.223 for bear, mountain goat, deer, elk, and moose.

[KHntr]

That's great performance and a great story. Those 88s and the examples of the 80ELDX seem like they both do really well.

What's you muzzle velocity? Around 2575? (Assuming 2,400 @ 109 yards).

What's your barrel length and load with that?

2588 at the muzzle from this one. 22” barrel. This is the 3rd 7 twist 223AI I have had built (I needed one so I wouldn’t be without a 223AI when this one got sent off for the new barrel, and I built one for a buddy after he shot my other one) and this one is the slowest. All three get 25gr of LE over a cci450, all three have 22” pipes.
This one gets 2588, my 700 gets 2680, and his 700 does 2770.
Doesn’t much matter to me though, all 3 are minute of beercan at 700+ yards.

 

[ridgeline]

Nice work KHntr, It's kinda getting challenging to grab anything but a fast twist 75/88 flinger, for playing or blood spilling...

 

[Tahr]

maybe it was Tahr or the pathfilms guy stated, but millions of kangaroos and red deer have been shot with a 55gr sp.

NZ deer cullers used 55gr sp .222 Sakos to abandon. And this was coming from decades of a 303 British. Why?

I was a commercial hunter here. .222: deadly accurate with easily mountable 'scope and easy to shoot. Mainly neck and head shooting to minimise meat damage. Pocket full of ammo weighed nothing. Firing them didn't beat me up. The Sako Vixen was a beautiful light cult rifle (but I actually used a little BRNO).

 

[nritzell]

Has anyone used the Hornady Black 75gr BTHP?

 

[zdc1775]

Has anyone used the Hornady Black 75gr BTHP?

I've shot a few coyotes with it and it worked for my purposes; but I didn't actually do any kind of post mortem and while they all died quickly it didn't seem like the bullet had very much expansion based on the exit wounds.

 

[Big_wals]

Has anyone used the Hornady Black 75gr BTHP?

No experience with the Hornady Black specifically, but I’ve used the 75 bthp on pigs. It seems to work fine, but with the type of hunting we do shots are typically under 100 yards, usually under 50. I don’t think they would perform as good at lower impact velocity as an eldm or tmk.

 

[9.3koolaid]

Anyone else getting ftfs on AAC 75gr? I have ~1 in 30 that is a dud in my RSS. Fine for practice, but that's all. Just my lot # ?

 

[Stocky]

Figure this is the best place to ask due to the density of factory T3x 223s.

Anyone able to get a photo of their chamber? Interested if the factory chambers usually have any chamfer on them. I looked at a few factory 308, 7mm08, creedmoor barrels all had a small chamfer but there's no chamfer at all on my factory 223 and it's a pain in the ass for feeding factory rounds.

 

[Big_wals]

Anyone else getting ftfs on AAC 75gr? I have ~1 in 30 that is a dud in my RSS. Fine for practice, but that's all. Just my lot # ?

I’ve had no issues so far.

 

[RockAndSage]

Guys that are running cci 450s….

Traditionally the 223 hasn’t needed a mag primer so I’m curious as to the justification there or if it’s just because I want to? Or is it because you hunt in freezing temps?

Just curious.

One angle I didn't see mentioned is magnum primers in .223 AR loads - they should be considered a requirement in ARs. If a gun is a too far overgassed, or is using a powder that spikes the pressure too close to the gas port, it can cause the BCG to go a lot faster than it's supposed to. When that happens, the free-floating firing pin can essentially slam-fire when the round is chambered. The thicker cups of mag primers and the CCI #41 primers for 5.56 Nato loads pretty much prevent this.

This happened to me with a batch of factory ammo during covid, from a newish ammo company that I suspect was having a hard time sourcing the right powder and primers. The ammo worked great in one AR, no problems. But with a much higher quality lightweight AR, the gun went "full auto" for a couple of 2 round bursts, including pierced primers. I ran through a bunch of checks, including specs on length of the firing pin, etc, and everything was in-spec and fine. But the problem went away completely when I tuned the gas down quite a bit. Never had the problem with any other factory ammo before that. I can't say with full certainty, but I suspect this particular load had a less appropriate powder, combined with non-magnum small rifle primers.

 

[bigeyedfish]

Anyone else getting ftfs on AAC 75gr? I have ~1 in 30 that is a dud in my RSS. Fine for practice, but that's all. Just my lot # ?

I've shot 4 or 5 boxes with no problems, and I'm running lighter springs in my trigger group in my AR. I was half expecting to have problems, but so far so good.

 

[sierracharlie338]

One angle I didn't see mentioned is magnum primers in .223 AR loads - they should be considered a requirement in ARs. If a gun is a too far overgassed, or is using a powder that spikes the pressure too close to the gas port, it can cause the BCG to go a lot faster than it's supposed to. When that happens, the free-floating firing pin can essentially slam-fire when the round is chambered. The thicker cups of mag primers and the CCI #41 primers for 5.56 Nato loads pretty much prevent this.

This happened to me with a batch of factory ammo during covid, from a newish ammo company that I suspect was having a hard time sourcing the right powder and primers. The ammo worked great in one AR, no problems. But with a much higher quality lightweight AR, the gun went "full auto" for a couple of 2 round bursts, including pierced primers. I ran through a bunch of checks, including specs on length of the firing pin, etc, and everything was in-spec and fine. But the problem went away completely when I tuned the gas down quite a bit. Never had the problem with any other factory ammo before that. I can't say with full certainty, but I suspect this particular load had a less appropriate powder, combined with non-magnum small rifle primers.

