77-80gr bullets.

I've got a 9 twist dpms 223 upper that I load the 52 and 53gr sierras for. It's shot a couple 1/2 groups at 200 yards. Typically it's a .5 moa gun with those bullets and H322. It's my go to around the house critter getter.

The 77 smk or tmk is an excellent choice also.

Dildobaggins · Thursday at 11:28 PM

XP1K said:
I'd go 8 twist. Hard to go wrong with the 52 and 53gr sierras. The 8 would give you the option to shoot the 77-80gr bullets.

I've got a 9 twist dpms 223 upper that I load the 52 and 53gr sierras for. It's shot a couple 1/2 groups at 200 yards. Typically it's a .5 moa gun with those bullets and H322. It's my go to around the house critter getter.

The 77 smk or tmk is an excellent choice also.

I put the Berger 55gr FB into bison ballistics bullet stability calculator and it said with an 8 twist the bullet would be over stabilized. I've shot a metric shit ton of 55 grain out of my WOA 20 in upper and they were great though. So who knows.

st1650 · Thursday at 11:56 PM

Berger 80.5
It’s my most accurate bullet on my :
DTA 223 1/7.7 twist
ARC Nuke 223 1/7tw
22 Creed 1/7tw

It’s not depth sensitive. It’s extremely consistent.

I’ve shot 5 round groups in the 0.150in with the ARC nuke with that bullet and 24.3 varget in Lapua brass.

Go 8twist. Or just grab a tikka 223 in 8tw.

memilanuk · Friday at 12:09 AM

Dildobaggins said:
I put the Berger 55gr FB into bison ballistics bullet stability calculator and it said with an 8 twist the bullet would be over stabilized. I've shot a metric shit ton of 55 grain out of my WOA 20 in upper and they were great though. So who knows.

Over stabilized doesn't necessarily mean inaccurate.

Dildobaggins · Friday at 12:16 AM

st1650 said:
Berger 80.5
It’s my most accurate bullet on my :
DTA 223 1/7.7 twist
ARC Nuke 223 1/7tw
22 Creed 1/7tw

It’s not depth sensitive. It’s extremely consistent.

I’ve shot 5 round groups in the 0.150in with the ARC nuke with that bullet and 24.3 varget in Lapua brass.

Go 8twist. Or just grab a tikka 223 in 8tw.

What's the freebore on your 223s? Hawkins mags will go to 2.550 from what I saw. Is that enough to get the bullet out of the donut?

JerkyFreak · Friday at 12:32 AM

Berger 55gr loaded to 3200 fps for short range. Easy to load well, fits all magazines and fast enough not to worry about the wind too much.

If you willing to take the chance, Hornady 53gr ELDM. A bit finicky load wise, but shoots real tight when the load is tuned right.

Kadams1563 · Friday at 12:36 AM

For only 300 yards? I wouldn’t spend the money on 75,77, or 80’s.

73 eld maybe. But probably cheap 55’s lol

Dildobaggins · Friday at 12:41 AM

Kadams1563 said:
For only 300 yards? I wouldn’t spend the money on 75,77, or 80’s.

73 eld maybe. But probably cheap 55’s lol

I agree. I load custom bullets in my 6 and 30BR. I was hoping suggestions would be cheaper but I wanted to see where they would lead. Lol

st1650 · Friday at 12:54 AM

Dildobaggins said:
What's the freebore on your 223s? Hawkins mags will go to 2.550 from what I saw. Is that enough to get the bullet out of the donut?

Plenty. I run mine at 2.495 on my ARC with the metal MDT AICS mag (2.5in limit but easy to increase by filling the plastic insert ) and 2.515 on the DTA.
Don’t remember exactly what the freebore is. 20thou off the lands for both. There’s plenty of reamers out there optimized for the 223 80.5.

stevieb92 · Friday at 6:34 AM

Don't over think it. Sierra Match King 77 gr or Hornady 75 gr ELD-M.

Turkeytider · Friday at 6:51 AM

stevieb92 said:
Don't over think it. Sierra Match King 77 gr or Hornady 75 gr ELD-M.

I wish ADI loaded a 77 SMK. Their 69 SMK has been an excellent load for me.

Rider47 · Friday at 6:55 AM

I shoot 55gr. SBK's for critters, but 69 and 77 SMK's for target/competition. All are incredibly accurate with tuned handloads. For MY rifles (3xAR-15's in 223 Wylde 8T) the 69 SMK's shoot a bit better, but you really need to forget this information and pick a couple of bullets and do careful load tuning/development in YOUR rifle to see which bullets give you the best precision (in light 100 yard conditions) and if any longer distance precision can be gained with a potentially heavier bullet. I'd start with the 69 and 77 SMK's though.
Edit: Given this is a bolt gun (single shot or magazine fed?), the 77 TMK's would be a good bullet to start with if COAL can be longer.

diggler1833 · Friday at 6:59 AM

Just 300 and in I'd personally be shooting the 69 or 77gr SMK. Their consistency isn't there for 600+ in competition these days, but that doesn't matter at the distance the OP listed.

I've shot a lot of .223, and those just seem to work in every barrel.

mark5pt56 · Friday at 8:08 AM

Go down the middle, 69 smk, in the event you have a chance to shoot further, they will do well. From my point of view, zero sense slinging expensive heavies for that range. If you are certain you will live at the 1/200, maybe a chance at 300-do the low 50 range and pick a good twist. Flat based bullet do well at those ranges, ask guys that are shooting the short range benchrest--not "PRS" guys slinging heavies at steel at distance.

