223 in F/tr.

[Pommy Chris]

My missus has been using her .223 Barnard for a while now to shoot ftr and she has discussed .223 with Jim Blomfield. Betta (my missus) has scored 60 with 8 in a comp with her .223 at 600 meters, but after that things for her got harder at the 700, and at the 800 meters the wheels fell off. I also spoke with Jim about him winning a Queens with his .223. He told me that not long after the Queens he had to drop the load as he was starting to punch holes in primers, he only managed to get the .223 to perform at 1,000 yards with a load that was on the ragged edge. Also since then .308 projectiles have improved significantly so IMO any accuracy benefits of the .223 in the shorts are lost. I recently shot a 60 with 8 at 400 yards with my .308 and I kept two 6's as my sighters, if only I had known!!! My feeling for what it is worth is swapping between .223 and .308 in a comp will only confuse matters regarding reading the wind. It might also make you pull a shot when you first shoot the .308 again too, I recently tried my missus .223 for a few shots trying a load, then I went back to shoot my rifle. After the pfft, pfft of the .223, then the BANG of my own .308 it was rather a shock even though I am used to shooting my rifle.
.223 is a great little rifle if you are only going to shoot at your home range up to maybe 600 yards or so, but just forget the whole .223 thing if you are going to shoot comps.
Chris