Author Topic: .223 BC Scoped for Squirrels... (Read 1676 times)

tacklebury · « **on:** November 09, 2011, 03:06:54 PM »

Well, I must say that my first barrel swap experience has worked quite well.

The new .223 barrel fit my .45-70 Buffalo Classic frame perfectly. Slight wrist flick and she closes and locks up tight. The new scope arrived today, but unfortunately, it was after dark, so I couldn't test today. 8( I did get it bore sighted, so hopefully tomorrow afternoon or Friday evening might get some time to test. I'm pretty happy thus far with the scope, but we'll see how it holds and zeros. Anyway, my dies arrived also, so will be starting download development on Friday/Saturday depending on weather.

Thanks for lookin', hopefully will have some good reports soon.

Jason F · « **Reply #1 on:** November 09, 2011, 03:12:23 PM »

That is an odd looking squirrel

tacklebury · « **Reply #2 on:** November 09, 2011, 03:13:33 PM »

ROFL. Aye, bettin tough too. he's 15 years old lol

Dinny · « **Reply #3 on:** November 09, 2011, 03:33:48 PM »

I was going to recommend some light loads for squirrel hunting. After seeing that last pic, I say go with a 55gr V-Max at about 3300fps.

That should do the job.

I do like how your rifle looks. That's some real pretty wood.

Thanks, Dinny

tacklebury · « **Reply #4 on:** November 09, 2011, 03:48:31 PM »

Thanks Dinny, think I got really lucky on good wood on both my Classics.

The .45LC has good figure and is darker. Like em both though.

I could never shoot my little guy. He's been a lap fixture for me for many years.

Unlike most Chihuaua's, he only speaks when someone is at the door, you play bark at him or he gets frivilous with the cat. Otherwise he's silent and one reason we've gotten along all these years. He has lost all his teeth now, but still does pretty good.

bikerbeans · « **Reply #5 on:** November 10, 2011, 10:30:49 AM »

The fox squirrels around my place are big enough that I use a 357 Maxi on them. If you need a 223 for the squirrels in Michigan they must be monsters.

I think your pup would be happier lookin' through the other end of that scope. My lap dog is so gun shy I could never get that picture of him. He runs and hides when I read my copy of the American Rifleman.

BB

Winter Hawk · « **Reply #6 on:** November 10, 2011, 02:01:48 PM »

Quote from: bikerbeans on November 10, 2011, 10:30:49 AM

My lap dog is so gun shy I could never get that picture of him. He runs and hides when I read my copy of the American Rifleman.

BB

Thanks BB, you just made my day! That is too funny.

-WH-

tacklebury · « **Reply #7 on:** November 11, 2011, 01:03:12 PM »

Lol Well, it did pretty good today with the ancient Mil surp Lake City I had. I ended up with 15 of them (from days of running ranges) and most were bent slightly from misfeeds in M-16's. I straightened some, but threw away any which wouldn't chamber without a lot of force. I shot all 15 in less than 10 minutes and walked the scope in. Really like this barrel, considering the horrible fodder I was feeding it. I got my dies, so I'm starting with 55 gr. Winchester HP jackets and Speer 60 gr. SP Jacketed bullets. The leads will come along later, but need to get some more moula in the reloading reserve first.

I have over 500 of the Winchester, so those will probably be my primary test subjects, but I want to do some 60's to see how they stabilize at low speeds. I am shooting to ladder from 5-15 gr. Unique and look for accuracy pockets then will chrony loads at that speed. I'm hoping to find an accuracy spot somewhere in the 1000 to 1100 speed range.

Anyway, here was today's target with the Mil Surp.

ratdog · « **Reply #8 on:** November 11, 2011, 07:52:33 PM »

good shooting tried the 62 grns in mine key holed bad mine is a 1-9 twist likes 55's though reloads fun guns.

tacklebury · « **Reply #9 on:** November 12, 2011, 06:11:00 PM »

Well, I had a few hours today after takin half the roof off my dads house to load up a couple ladders. I settled on testing the Winchester 46 gr. Hollow point for low velocity squirrel loads, because they are fast expanding even at the lower speeds. These are loaded with 4, 5 and 6 grains of Unique to hopefully get down into that low 1k range.

I also loaded the same ladder with the Hornady 55 gr. SP bullets

and Finally, I wanted to try some Reloader 7 for some full velocity loads in a 17, 18, 19 and 20gr ladder. I chose to use the 55 gr Nosler Ballistic tips for these and loaded them per Alliant's spec. Should be generating around 2980 fps. maximum with the 20 gr. load if no pressure signs show up.

