223 ultra varmint 100 & 200 yard range report

[Inrut24/7]

This gun is 5 or 6 years old I have put at least 2000 rounds through it and its shooting the best it ever has.I did the o ring trick and found it it tighten the groups up a little. I have found 24.5 grains of h322 under a 50 grain v-max to be very very accurate. I also tried 21.5 grains under 70 grain speer semi spitzers just to see if they would fly straight and they didnt perform to bad. The 100 yard and 200 yard groups are from seperate days with the 200 yard day being a little breezy. All groups were fired from a caldwell front rest with a sand bag under the rear.

       HERE SHE IS


       100YARD GROUP WITH THE V-MAXS


       70 GRAIN SPEER GROUP AT 100YARDS


     50 GRAIN V-MAXS AT 200 YARDS

[DalesCarpentry]

Wow!!!!!!!!!!!! Great shooting.

[LaOtto222]

I have the same gun. I have found the 50 V MAX to shoot well in all of my .224 caliber guns. What primer and case were you using?

[LaOtto222]

I forgot to mention those are great looking groups I have not been able to get my ultra to shoot that well...yet   I do have a Savage that does.

[stimpylu32]

inrut

Very nice groups my 223 BB will shot like that if i do my part , ought to do well on p-dogs and g-hogs out to 300 plus .

stimpy

[Roudy]

inrut

Would you share what kind of scope you are using?

Roudy

[Inrut24/7]

thanks guys, Its a BSA contender 6x24 milldot. Its pretty foggy past 16 power,holds zero,but I wouldnt buy another one, Im using annealed Remington brass with cci 400 primers col 2.250. I also loaded some small 35 grain V-max which shot 1 inch 3 shot groups,but couldnt find the target to take a pic. The 70 grain speers surprised me with how decent they shot, they where no where near max load and i believe they will shoot better with a bigger charge. I never had the trigger worked on but its almost scary how light it is.  I find this sight very usefull as i was ready to sell the gun because of stuck cases, I polished the bore and only had one case stick out of the last 200 or so rounds.

[LaOtto222]

Since you went to the trouble of annealing cases, can I assume you uniformed the pocket depths, deburred the flash hole and trimmed all to the same length too?

[Inrut24/7]

No uniforming or deburring, but they are all darm close in length from the lee case trimmer, I dont weight sort my empty brass but I do weight sort the loaded rounds on a digital scale.usually into about 4 groups.  I dont normally anneal the cases, I did mostly out of bordom. I doubt it makes accuracy any better. give the h322 a try, your gun might also like it.

[just bill]

Very nice! 

[lik2hunt]

Thanks for posting all the info. Nice groups too! The 100 yard V-Max group is downright impressive!
With the unavailability of the WWB ammo, and so many searching for a good load to replace it with, this is certainly good news. Wonder how some factory 50 grain ammo would shoot in a Handi .223?

[mookster79]

all handis are different when it comes to factory ammo and what they like.  Mine love the blackhills remanufactured ammo with the 50 gr vmax.  I notice no difference in the match (red box) to the reman (blue box) ammo.  It is not untolerable in price if you find a decent price and can swing about 500 rds or so.  I shot a group of 5 that a couple were touching and all covered by a quarter at 100 yds.  Maybe one of these days  I will take pic but didn't yet.  I was using the ultramax 50 gr nosler bt rounds to the same effect this weekend. Also no pics, but the handi did lay claim to its second woodchuck of the season.  It was just over 100 yds and moving, love this gun.

[Gandalf]

Nice groups!   My Ultra 223 is just coming around I think.  When I got it a year ago, I went thru a half dozen varieties of factory loads, Black Hills, UltraMax, White box, etc, and none of them shot for beans.  I eventually worked up my own, 27 gr. of Varget pushing a 40 gr. Nosler BT and got under 3/4 inch.  I've been using that load on nutria all winter with invariably fatal results.  A few weeks ago, I was going to the range and I decided to burn up all of the non-shooting varieties I had to salvage the brass.  Got a 2.9 inch group at 200 yards with the 52 gr HP UltraMax.  Since I have no clue what the powder was in that load, I guess it's back to the drawing board. 

Dang, I hate hobbies where the failures are so much fun....

[PHATINJUN]

I am assuming that gun being 5-6 yrs old it is a 1-12" bbl just wondering about the 70grainers . I am working on a load for 70 grain and up in my new 223 with the 1-9 bbl first time to the range I was very happy with the way it shot as I ended up with 3-3 1/2 inch groups at 200yrds with some old blackhills 62 gr shoft points that I had and am going to be very unhappy if I can't make it shoot 1" 200yrd groups with some hand loaded 55 grainers.Kurt

[Inrut24/7]

Yeah its a 1in12 twist, the speer 70 grain semi spitzers are no longer than 55 grain bullets, My dad had a full box that he found and gave me, not sure how old they are, but the price sticker was still on them at 7.99 for 100, Now that i see they will shoot decent i might take it doe hunting, Taking a deer with a 22 cal is somthing i always wanted to do.

[chino69]

The 50 grn. group is excellent and that's where I would stay.  It's not surprising the groups open up when you tried the 70 grn. bullets due to the 1-12" twist.  I just had a new 1-9" barrel fitted at the factory and the 55 grn. V-Maxes shoot nice tight one hole groups.  The 60 grn. Sierras & Hornadys are good but not as accurate as the 55s.  For a $200 rifle to shoot those kinds of groups is all you can ask for.
Chino69

[Inrut24/7]

Before i used loads with RL 7 and RL 15 with the 50 grain V-max with decent accuracy, then i tried h322 and wow its a keeper, yeah i wasnt expecting the 70 grainers to shoot to great, but had them around and thought i would load a few and maybe try to take a doe with it this winter. I think i can get the 70 grainers a little tighter, but they are good enough to pop a doe with now .