F T/R Competition 223 FTR Reamer and Freebore

[_Raining]

I am new to the FTR scene and I am a bit unsure of what I should set my Freebore to be and if there is a specific reamer I should request. After googling a bit I am quite confused, I found a thread where two shooters mentioned they use a freebore of .169" and another said they use .212 and jump the bullet .010" but then I found others saying they use a freebore of .098", 0.100", 0.085", .120" etc. That seems like a large difference in freebore considering everyone of those mentioned FTR with ~80/90gr bullets. Can someone school me on the 223 freebore commonly used for F/TR.

-Thanks-

 

[FCS]

Ogive profile has a lot to do with how much freebore you need. What bullet do you plan to use? What is the alternate bullet?

 

[_Raining]

Ogive profile has a lot to do with how much freebore you need. What bullet do you plan to use? What is the alternate bullet?

Well the fastest twist option I have as an option is 1:7, so it looks like the best bullet I can get is the 80gr Berger VLD, secondary being Hornady 80g ELD match or Sierra 80g HPBT.

 

[domdoc]

1:7 twist is a good one for F/TR. Check out reamer specs here: http://ar15barrels.com/data/223-556.pdf. You don't have to have a real long throat to shoot well. Just a standard reamer like the PTG or Clymer is fine. OAL will be shorter, but they'll still shoot fine, and if you want to seat some lighter bullets close to the lands, you'll still be able to do that. If you don't like your short throat for some reason, get the gunsmith to run a longer-throated reamer in it. If you do that, you'll have to break in the barrel again, since there will be tooling marks in the throat. This is where the Tubb fire-lapping bullets can come in handy.

 

[FCS]

80.5 Berger Full bore would be worth considering.
80 JLKs have long been a favorite of mine.
80 Sierra / 80 Nosler

I'll see if I can find my existing dummy rounds and/or notes from determining needed freebore on a reamer.

 

[FCS]

If you are building a dedicated F T/R rifle, then you are going to want to put the boat tail / bearing surface at/slightly above the neck / shoulder junction to give you as much possible case capacity while holding onto as much of the bullet as possible.
While you don't need a long freebore reamer to shoot good, you do need a long freebore reamer to gain you as much possible velocity while shooting good. There is no replacement for displacement / case capacity when trying to drive a heavy 22 caliber bullet as fast as possible while getting 0.5 MOA, or as close as possible, at 1K for F T/R.

Make a dummy round, send it to JGS, Manson, PTG or reamer mfg'er of choice to have a reamer ground to your specs. Get go and no-go gauge from the same mfg'er. Don't forget to add in what you want for jump either. VLDs jump just fine; 0.040" or so has worked really, REALLY well for me in many calibers. You'll have your own reamer, able to get the exact same chamber when you rebarrel. Use one barrel mfg'er all the time also, changing barrel mfg'er will have impact on your load as there are slight differences between land / groove diameters, land / groove ratios and style of rifling (button, cut, broach, hammer forged) that all have an influence on load. You'll see variation from one barrel to next from SAME manufacturer, just smaller in general then if using barrels from multiple mfg'ers.

 

[_Raining]

I ended up going with ".223 Rem Match chamber with a .090 fb and .254nk with .2245 throat". I understand that making a dummy round and getting a custom reamer made would be ideal but I am just not that good of a shooter and not that serious about it. I want something were I can shoot 80gr Bergers and have my joy doing load development and learning to read the wind better etc. In reality the only F Class competitions I will be attending are local ones at 3/600 yards. I believe the reamer I chose should be sufficient for what I want to accomplish and worst case scenario I go all in with the next barrel. This is just a plain Tikka T3 with a Tikka T3 pre fit button rifled barrel for some fun with a bit of seriousness mixed in.

 

[FCS]

3/600, you'll be fine with those dimension on freebore for chamber.
Enjoy the journey!

 

[mason.ostrom]

The 223 Issf reamer was purpose made for FTR with a 223. It has a .169 freebore which is perfect for 90gr Sierra and bergers, but will work with 80s as well. Another note is that a 7 twist will work fine with 90gr bullets. I use a 7 twist with 90gr sierras and they stay stable even at 1000 yards at 300ft ASL. Hope this helps.

 

[Greg Langelius *]

For F T/R 600yd MR, I use factory rifles, either Savage 11VT .223's, or Stag Model 6 Super Varminters.

They are all NATO 5.56 chambered, the Stags use 1:8" twist, the Savage has a 1:9" twist. I load my cartridges in PPU brass which supposedly has thick necks, with Hornady 75gr HPBT-Match bullets, loaded to about .005" short of magazine length in a standard STANAG AR Magazine. I run about 23.5gr or 23.7gr of Varget and CCI BR-4's. These rifles approach .5MOA at 100yd, still tuning the load, but they all shoot the same load well enough to be competitive. 600yd is no stretch for the load.

Custom is really nice, but factory rifles can still get all the job done for all but the very best shooters.

If I could shoot like them, I'd be buying custom, but by the time it shipped, I'd have a 50/50 chance of dying of old age. I'm about to turn 72.

You'll notice that at no time did I mention the word freebore. For my needs, what I have from the factory is doing what I want it to do, so I don't look the gift horse in the teeth, I take what I got and run with it. So far it's quite satisfactory.

Learn what you have to learn, but don't be afraid to try what you already have.

I've been shooting factory Savages since the mid 1990's, and the Stag 6's since about 2004. I don't win, but I'm not a winning caliber shooter to begin with. I get to run with the big dogs, and we all get to be happy.

My Granddaughter shoots the Stag 6 in 600 yd F T/R, and I just built another from the factory kit for myself. I use the Savage 11VT .223 at 600 for F T/R, and may use my Stag 6 for it someday, too

Meanwhile, no gunsmithing waits, everything I have was built by me, the two F T/R rifles (11VT .223, 11VT .308) are up and running, and I have a proven 1000yd F Open Lothar-Walther 28" 1:8" barrel to spin onto the .308 for the 1000yd line. Total cost including replacement stocks and optics, including the L-W barrel, between $2500-$3000 to shoot all three F Class disciplines, and only the barreled actions are original factory. The rest (Choate Tactical stocks, Mueller 8-32x44 Optics, Vortex and EGW mounting) comes from Midway (mostly) and Amazon. Total personal time investment replacing stocks, optics, less than a day total.

Or..., I could also just leave the .260 barrel on the near-ancient SH Ghost Dancer 260 custom Savage, but that would be cheating... I'm just about ready to mount a vintage Weaver T-24 on the Dancer.

It's not about the money. A frugal shooter with a little courage to try new home gunsmithing things can do it all. Give a good shooter basic equipment that has the potential, and good things can still happen; just without all the extra bucks and waiting time. Simpler probably has fewer bugs, too.

Greg