One thing I noticed is that this barrel at least will never have any issue with mil spec as the throat is so long I couldn't set a bullet out far enough to touch the rifling.

These were by far the most challenging caliber to load for me with my hand press today. Very tight necks to start any of these bullets. Only thing I could do was finally to use the Collet die on the already charged cases (set way out so it wouldn't contact powder) and just ran it in far enough to even out the insides of the necks. I also had to use a very heavy chamfer, but it went pretty smooth once I figured it out.

ratdog · « **Reply #10 on:** November 12, 2011, 07:38:12 PM »

you won't have much to eat after shooting them with a 223 like yours nice setup.

tacklebury · « **Reply #11 on:** November 13, 2011, 12:48:18 PM »

Well the full house loads won't be for squirrels. Mainly ground hogs and possibly some yotes, albeit they are pretty cagey around here. I did get to test all 50 I loaded last night today after church. Had fun with the old man and he spotted for me. I really like the scope for close in work, but at 100 yards, it has pretty thick reticles and they completely cover the 1" square, so I wasn't really getting fine tuned groups. I think I might move it to my .22 LR Bolt which is scopeless currently since I stole it for my Model 60.

Gets hard stealin from Peter to pay Paul. lol Anyway, the low power ones all were pretty decent albeit all the 4 gr Unique loads had some vascillation vertically. Not from heat, because it was like every other shot and not consistent. Anyway, the barrel really like 5 gr. Unique with the Winchester the best for light jacketed (Yay, have 500 of these) and it did good with the 55 gr. Nosler Ballistic Tips at 100 also. Using Reloader7 for about 3k FPS per Alliant's data and of course it did best right at near max load. I'm going to do a second set of ladders with 4.6 to 5.5 gr. Unique in .1 gr. increments and probably go 19.4 to 20.5 (max) and see if any tighter groups appear. If not, these'll probably be the ticket. I'll be taking them to chrony when a day comes my buddy can set it up. I am quite happy though, albeit was racing rain and I think a lot of the groups could have been better with good rests (not elbows and a cardboard box) lol.

Dinny · « **Reply #12 on:** November 13, 2011, 01:04:30 PM »

Looks good! Are you noticing any "powder positioning" issues? How far does 5gr of Unique fill the case?

Thanks, Dinny

tacklebury · « **Reply #13 on:** November 13, 2011, 01:23:30 PM »

None at all Dinny, never lifted the barrel. 4 gr. load was the only one acting slightly erratic, so going to stay above that threshold. Other than that, the 5 gr. was about 1/20th volume since I was putting 20 of RL7 and it was only 2/3 the volume. I was very careful and charged all cases with no interruptions. I look in each case for the shine of the bottom prior to dumping and pick up from tray on left and move to tray on right before throwing next charge. Keeps things moving, but even if someone interrupts, I know I'm picking up on left only.

Estimated velocity on the 5 gr. load was around 1100 fps, but as I said it'll be chrony'd soon.

ratdog · « **Reply #14 on:** November 13, 2011, 01:34:25 PM »

tack looks like you pretty much got it on the plate with black square looks like dead tree rat to me.

Dinny · « **Reply #15 on:** November 13, 2011, 01:37:48 PM »

I can't remember when, but Gendoc and his son did a low-velocity test with the .223 Rem and a few different bullets. Seems like they used TB powder though. There may be some useful info there if it could be found.

Thanks, Dinny

tacklebury · « **Reply #16 on:** November 13, 2011, 01:51:09 PM »

Thanks, but not into TB. Don't like payin more to do what Unique does very well for me. I stock 3 powders and have been able to come up with good accurate loads using them. Just easier for me and my tiny reloading zone.

With Unique I can get up to 1400 of the 5 gr. loads per bottle. That's about 3 cents a shot.

Dinny · « **Reply #17 on:** November 13, 2011, 02:03:51 PM »

That's very understandable, I'm trimming my excess right now to make better use of my space.

Thanks, Dinny

tacklebury · « **Reply #18 on:** November 22, 2011, 05:41:53 PM »

Well, here's the second to the last update on this post, hopefully.

I had good luck with the Unique and did stick with it. I've loaded up a box o'death to squirrels in a ladder form from 4.1 to 4.9 and 5 more 5.0 unique loads. Using the Win. 46 gr. HP again. Hopefully will post targets tomorrow. Going to do 5 per page I think. Will possibly go for a squirrel too, if one offers itself up.

