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

[Formidilosus]

What would be your bullet of choice for shooting an 800 pound brown bear through bone?

77gr TMK, 75gr Speer Gold Dot, 62gr GD/Fusion, 75gr ELD-M, or M855A1- same as to shoot anything else.


If people want to have the bear discussion (yeah it’s been done), that’s fine; but like this thread it needs be started from the start with facts and reality, not emotion. And people get real emotional about bears.

 

[Lawnboi]

Another extensive load work up. Tossed my Hornady brass. Sick of the inconsistency. Loaded some 60tmk in Fresh Lapua brass. Shot 10 shots to find pressure in the back yard, loaded 10 at a grain off pressure and shot a group.

Bonus 60tmk zero is a tenth high over my 77tmk zero. I’ll continue to shoot the 60s for drills, predators and prairie dogs.




@Antares when your ready to go completely overboard I’m here to help.

 

[jadkins223]

Anyone have experience with the Ruger American Predator? I know the Tikka is the preferred option, and I love the Tikkas that I have, but I also have a Ruger in 6 creedmoor for my daughter and while it is not nearly as smooth at the Tikka, that thing shoots incredibly well.

I have a predator in 223 and I’m very fond of it. This will be its first year in the deer woods and I have some 73 eldm loaded up with 24.2 TAC. Been shooting 0.7 ish moa. Oklahoma rifle season is in 2 weeks and I’ll be reporting back


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[redneckbmxer24]

Another extensive load work up. Tossed my Hornady brass. Sick of the inconsistency. Loaded some 60tmk in Fresh Lapua brass. Shot 10 shots to find pressure in the back yard, loaded 10 at a grain off pressure and shot a group.

Bonus 60tmk zero is a tenth high over my 77tmk zero. I’ll continue to shoot the 60s for drills, predators and prairie dogs.

View attachment 469802View attachment 469803


@Antares when your ready to go completely overboard I’m here to help.

Did yours start out as a light or a CTR?

 

[BLJ]

Anyone have experience with the Ruger American Predator? I know the Tikka is the preferred option, and I love the Tikkas that I have, but I also have a Ruger in 6 creedmoor for my daughter and while it is not nearly as smooth at the Tikka, that thing shoots incredibly well.

I have a RA Ranch 5.56. I love it. Granted it’s not a Tikka, but it has done very well for me. I’m at around 500 (I think) rounds through it now without any issues. I’d like to buy another one.
The only drawback with this setup (kinda, IMO) is having to load the longer bullets to AR mag length. But, it uses AR mags. I’m okay with it. It’s an MOA gun with 69 SMK or 77 TMK.

 

[Lawnboi]

Did yours start out as a light or a CTR?

Lite. Still shooting the factory barrel.

 

[SouthPaw]

But as a public service announcement, my experience is that T084s do *not* work if you move to a Bravo - the cheek is already far higher.

I have not experienced this. TO84s work just fine with the Bravo cheek peice at the lowest setting. But that could just be my personal fitment.

 

[Colby]

I have to84’s and still have bravo cheekpiece up a touch on my 6.5. I’m thinking it depends on individual noggin shape.

 

[grappling_hook]

Another extensive load work up. Tossed my Hornady brass. Sick of the inconsistency. Loaded some 60tmk in Fresh Lapua brass.

What sort of improvements do you see making this kind of switch? Noticeable changes in group size and fewer fliers, or just easier to work, or more total reloads on each piece? Less trimming due to less brass stretching (I trim before it gets hard to chamber rounds)? Wondering if this is something I'd see a benefit to trying at some point, or if it's going to be a wash for a lightweight hunting rifle. I currently use fired factory rounds or just range brass. I do enjoy shooting groups...

 

[Lawnboi]

What sort of improvements do you see making this kind of switch? Noticeable changes in group size and fewer fliers, or just easier to work, or more total reloads on each piece? Less trimming due to less brass stretching (I trim before it gets hard to chamber rounds)? Wondering if this is something I'd see a benefit to trying at some point, or if it's going to be a wash for a lightweight hunting rifle. I currently use fired factory rounds or just range brass. I do enjoy shooting groups...

