223 Advice.

[tom1]

We have a young bloke that is interested in coming down to our range to use his 223 in Sporter Class. It has a 21 inch barrel & I in 12 twist. He has factory ammo with 55 grain hunting projectiles. I have my doubts as to whether this will be suitable for our Kongsberg targets. Maybe at 300 yards, but after that I don't think it will work at longer distances. Our club still has a few boxes of Winchester 69 grain ammo. Will this work with his twist rate? If not is there any factory ammo that would suit his rifle for target shooting? He doesn't have any reloading equipment. Our range distances are 300 to 700 yards. Thanks for any advice. Cheers
Brad Probert

[saum2]

Personally, I wouldn't put up too many barriers to turn him away. Let him try it, start him at 300yds and let him find his way. When he's hooked he'll bring something else to use. If not, well at least you have tried. We have a visible object on the stop butt for new shooters to aim at first, once they get close to the object we let them go onto the target.

[PeteFox]

Brad
55gn hunting bullets will likely be soft point spitzer. They will have a trajectory like the orbit of the moon, wiil slow to a crawl past 300 yds and will need heaps of elevation adjustment that a hunting scope wont have. 69gn bullets need 10 twist minimum.

Better to borrow a club rifle, as it will be a disappointing outing with his current rig
Pete

[cheech]

My Sako sporter 12 tw works great with 60gn sierra hp Varmint but that’s the limit . Light barrels heat up badly and throws em a bit too , we had a club member with a light barrel 8twist tikka t3 223 and that sprayed shots when hot too , once swapped to a varmint model all was well . I would definitely encourage him shoot what gear he has because give him a chance to shoot a well setup rig the differences will be apparent pretty quickly and all make sense it’s how I started. Some will want the quest to keep going others won’t but won’t know till you try , good luck

[tom1]

Thanks for the replies. We are shooting 300 yards next week so we will see how it goes. Our club has a couple of members that use a 223 so I will show him what is possible with a rifle that is set up for our sport. Might even introduce him to shooting with a sling, straight jacket & aperture sights.
Cheers Brad.

[BATattack]

First shoot I attended with my own rifle was using a 222 with 52gr hollow points and a old tasco 4-16 without target turrets. Shot 300 and did well. At 500 it kept most in the black which I was really happy with at the time!!

Just because it's not good by our current standards doesn't mean they won't be happy.

[tom1]

This morning our club shot at 300 yards. The young bloke showed up & we set him up for Sporter Class. First application he scored 38.1. He was pretty happy with that. Second application he used a different brand of ammo & scored 34.1. This application had several shots that were high 2s & 3s. Still happy to have had his first attempt at this sport. Next week will move back to 500 yards & see how it goes.
Has anyone used the ADI 223 55gn Blitzking ammo? Hoping this may be a better option than his unsuitable soft tip hunting ammo. Appreciate any advice.
Cheers
Brad Probert