Dildobaggins · Friday at 1:05 PM

Rider47 said:
I shoot 55gr. SBK's for critters, but 69 and 77 SMK's for target/competition. All are incredibly accurate with tuned handloads. For MY rifles (3xAR-15's in 223 Wylde 8T) the 69 SMK's shoot a bit better, but you really need to forget this information and pick a couple of bullets and do careful load tuning/development in YOUR rifle to see which bullets give you the best precision (in light 100 yard conditions) and if any longer distance precision can be gained with a potentially heavier bullet. I'd start with the 69 and 77 SMK's though.
Edit: Given this is a bolt gun (single shot or magazine fed?), the 77 TMK's would be a good bullet to start with if COAL can be longer.

My bad. It'll be Magazine fed.

noremorse92 · Friday at 3:22 PM

XP1K said:
I'd go 8 twist. Hard to go wrong with the 52 and 53gr sierras. The 8 would give you the option to shoot the 77-80gr bullets.

I've got a 9 twist dpms 223 upper that I load the 52 and 53gr sierras for. It's shot a couple 1/2 groups at 200 yards. Typically it's a .5 moa gun with those bullets and H322. It's my go to around the house critter getter.

The 77 smk or tmk is an excellent choice also.

This. The lighter sierras are both very accurate bullets. As is the 55gr berger; both the target and varmint variety. I've had some very good initial success with the 50gr Barnes varmint grenade too. And the 60gr vmax.

The current trend is heavy high bc bullets but for the short distances that you are proposing shooting the flatbased target bullets are more accurate on paper and don't suffer much in the wind you will experience at 100-300. Load them seated into the lands and they will more than likely shoot very well.

The lighter bullets are cheaper too, by a fair margin.

8 twist will be a good choice as you can also go up to the 80gr class of bullets if you ever want to shoot them.

XP1K · Friday at 4:29 PM

noremorse92 said:
This. The lighter sierras are both very accurate bullets. As is the 55gr berger; both the target and varmint variety. I've had some very good initial success with the 50gr Barnes varmint grenade too. And the 60gr vmax.

The current trend is heavy high bc bullets but for the short distances that you are proposing shooting the flatbased target bullets are more accurate on paper and don't suffer much in the wind you will experience at 100-300. Load them seated into the lands and they will more than likely shoot very well.

The lighter bullets are cheaper too, by a fair margin.

8 twist will be a good choice as you can also go up to the 80gr class of bullets if you ever want to shoot them.

I was just thinking about the 60gr vmax today. I loaded 1,000 of them for general use and they shoot pretty good in several of my ar's. There's nothing sleek and flashy about them but they work. And they're fairly cheap.

And like you say, out to and inside 300, the flat base bullets work just fine. I'd probably shoot the 53gr sierra benchrest myself if I had to pick just one.

Ghogs Nightmare · Friday at 4:34 PM

To echo similar to the last few.. i had good results with 60nbt, consistent and accurate. Although prairie dogs give them 2 thumbs down... as they fall from 2ft higher in the air than where they were seconds before.

reelserious · Friday at 4:48 PM

For short distances a flat base bullet will be more accurate as the bc won’t matter that much at close range. There are many 53 or 55 grain bullets to choose from. Also use h 322 powder for that bullet weight. Don’t use some bullshit ball powder

Cr1775 · Friday at 7:19 PM

A flat base 50 or 55 grain bullet.

Cr1775 · Friday at 7:24 PM

1 in 8 twist or less. I prefer 1 in 7.

oldrifleman · Friday at 7:27 PM

Cr1775 said:
1 in 8 twist or less. I prefer 1 in 7.

Me too

noremorse92 · Friday at 7:51 PM

XP1K said:
I was just thinking about the 60gr vmax today. I loaded 1,000 of them for general use and they shoot pretty good in several of my ar's. There's nothing sleek and flashy about them but they work. And they're fairly cheap.

And like you say, out to and inside 300, the flat base bullets work just fine. I'd probably shoot the 53gr sierra benchrest myself if I had to pick just one.

The 60 vmax are very accurate in my 223ai. Good bc for the weight, flat based so no worries about boat tail inconsistencies, light enough to push at a ridiculous speed and hit small game very hard.

Haney · Friday at 8:08 PM

I like the Sierra 53s . I have a load I seat at AR mag length that shoots great in anything from my ISSF chamber .169" freebore with 7 twist in a bolt gun jumping a mile down to an old 700 12 twist . Never had a gun that would not shoot them . I just shot the old 12 twist at 300 and it held up fine even in some wind . Two rifles it really shines in is a Tikka varmint in 8 twist and a Rem 700 varmint in 12 . Tikka shoots great at AR mag length, almost exactly the same as when I seat them out closer to the lands so I just keep everything the same .

steve123 · Saturday at 12:43 PM

I just shoot the 53gr Vmax in my "AR" for inside of 300Y. Supposedly the BC is high for the weight at .290?? They still hang at 1.1" or so at 100Y out of my AR and at 300Y it's easy to hit a kitty cat sized and shaped steel in windy-ish conditions. This is my mixed brass plinking ammo that I use a small base die on. Some FMJ factory ammo I've bought in the past is more than twice less precise than this 53gr Vmax load is and my best reloads using 70gr Berger VLD in Lapua brass are only .25" better than the Vmax load is at 100Y. Honestly I've not been disappointed so this has been my go-to since the bullet came out.

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