223 Remington Tactical owners
I thought I would pass on some good info.
I have been searching for the best long range bullet this gun could handle with the 1-9 twist for some time. First I tried the 80 A-max, ha, that was nowhere near stable... Often not even making it to the 100 yard target backer let alone the target.
Then I moved on to the 75 A-max and 80 SMK, those landed on target but in a rifle that will shoot into 3/4” at 100 on a bad day these two would only shoot groups in the 3” to 4” range. Stable enough to hit point first but I could not push them fast enough get any real accuracy from them.
I moved on to 70 grain Berger VLD’s thinking that a BC matching the 77smk it may be a great alternative. While it did work I could never get it to shoot that well. MOA was about the best I could get. So I went back to the 69 that shot well. The 77’s will work but I just couldn’t run them fast enough to really outperform the 69’s. That is where I have been for the last year, using the rifle mostly for short to mid range varmints with a little steel plate shooting from time to time 500y on in.
Enter the 75 grain Berger VLD and its .423 G1.
This bullet is not new by any means but I somehow never thought to run it through the Rem Tac until now. For the last three weeks I have been developing the load at 100y and while everything looked great, I wanted to wait till I had the opportunity to shoot at the 1000y range to be sure, prior to posting and calling it a success.
Today was the day.
My load is running 2850 FPS at the muzzle and with today’s DA of 0’ (45 degrees at 960 ASL) it required 10.4 mils at 1000y, just barely supersonic. The only issue is the size and weight of the projectile; it makes it almost impossible to see an impact. As long as no one else is shooting you can hear the little “tink” as it impacts steel.
The following target is not posted as to show how great of a shot I am but to prove they are arriving pointy end first at 1000y. It would have been a 5 shot group but without knowing where I was hitting on the 36" target I missed judged the wind. I was holding 1.5 mil and should have held 1.2ish. Shots 1,2 and 3 all hit the left side while shot 4 missed. I thought I saw a minor disturbance in the force, I mean dirt, just off the left of the steel so I ended up over correcting for shot 5 by half a mil.
Had all shots struck I am sure I would have had a nice 10-12” group in todays wind but instead I have 3 in 8” with a straggler.
So in closing, if you have a Remington Tactical in 223 and want to push the envelope as far as you reasonable can. Try the 75 Berger VLD, the ballistics are very close to my 175 smk 308 load at 2650, using about the same wind hold and just about a mil less in elevation.
UPDATE:
I have revisted 80 grain BTHP's in the Nosler CC flavor and they are working now, not sure what the issue was before... maybe I was using a powder other than varget??? But varget is working and I am around 2825fps.
I thought I would pass on some good info.
I have been searching for the best long range bullet this gun could handle with the 1-9 twist for some time. First I tried the 80 A-max, ha, that was nowhere near stable... Often not even making it to the 100 yard target backer let alone the target.
Then I moved on to the 75 A-max and 80 SMK, those landed on target but in a rifle that will shoot into 3/4” at 100 on a bad day these two would only shoot groups in the 3” to 4” range. Stable enough to hit point first but I could not push them fast enough get any real accuracy from them.
I moved on to 70 grain Berger VLD’s thinking that a BC matching the 77smk it may be a great alternative. While it did work I could never get it to shoot that well. MOA was about the best I could get. So I went back to the 69 that shot well. The 77’s will work but I just couldn’t run them fast enough to really outperform the 69’s. That is where I have been for the last year, using the rifle mostly for short to mid range varmints with a little steel plate shooting from time to time 500y on in.
Enter the 75 grain Berger VLD and its .423 G1.
This bullet is not new by any means but I somehow never thought to run it through the Rem Tac until now. For the last three weeks I have been developing the load at 100y and while everything looked great, I wanted to wait till I had the opportunity to shoot at the 1000y range to be sure, prior to posting and calling it a success.
Today was the day.
My load is running 2850 FPS at the muzzle and with today’s DA of 0’ (45 degrees at 960 ASL) it required 10.4 mils at 1000y, just barely supersonic. The only issue is the size and weight of the projectile; it makes it almost impossible to see an impact. As long as no one else is shooting you can hear the little “tink” as it impacts steel.
The following target is not posted as to show how great of a shot I am but to prove they are arriving pointy end first at 1000y. It would have been a 5 shot group but without knowing where I was hitting on the 36" target I missed judged the wind. I was holding 1.5 mil and should have held 1.2ish. Shots 1,2 and 3 all hit the left side while shot 4 missed. I thought I saw a minor disturbance in the force, I mean dirt, just off the left of the steel so I ended up over correcting for shot 5 by half a mil.
So in closing, if you have a Remington Tactical in 223 and want to push the envelope as far as you reasonable can. Try the 75 Berger VLD, the ballistics are very close to my 175 smk 308 load at 2650, using about the same wind hold and just about a mil less in elevation.
UPDATE:
I have revisted 80 grain BTHP's in the Nosler CC flavor and they are working now, not sure what the issue was before... maybe I was using a powder other than varget??? But varget is working and I am around 2825fps.
