.223 for general varminting

[Oregonhunter]

I have a guestion for all those who have .223
experiance.

I am thinking about trading in some stuff for a smaller,gentler plinking gun.

I would be using it for coyote and such as well as plinking. I was thinking about trying the .223 for this.

What do you all think?
I have very little experiance with this rnd.
And to what yardage would you be willing to use this?(coyotes,and such)

Any help would be appreciated!

Oregonhunter

 

[Dave King]

I have a bolt rifle in 223 and love the little thing. I use it for groundhogs, steel targets and deer. I wouldn't expect to use it on deer much past 300 yards but for groundhogs I'd think 500 yards would be easy. I shoot Federal Gold Medal Match (GMM)with the 69 Sierra Match King (MK).

 

[jb1000br]

I love the 223 for varmints. It is fun and relatively cheap to shoot.

if you need a bunch of decent brass for a good price check www.rvow.com -- if you dont need so much, go with winchester or lapua.

anywho -- i love it for PD's and groundhogs -- i have dropped several ghogs in their tracks past 400yds with 50 vmax, It will get you to 500 on varmints as long as you can get it there--heavy bullets like dave shoots will get you there with a little more poop left--but for that (with factory guns)you need to get a savage with a 9 twist barrel--most others are 12 twist (like mine) and can only go up to about 60gns.

HTH,
JB

 

[deergrunt]

I have a 223 in a Remington 700 VLS. Its fun to shoot and is very easy to load for. There are a ton of different 224 bullets for it. Win 748, H-335, BLC-2 and Varget all work great for me. I have taken deer with this gun, shot placement being the rule. The little 223 shines best on chucks and crows. Its a very accurate round. My advice to you is to find somebody with a 223 and buy some rounds for it and spend the day in a target rich enviornment. I suspect you will go from there to the nearest gun shop and buy one for yourself. Good luck with your choice.

 

[Oregonhunter]

Thanks for the help!!


Oregonhunter

 

[Lee in OH]

The Savage is the way to go. The barrel is a 1:9" twist so when you do get into handloads, you can use heavier bullets if you wish.

 

[MachV]

The 223 sighted at 200 will put a coyote into a tailspin to 300 easy and a lot further with a heavier bullet and range work.Even ben known to tip prairie dogs over past 700 yards.
The Savage is a great action but stay away fron the tuperware stock(the fugly one).
For some reason my Ruger VT keeps a lot better sight picture than the Savage 223 Tactical(reinfourced tuperware stock).
The AR makes a great coyote gun

 

[milanuk]

Another one to consider is the CZ-527 Varmint, w/ either a laminate or H-S Precision stock. Detachable magazine, single-set trigger out of the box, and normally very, very accurate. New around here normally goes for around $565 or so. And the new models (last year or so) come w/ a 1-9" twist as well.

For what it's worth, I've ixnay'd a metric buttload of sod poodles w/ a couple bone stock .223 bolt guns. One was a Rem788 w/ a 6-24x Tasco scope (my first centerfire rifle), and the other a 700VS w/ a 20" barrel (factory) and a 10x scope (and a freakin' 5-3/4# trigger!), and the cheap reman ammo w/ 50-55gr bullets. Cheap, and works like a charm out to at least 300yds. Beyond that the wind starts mixing thing up a little, at least w/ the lighter bullets in my experience. Never used the heavies, as where I was shooting I needed to be sure that whatever the bullet hit, either the varmint or the ground or sagebrush, it wasn't going to carry *anywhere*, so I stuck w/ the light highly frangible projectiles. Besides, they make a definite 'impression' on impact

FWIW, the one coyote I connected with w/ a .223 Rem *did not* stay down. Shot from a bipod, w/ him sitting, facing quartering towards me. I must have hit him in the shoulder, as he flipped end-for-end and halfways again in the air, and went down hard. As I jogged towards the spot, from about 250yds away, he got up and I swear I've never seen anything on four legs move that fast before or since. No blood trail, and no recovery

Best guess is the bullet may have blown up on the shoulder, and not penetrated (55gr soft point).

HTH,

Monte

[ 03-11-2004: Message edited by: milanuk ]

 

[Oregonhunter]

Hey I did forget to ask,

What gun do you folks think would be best(nothing costing as much as a house)?

I will be using factory rounds for a while,
so what rate of twist barrel would you suggest? And whats the best overall bullet weight to start out with for coyotes at longer distanes?

Thanks much!

Oregonhunter

 

[deergrunt]

Like I said before, I have a Remington 700 VLS. All I did to the gun was lighten up the trigger pull. There are alot of very accurate rifles on the market. I hear alot about the Savage Accutrigger system. The rifle seems reasonably priced. As for twist rate, my rifle has a 1:12 rate in a 26 inch barrel. I have shot everything up to 55 grains well. As a general rule the faster the twist the heavier the bullet. As for range, the gun is more capable than I am as a shooter. If your after yotes beyond 300yds then a 1:9 or 1:7 twist with heavier match bullets would work fine. If your buying over the counter loads for the gun, then try some Winchester 45 grain hollow points. You can buy them at Wal-mart, 40 rounds for $11.00. They work great on crows. I shot a crow in the backyard two months ago at a range of 35yds. The bird exploded!! Good luck with your choice. Please keep us posted on the gun you decide to buy. I know you will have just as much fun with the 223 Rem as I do.

 

[jb1000br]

Get whichever savage heavy barrel you can afford and like or a remington 700 VS or VLS (the VS has less of a chance of needing bedded.

THe savage with the mcmilan A3 stock would be my first choice if you can afford it.

Check out the tikka T3 varmint too--very sweet.

JB

 

[Oregonhunter]

I appreciate all the good info!

I am going to the local gun shop this weekend and see what they got in stock.

I did look at the CZ's on their web site. I like the action style on them and they do look pretty sharp with those HS stocks.

I am going to try to make a trade, if it works out I will post what I picked up!

Thanks again folks!

Rob

 

[rlipson]

Rob,

You mentioned coyote hunting. One thing I figured out is that I didn't like lugging my heavy varmint weight guns moving between sets for coyotes. I carry my AR-15 with a 16" barrel(accurized of course!) for songdogging. Anyway, I was little concerned that all the reccomendations were pretty heavy. Good luck, no matter what you'll love the .223!

P.S. A Cooper is very accurate and much lighter than most varmint rifles due to small action and slightly more taper in the barrel than some othe varminters...if you can afford one!

 

[milanuk]

Heck, if 'lighter is better' is the goal, get a CZ 527 American. Same action and trigger, classic American hunting rifle stock, 'normal' weight barrel. Still pretty darned accurate. Actually, these are some of the rifles that 'made' the CZ reputation in the last few years w/ varmint hunters. The varmint/laminate models are a later offering after response from the shooters.

Monte