Interesting, I have a lot of time behind an M4/AR platform and never run across that with factory ammo but I have seen less than stellar handgun ammo and had a guy working for me almost lose a hand to bad “factory reloads”. I have seen the slam fires a couple of times but only a single slam fire so I can totally see it happening more than once with out of spec ammo. And when someone puts a suppressor on a rifle that isn’t tuned for it, it can cause all kinds of havoc.

 

[ElPollo]

Figure this is the best place to ask due to the density of factory T3x 223s.

Anyone able to get a photo of their chamber? Interested if the factory chambers usually have any chamfer on them. I looked at a few factory 308, 7mm08, creedmoor barrels all had a small chamfer but there's no chamfer at all on my factory 223 and it's a pain in the ass for feeding factory rounds.

Mine too. Feeds from the mag well enough, but no drop ins.

 

[ljalberta]

Guys that are running cci 450s….

Traditionally the 223 hasn’t needed a mag primer so I’m curious as to the justification there or if it’s just because I want to? Or is it because you hunt in freezing temps?

Just curious.

Thicker and harder cups for greater pressure. I’ve always found this informative.

A PRIMER ON PRIMERS

While searching around for some info I stumbled on to this thread and its too good not to share. Taken from the following and posted by Frisco Pete http://www.sksboards.com/smf/index.php?topic=56422.0 CHOOSING THE RIGHT PRIMER - A PRIMER ON PRIMERS Based on an article by John Barsness - GUNS...

www.snipershide.com

 

[brentr9]

Anyone else getting ftfs on AAC 75gr? I have ~1 in 30 that is a dud in my RSS. Fine for practice, but that's all. Just my lot # ?

No issues in 2 cheap ARs over a few hundred rounds.

 

[Stocky]

Mine too. Feeds from the mag well enough, but no drop ins.

Mine hangs up factory from the mag if the bolts not cycled with speed. Feeds reloads with an outside case mouth chamfer flawlessly. Ran 200 reloads through it without a failure in the last 2 weekends. But it would be nice to be able to run factory a bit more reliably.

 

[ElPollo]

Mine hangs up factory from the mag if the bolts not cycled with speed. Feeds reloads with an outside case mouth chamfer flawlessly. Ran 200 reloads through it without a failure in the last 2 weekends. But it would be nice to be able to run factory a bit more reliably.

Did it always run like this? All magazines? Tikka has been having issues with magazine springs. I’ve got mags that ran fine for a few hundred rounds and then started failing to pick rounds or nose diving rounds. If it’s not that, I would check your mag catch and floor plate inlet to see if the magazine is too deep.

 

[Stocky]

Did it always run like this? All magazines? Tikka has been having issues with magazine springs. I’ve got mags that ran fine for a few hundred rounds and then started failing to pick rounds or nose diving rounds. If it’s not that, I would check your mag catch and floor plate inlet to see if the magazine is too deep.

It's all mags have 1 unmodified plastic mag, 1 unmodified metal mag, and 1 modified metal mag. I had during issues with all three where the spring was actually too strong and would 'launch the rear of the cartridge up when it came out of the feedlots causing the nose to dip and miss the chamber.

I compressed the springa and solved that and no the tip always enters the chamber but the "step" at the front of the case mouth and the bullet catchs the edge of the chamber and hangs up. A small 0.02" chamfer would solve this as does a small outside chamfer on the case neck for reloads.

In the example below the factory ammo hangs up when like the red example bit when reloads are prepped like the blue example they feed perfect. Factory with a taper crimp would likely feed but the fiocchi and speer factory don't feed when the bolts worked slowly. Luckily they feed fine when the bolts worked quick but that's not ideal as sometimes you forget and a round hangs up.

 

[ElPollo]

It's all mags have 1 unmodified plastic mag, 1 unmodified metal mag, and 1 modified metal mag. I had during issues with all three where the spring was actually too strong and would 'launch the rear of the cartridge up when it came out of the feedlots causing the nose to dip and miss the chamber.

I compressed the springa and solved that and no the tip always enters the chamber but the "step" at the front of the case mouth and the bullet catchs the edge of the chamber and hangs up. A small 0.02" chamfer would solve this as does a small outside chamfer on the case neck for reloads.

In the example below the factory ammo hangs up when like the red example bit when reloads are prepped like the blue example they feed perfect. Factory with a taper crimp would likely feed but the fiocchi and speer factory don't feed when the bolts worked slowly. Luckily they feed fine when the bolts worked quick but that's not ideal as sometimes you forget and a round hangs up.

No expert on this, so perhaps others will chime in. The fact that you are having the same issue consistently with all magazines, makes me think you are having a mag depth issue and likely mags that are too deep in the action. I would try a tiny shim on your bottom ‘metal’ or adjustment of your mag catch. I don’t think you’ve said either way, but is this a factory stock?

 

[Luvda208]

I have read hundreds of pages and did a search but can anyone comment on the 75Amax? Im out of the country and will be hunting withing a few days of coming home, not enough time for components to come in so I was going to run what I have which is the 75amax at 2850fps.

Edit: The other option is the 75gn Black Sabre, there are the only loaded heavies I have found in stock.