I started with factory fired Hornady. First I’ll say removing primer crimps is a pain in the ass, I’ll never do that again.

Lapua brass is just way more consistent. With my mixed lot Hornady, when I set neck tension with a mandrel it was all over. My 5 times fired stuff even after being annealed was everything from no tension on a .222 mandrel to taking a decent effort on the press. Lapua didn’t do that. It all sizes the same, feels the same seating, and as of now seems to be holding up better. At 60 cents a pop for 223 brass it’s a no brained imo.

I had 500 pieces of Hornady brass all 4 or 5 times fired that I just junked because I’m sick of such variable neck tension. Mind you I’m loading like I would my match gun, amp annealer, fl sizing and setting neck tension with a mandrel, going through the giraud every firing and seating takes place on an arbor press. Hornady always left me with 1.5” groups for the most part, Lapua eliminated some of those oddball flyers I’d see with the Hornady.

I can’t speak to longevity as I’m only 5 loads into the Lapua Iv been using the latter half of the year, but that 5 times fired brass still has tight pockets, and is doing everything it was since I started with it. Noticed enough of a difference over 500 rounds that I just threw 500 pieces of Hornady brass in the recycling bin. With components what they are it’s not worth it to save a few cents.


From what Iv seen, it for sure makes a difference for me. On a bolt gun I expect to be precise with if I can make it more consistent I will. I learned a lot with that Hornady brass but I’m a believer in good brass.

Velocity swings came way down with Lapua as well thoug I don’t think that matters all that much for distances I shoot my 223

 

[Stu]

I have not experienced this. TO84s work just fine with the Bravo cheek peice at the lowest setting. But that could just be my personal fitment.

Same here. They're fine for my model cheek bones.

 

[Stu]

Velocity swings came way down with Lapua as well thoug I don’t think that matters all that much for distances I shoot my 223

I won't admit how much money and time I've wasted chasing consistent muzzle velocity in 223. I have to actively remind myself that within the ranges I shoot it, it doesn't really matter.

 

[Lawnboi]

I won't admit how much money and time I've wasted chasing consistent muzzle velocity in 223. I have to actively remind myself that within the ranges I shoot it, it doesn't really matter.

Agreed. To the point that I don’t even write down my SD or ES when I’m working up a 223 load. It just dosnt matter for 400 yards and in.

If I want to shoot longer I’ll pick something that I won’t be chasing in the wind.

 

[Stu]

@Lawnboi
The two lots of Lapua 223 brass I have appear to have significantly less case capacity than all the range pickup I have. Those lapua lots are probably 3-5 years old. Have you seen the same?

 

[Lawnboi]

@Lawnboi
The two lots of Lapua 223 brass I have appear to have significantly less case capacity than all the range pickup I have. Those lapua lots are probably 3-5 years old. Have you seen the same?

Yes. 23.5 of Xbr made the same speed in my Hornady brass as 23 does in Lapua.

 

[Castle Rock]

I have

 

[Antares]

Sounds like you're going the factory stock route, in which case the T084s and SWFA work well.

Probably not after I put spacers in to make the LOP 14.5”, but I’ll give it a try just for funsies.

 

[Stu]

Probably not after I put spacers in to make the LOP 14.5”, but I’ll give it a try just for funsies.

I really like @Castle Rock 's work around. I see that in my future on the one tikka I have set up that doesn't utilize the recoil pin.

 

[Stu]

@Castle Rock
I assume you threaded the pin? Say yes.

Or is that a hole that's not tapped?

 

[marksman1941]

I have read through about 50 of the 108 pages of this thread and haven't yet seen it, so I'll ask this in hopes that it's not sitting on page 51. Is there a maximum impact velocity of the 77gr TMK that one needs to keep in mind? For some reason I've been eyeballing a Tikka 1:8 twist 22-250, but the velocities in that cartridge can be rather insane. In theory, a person can run those up over 3100 fps in that round, so I'm curious if a 3000fps impact on a deer would be less than ideal.