I was so impressed with my sons .243 Win. Ultra rifle, that I bought one in .223 Rem.. I have been using the 45 gr Winchesters, on the reports of this forum, and find that they shoot 3 shot groups that I can cover with a dime on a regular basis.
Last week I killed my first "called in" coyote with this combo. The shot was in the range of about 60 yards. Bullet entered behind the shoulder with a "SMACK", the dog ran about 40 yards and died. On skining the coyote there was only one tiny hole in the pelt, with a good clean kill. I must confess that after shooting several dogs with the .243 while deer hunting and this one with the .223 I am amazed at how much these animals can take before going down.
After seeing the damage, and finding lead fragments between the skin and body, I wonder how these bullets will penetrate if I had made a shoulder shot.
I love this rifle, it shoots the 55 gr loading OK. I have been expermenting with the Blue Dot reduced loads and find them quite acurate and plesant to shoot. The rifle sounds more like a .410 shotgun than a rifle with these loads.
I did polish the chamber and cleaned the crap out of the bore then ran about 100 strokes thrugh it with a tight patch and tooth paste to polish the barrell. I also made a spacer for the barrell bolt to get a good free float.
Good hunting! :-)