Old grunt trying his hand at precision shooting

[daddyusmaximus]

Heading out to the range tomorrow. OK, that's nothing new, except this time I'm gonna try my hand at precision shooting. Spent 28 years wandering the globe with some type of AR platform M16A1/A2/M4 in my hands, so I'm used to that. I have had lever guns and bolt guns in the past, but never really took precision shooting seriously, so I'm gonna give it a shot. (pun intended) I picked up a few Remington 700s. A Classic in 7mm Mauser is on the way, I have a .243 in a MagPul Hunter stock, and my latest finished project is a .223 SPS in a KRG Bravo chassis that I'm taking out to the range tomorrow on it's maiden voyage. It has the Primary Arms GLX 4-16x50 scope, and a single stage Trigger Tech trigger. Hoping to zero it, and test a few different loads in it to start the process of finding out what it likes.

[gaijin]

Betting you'll enjoy "Precision" rifle. What is twist rate on your .2223 SPS, will it stabilize heavy bullets?
We have a Hell of a time with wind drift beyond 600 yds here in Kansas, particularly with conditions in the 15 to 20 sustained, gusting to 35+.

My shooting background had been Pistols/Carbines. A "Long Shot" was 300 yds.
The Long Range Precision game has been an excellent opportunity for growth as a shooter/reloader and has been been most enjoyable.

Enjoy the journey.

[daddyusmaximus]

Betting you'll enjoy "Precision" rifle. What is twist rate on your .2223 SPS, will it stabilize heavy bullets?
We have a Hell of a time with wind drift beyond 600 yds here in Kansas, particularly with conditions in the 15 to 20 sustained, gusting to 35+.

My shooting background had been Pistols/Carbines. A "Long Shot" was 300 yds.
The Long Range Precision game has been an excellent opportunity for growth as a shooter/reloader and has been been most enjoyable.

Enjoy the journey.

I believe it's only a 1/9 I got the action used. Not worried about the wind at 600 yds. That's what the .243, and the 7mm Mauser will be for... maybe. Not getting into long range shooting just yet, only precision shooting for now. Just want to see if I'm capable of nice small little groups first. This thing is only a 16.6" barreled .223. I know it's limitations... trying to find mine. Sad thing is with my poor close up vision, and the nerve damage I have from my injuries in Iraq, I'll probably never get into hand loading.

[gaijin]

Understood.

Hang in there DM.
The beauty of magnified optics are their ability to correct for lousy vision.

[Pappabear]

Don't count out your 1/9 twist barrel just yet. I have a Stock Rem 700 5R 1/9 that will stabilize 80 grain bullets. So the twist rate is a good guideline but not the end-all. The bullet don't lie. Ive never had a 1/12 shoot anything but 55 grainers, but the 1/9 can surprise you given a longer barrel. In AR's, the 1/9 has not proven good with the heavies. Like Gaijin said, the optics make shooting sooo much more enjoyable.

People talk about 22LR trainers all the time, however I think the .223 bolt guns are the best trainers to learn to read wind and all the long range stuff (fundamentals). Give us a range report, I bet that .223 will go much longer than you expect.

Best of luck.

PB

[C-grunt]

Like Pappabear said, dont discount a precision 223. I have a 16 inch BCM build that Ive taken out to almost 1100 yards now with 77 grain ammo. Is it as good as my 6.5 or 308? Hell no, but it gets there.

Truthfully though the majority of the time Im just shooting 55 grain ball ammo out of it. It shoots American Eagle 55 grain to right around or a little under 2 MOA. With the steel target sizes at my range that gets me out past 600 yards without much effort. When I went to shoot with Pappabear and Markm at their range I was hitting a steel IPSC at over 700 yards with the 55 grain fairly regularly. Probably about 50-60 percent hit rate. Good cheap fun.