.223 69 grain sierra matchking

[Jerry D]

What would you guys say is the max range before consistency is lost with a .223 69 grain sierra match king @ 2850 fps? Barrel twist rate is 1 in 9"

I think ultimately 400 yards and by 500 it would be sort of lost?

 

[Kevin Thomas]

Hi Jerry,

Little clarification here; what are you looking for by "consistency"? Accuracy with the 69 can be good out to 600 or better, easily, but wind drift is going to be a bit of an issue. What conditions are you shooting in? What sort of target?

Kevin Thomas
Berger Bullets
(formerly of Sierra)

 

[Jerry D]

Conditions are nice - sunny, wind probably 10 mph max, from below freezing to hot summer temperatures...

About constancy I mean when will the bullet being to not be stabilized, or when it's FPS is too slow and the wind really starts to push it. I know this all can be accounted for but say with shooter error in sighting/wind reading at what range would you reliably be able to hit say a 8" circle?

If it can do 4-500 yards I'll be happy as my next rifle is going to be a 6mm or 6.5 and I'll shoot it to go out to 1000.

 

[Kevin Thomas]

Hi Jerry, and thanks for the clarification here. Your question here relates primarily to stability then, with the other issues being a function of other variables. The 1x9" in your rifle with be perfectly able to stabilize that bullet out to any range you want to shoot. At 2850 fps, you shouldn't have any problem at all with hitting an 8" circle at four, five or even 600 yards, as long as you can hold it, and the external factors(wind, inherent rifle accuracy, that sort of thing) don't influence things more than can be managed by the shooter. Remember that a bullet becomes more stable as it proceeds downrange, as rotational velocity doesn't decay anyway near as fast as translational velocity. If it's stable at the muzzle, it should be stable at any range until it goes subsonic. This combination should be good out to about 800 yards or so, when the bullet goes transonic. All kinds of bad things happen at that point, and all bets are off; keep the bullet supersonic all the way to the target. If the combination you're looking at won't do this, it's time to make some changes. The 6mm and/or 6.5mm you mentioned will do this quite nicely!

Hope this is of some assistance,

Kevin Thomas
Berger Bullets

 

[teddy12b]

I had a savage 12bvss that hit accurately out to 700 yards with the 69gr matchking over varget. I stopped at 700 because the scope ran out of adjustment. It probably could hae gone farther on a good day.

 

[Dano]

Im using the 80 grain matchking HPBT in my .223 with 1.8 twist and i shoot it out to 1000yards. i needed to put a 20MOA picatinniy rail on it to get elevation and its great on nice days but brezzy days it gets pushed around a bit. If u re load urself get some Lapua Cases and some CCI primers and u should shoot some tighter groups, as lapua have the best consistency to be loaded 15 times or more. good luck shooting

 

[Nomad]

Shot 750 yds with a 1/9 twist 20 in barrel loaded with 24.5 of
RL-15, 205M, Win cases and 69gr nos this was at a match....
Would I do it again yes but this time a 75gr hornady......
Wind is not your friend........