The .223 Rem for varmint hunting, and range play

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Picher

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I'm relatively new to the .223 Rem, (being an OLD .22-250 shooter). I like the .223's fairly quiet report, accuracy, and it's performance at both the range and on varmints like woodchucks and eastern coyotes at ranges under 300 yards, which is about as far as reasonable in the family fields.

Yesterday, I wanted to get a better idea as to what bullet weight might be optimal for all-round shooting in my sporter-weight rifles. The ballistic tables, showing trajectory and wind deflection for Sierra Blitzking bullets (highest BC of the bullets I looked at), comparing velocities of 3,000 for 50 grain bullets and 3,100 for 55 grain bullets, show almost identical trajectory and wind deflection for both. Energy is also quite close out to 300 yards.

Pushing 50 grain bullets a bit faster, may give a slight edge to those bullets, but for my purposes, it seems that it doesn't really make much difference which weight I choose for hunting out to 300 yards, which, as I said, is my practical limit here.

Sighted in to zero at 150 yards, wind 90* @ 10mph, calculated for my elevation, expected temperatures, and humidity, using the Hornady ballistics calculator:

50 Grain Blitzking (BC .248) at 3,200 fps
100yds 0.6 1.1
200 -1.8 4.7
300 -10.0 11.3

55 grain Blitzking (BC .271) at 3,100 fps
Distance Trajectory Wind Defl, Inches.
100yds 0.6 1.1
200 -1.9 4.5
300 -10.3 10.7


Raising the 50 grain bullet velocity to 200 fps faster than the 55 grain would probably show that the 50 grain bullet would have even better performance than the 55, but it seems that there is no practical ballistic advantage to either (within my stated range limitations).

I'll probably pick the most accurate load and stick with it.

What do you think?
 
If the biggest thing you're going to shoot is a coyote, show me voting for the 40 gr Nosler Ballistic Tip. That little pill will destroy a coyote. I think that it must dump all its energy in the coyote, rather than passing through. And you can run the bullet up around 3700 fps, which is 22-250 speed. That's the bullet I keep handy next to the 223 for yard (pasture) work. I use H335 to push it. Shoots little groups.
 
I would think the 40 grain pill would be hard on barrels at 3,700 fps. That's on the hot side, even for a .22-250. One thing I didn't like about the .22-250 is that some bullets would break up on tall grass, even snow in the winter time.
 
I think you answered your own question. Pick the accurate one and go with it. Lets face it, dead is dead. Both will do the job but it all boils down to what your rifle likes.
 
I found the 40 grain plastic tipped ammo to be very accurate. Studying the ballistics tables indicated that the 40 grain .223 shot as flat as a 55 grain softpoint 22/250 out to 300-350 yards. I'm sold on this load especially for coyotes called and/or shot around livestock. Darned little chance of a ricochet even on frozen ground.
 
The best bullet in that weight range is the 53gr Vmax, it has a BC of .290, which is way above the other 50-55gr offerings. At close range it'll drop more, but not a huge amount, but pushing out further it will be a lot flatter and be better in the wind. Over 3300fps see to be common to get too also.

I don't know how anyone could say 223 was quite though. Quieter, perhaps but certainly not what I would ever classify as quiet.
 
603Country The Eastern coyote is much larger than the Western, reaching 60 lbs. or more. When I see evidence of some large ones around, I carry my .243 Win. It takes care of them very well. For smaller ones, and under 300 yards, the .223 Rem and bullets between 50 and 55 grains work fine here.
 
Here in Texas (where everything is supposed to be bigger), the biggest coyote I ever killed was 50 pounds. He was big enough that I decided to weigh him. Most of the others probably weren't over 35 pounds. Still, you might be amazed at what that little Nosler 40 grainer will do. The first coyote I used it on went down so fast that I wondered where he went. Just blasted him right off his feet. Same with the next one. That's why I think that the little bullet must transfer all its energy when it hits, and not put 2/3 of the energy into the tree behind the coyote. The last coyote I shot with the 220 was hit with the 55 grain Nosler BT and the bullet didn't knock him flat. Just passed on through.

As for fps, I think that some of the max loads showed 40 grainer bullet speed around 3700, but I'm pushing it around 3500.

And, like Mobuck mentioned, I started using that bullet so that it would fragment on contact with most anything and not ricochet.
 
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603 Country Glad to hear that the 40 grain Nosler BT works well for you on coyotes.

I've got a lot of 50 and 55 grain bullets on-hand and intend to use them up before trying others. Besides, it's getting hard to find most .224 bullets these days.
 
