Replying directly to the OP; your thinking is not off; it parallels many here, especially from the past. Some of the really older timers here will remember the commitment Baldboy put into this fast twist, heavy bullet concept.
But does your buddy follow his own advice; and if not, why not?
I tried this with a varmint .22-250, and even with the sub-60gr varmint bullets, barrel heating during training routines that attempted to duplicate the 22rd in 30min competitive COF brought barrel temps to alarmingly high levels. Using the basic technique of holding the back or the palm against the aft end of the barrel for a count of ten, one could not even get the palm near contact without stopping right there. The last five (at least) or ten rounds of the 22 rounds' POI's were opened up to several multiples of the cold barrel size. No joy there.
Now I find that dissatisfying to say the least. It's an exercise in barking up the wrong tree. I sold the gun to keep myself from destroying it in my zeal.
I even sponsored a group project using .223 and 22-250 with reduced loads (52SMK, 7gr Unique for .223, 9gr Unique for .22-250). The two competing solutions were equally terrible whenever the wind rose to even a mild degree. It was a bad premise that proved nothing. But it was also done as an informal match and there was a lot of humor those few days.
This all brought me back to the .223. It can be shot to transsonic in a shorter distance, making more training venues suitable. Its inherent performance does not mask the shooter's limitations with superior drop and drift performance.
If I wanted to make shooting amplify the shooter's limitations, I'd actually be shooting a .22LR. But the .22LR is going though a paroxysm of speculative hoarding, and this, once again, improves the .223's image. This itself is a big part of my own reasoning in favoring the .223 as a training vehicle.
I've been dabbling in F T/R. I use the
Savage 11VT (for about $550 a pop) as my trainer, and as my entry-level competitive rifle. I have two, a .223 and a .308. The .223 is my trainer and my MR competitor rifle. The .308 serves as the main competitor, primarily for LR. For heavy usage training, I shoot the .223 at 100yd with PPU 55gr FMJBT. I save the brass and make 75gr match loads from it. At 100yd, the 55gr FMJBT shoots well enough from the gun to serve as a reliable training round at this shorter distance. For wind work, I stretch it out to 300Meters. Accuracy doesn't duplicate match ammo so well, but the overall drop and drift can be very informative at 300m.
Meanwhile, I'm not burning barrels, I can do the training work at more easily reached venues, and the recurring costs are kept to a reasonable minimum. I also know that when I do my final match prep with the real deal 75gr HPBT-Match ammo at 300m with the MR-63 target, performance is going to hew to a finer line.
There will be another 11VT in my future, onto which I will replace the factory .308 barrel with an aftermarket .260 barrel, to use for F Open training/comps. The 11VT package rifles, with suitable optics replacements, are virtually identical, making ergonomics indistinguishable between the rifles. They run somewhere around $550 each, sometimes there are rebates, and the included package scope is not bad for mounting on a hunter. Otherwise, the rifle is perfectly configured as a trainer, and as an entry level competitor's rifle.
At 70, with my health, massive equipment expenditures are not warranted. Simply being able to get back into that competition, with personal bests as my goal, I am more than satisfied with this approach.
They also serve, who....
Meanwhile, I can also use the experience as a mentoring opportunity for my Grandkids.
.223 magazines. The subject has been very adequately addressed with the Mossberg MVP line of rifles. Some of their newer MVP LR offerings are looking pretty nifty. BTW, the MVP also supports the .308 with M-14/M1A magazines, and those mags will also work with their brandy new 6.5CM MVP LR.
Triggers. The AccuTrigger is fine by me and many others.
Glass. Some will pooh-pooh
this because it doesn't cost in the megabuckage range, but I find it absolutely adequate for my own precision rifle shooting. It is offered with both Mil-Dot and fine target dot reticles. The side focus alone is an upgrade. I own two of these and will be buying 3 more.
Rings.
Vortex, these are medium height and would work with the supplied 2-piece bases. I would order the
low ones for use with a sloped (10 MOA/20 MOA) single piece base.
I might suggest the
6mm XC, instead. I also like it as a viable alternative to the 6.5 Grendel.
Greg