Possible rain though, so might be over Thanksgiving weekend. Either way thanks for lookin' in again.

Found a couple of these nice little 50-shot MTM boxes for .223 too. Very nice. I added a piece of styroafoam from a packing container to the top to keep tips from bangin around and up.

***edits***
Sorry apparently, when that picture server was down, it lost several pictures I have corrected the lost ones up above too if you refresh.

ratdog · « **Reply #19 on:** November 22, 2011, 11:37:45 PM »

those hollow points look mean have you tried fmj loads a lot cheaper to shot i have many jacks here with them believe me they come apart real good.

gjgalligan · « **Reply #20 on:** November 23, 2011, 03:00:34 AM »

I don't think I would use .223 for squirrels any place around me. Bullets travel too far for any miss or pass through shot. Ground shots might be ok but if they are up in a tree I don't like to use a .22 any more.

Just my opinion based on where I hunt.

tacklebury · « **Reply #21 on:** November 23, 2011, 12:31:01 PM »

Well, GJGalligan, if you read these are actually the power of the .22 LR or at the upper end loads, they are like a .22 mag. I am always careful and only take tree shots if there's a backstop of a branch even with .22 LR.

Well today was a race as usual and my groups suffered slightly towards the end. I shot all 30 of these in 30 minutes, so there was no real cooling chances other than occasionally running to the target board to see how a group did. A couple were all in black and it was dusky enough I couldn't see what happened. The first group was just .1 gr above the touchy 4 gr. level that spazzed last time, so it appears anything over 4 gr is ok.

I had zero misfires and temp was in low 40's, so fingers were getting little chilled. I am pretty happy with these to say the least for my being in such a rush. I could see my reticle bounce with my heart rate, so I felt like a biathalon competitor. hehe I saved 2 of each to put over the Chrony hopefully Friday or Saturday and then will compare groups to speeds and get where I want to be.

I definitely do need a better scope though to take full advantage of this guns potential. I think this leapers is moving to my Model 60 and I'm going to pick up a different one. Still shopping though... I adjusted the scope up after the 4.1 group, but from a cold barrel I was very happy with it.

LunaticFringeInc · « **Reply #22 on:** November 24, 2011, 12:24:54 AM »

Good to see someone else thinks a lot like I do.

In my search for the ultimate "Squirrel Sniper Rifle", I too went with a .223 rifle and reduced loads in the .223, although I used TB and Blue Dot. I didnt think about Unique as an option since I couldnt find any reloading data for using it. Thanks for including some ideas!

tacklebury · « **Reply #23 on:** November 24, 2011, 03:23:28 AM »

Cool, I used Paco Kelly's .223 Cast discussion as a starting point. All his unique downloads (although his were all 7gr) were rated very accurate to accurate in his testing. He was just trying to keep speeds down to non-leading velocities, whereas I was looking for less. I've shot my .45-70 with as little as 6 gr. unique with a RB, so I knew it was possible to go pretty low (pretty funny sounding like playdough dropping and then seeing that ball roll out the end of my 32" barrel was priceless). Hopefully, I can get the chrony data up this weekend for what speeds each of these is getting too.

parson48 · « **Reply #24 on:** November 24, 2011, 03:45:53 AM »

Good lookin' rig. I could kick myself for not buying one of those BCs when CDNN had 'em at such a good price.

tacklebury · « **Reply #25 on:** December 01, 2011, 04:07:21 PM »

Ok returning to this post once more. Will start a different post for future info on this project. Long and short is that this is very accurate and got speeds down to the 1320fps range with 4.1 gr. Unique. Cases do soot a good bit at less than 4.4gr. Unique, so not a perfect solution yet. At 4.4 gr. Unique I was getting 1430 fps average, so more or less slightly higher than .22 LR High velocity rounds. I am going to do another run, hopefully before squirrel season is over, and test from 3.5 gr to 4 gr with a dacron filler. I may have to break down and try some of Dinny's TB also, but we'll see. Anyway, just wanted to close this segment. At 4.1 I got about a .28" group, so it's equal to many .22 LR for accuracy already, but a bit more powerful at 1320fps and a 46 gr. HP.

***edit***

Sorry, should have stated 4.2 was the lowest std. Dev. at just 10 fps. variance for an average velocity of 1340fps. So that'd probably be the best load for consistency and it did shoot a good group.

RussB · « **Reply #26 on:** December 02, 2011, 06:27:29 PM »

Very interesting reading tacklebury......keep 'em coming.

Russ