Had a good day at the range yesterday. The Rem 700 SSLV made a great, sub 0.2" three-shot group that was spoiled by a fourth round that chambered hard. I remember dropping a few cartridges and may have stepped on that one. Anyway, three shots went into the best group I've ever shot at 100 yards. Love that rifle!

The surprise of the day was when I tested some factory Rem-UMC 55 grain rounds that I'd pulled bullets and replaced with Sierra 55 grain PSP bullets. I shot a couple to see where they were printing, so I could hit the 200 meter gong and the bullet holes made a 0.15" "group" about a half-inch to the left of the others.
 
Outstanding; good to hear. Yeah, a lot can be said for the utility of this round. It would have been popular even without the .mil adopting the 556x45, I think.
 
Dremel, the 223 would not have existed without Uncle Sam deciding to not go with the 222 Rem Mag and instead changing the case a very small bit to have the 5.56. And I'm still a bit unclear why the 222 Rem Mag wasn't the obvious choice, though I guess I could google it up.
 
Picher, bullets don't wear out barrels regardless of how fast they leave. It's the powder burning at high pressure that erodes away the rifling at its origin at the barrel's back end. Virtually no wear happens at the front end as the bullets are already sized to the bore's profile so there's very little friction. Pressure is much lower in the front part if the barrel, too.

Some folks have cut the back 2 or 3 inches off their .222 Rem 26" long varmint barrels, rechambered them and got another 3000 rounds of 1/4 MOA accuracy at 100 to 200 yards.
 
Bart: Heat is the real barrel killer, caused by high pressure loads that push bullets to higher velocities.

Not allowing the barrel to cool somewhat between shots is also hard on bores, as evidenced by rifles used in battle, etc.

I tend to look for slower burning powders that push bullets to reasonably higher velocities at lower pressures than most. In that light, Reloder 22 is my favorite .270 Win, 130 grain bullet powder of choice for near-max hunting loads.
 
Yesterday, I cleaned the .223 Rem LV and took it out of the stock to deepen and widen the barrel channel a bit more, to assure the barrel couldn't touch and to improve cooling.

Afterwards, I went down to our blueberry fields and tried it at 182 yards, which was the lasered distance of the steel ram silhouette I placed a few days earlier and where I placed a target to check the zero.

I was pleasantly surprised when shooting at the silhouette's 4" diameter white circle, placed to guide my grandson for killing shots. The first shot went dead-center and the second about 2" right. These rounds weren't my best ammo, but were 50 grain Hornady SPs. The next shot, with 50 grain Sierra Blitzking, was about 1 1/4" left of center, but when I looked at the cratering, the third shot (Blitzking) was barely cratered, compared to 1/8" cratering with the Hornady SPs. I wondered whether the plastic tip prevented the hot jetting, or if it was just a more fragile bullet.

I was shooting standing, leaning on the back of the pickup and had the rifle resting on a rear-sandbag sitting on the body's hard-cover and holding the rear of the rifle up with my left hand. It's not the steadiest rest, but not bad.

Shooting at my 2" target squares, I hit one dead center and another shot went 1" left, which I called out.

Recalculating trajectory on the computer (JBM Program), so the rounds were zeroed at 182 yards resulted in the following:

50 grain Blitzking at 3,050 fps
50 yards 0.3"
100 " 1.0"
150 " 0.8"
200 " -0.6"
250 " -3.2"
300 " -7.1"
350 " -12.3"
400 " -19.0"

Considering that I don't have anyplace on the property where I'd shoot more than 300 yards with this "walkabout" rifle, the trajectory is about perfect for crows out to 225yds and coyotes to just under 300.
 
Being lazy, I sight in all of my 2,800-3,100 ft/sec rifles for about two inches high at 100 yards. That's right at dead on at 200 and about six inches low at 300.

On a prairie dog hunt with my .223 22" bolt gun, an observer along for the ride was lasering the dogs for us two shooters. At 300 yards, I generally held about five inches high for body hits.

IIRC, 50- or 55-grain Sierras.
 
Picher:
Heat is the real barrel killer, caused by high pressure loads that push bullets to higher velocities.
Click to expand...
What's a high pressure load?

What's a normal pressure load?

Sierra Bullets tests their stuff shooting 10 shot groups one shot every 10 to 15 seconds; grab 10 bullets coming out of the final assembly machine, seat them in primed/charged cases then 10 minutes later shoot those ten rounds. This test cycle happens 3 to 4 times an hour during the production run. Barrels stay very hot. They use normal, SAMMI spec maximum pressure loads. Their .308 Win. test barrels last about 3000 rounds; same as people shooting them once every minute or less.
 
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