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

leomort

FNG
Joined
Nov 11, 2023
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21
Question regarding SWFA scopes. Is the HD glass worth getting over their non HD glass? I noticed their 6x fixed is non-HD compared to their fixed 10x.
 

atmat

WKR
Joined
Jun 10, 2022
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3,184
Location
Colorado
Question regarding SWFA scopes. Is the HD glass worth getting over their non HD glass? I noticed their 6x fixed is non-HD compared to their fixed 10x.
The 6x glass is good, and I much prefer the scope to the 10x. A fixed 6x doesn’t need top quality glass to produce a good picture.
 

ztc92

WKR
Joined
May 8, 2022
Messages
350
Found a unicorn at a little sporting goods store in Wyoming today. Hopefully this is a sign that it’s becoming more available. Excited to move away from TAC and start using this with the TMK’s instead!
 

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Jan 22, 2021
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Did you get a pass through with that bullet? I have a box I'd like to try as well at some point.
What form said tang true for two deer so far pure ribs you’ll get an exit most of the time.
Hit either shoulder and it will be under the offside hide.
First deer center of both shoulder bullet found under offside skin. Not a lot of blood but when he started bleeding it was dramatic.
Second deer pure ribs small exit with a decent blood trail but it wasn’t necessary as neither deer ran far enough to have to track them.
 

CBB1

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Sep 20, 2016
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NC
Found a unicorn at a little sporting goods store in Wyoming today. Hopefully this is a sign that it’s becoming more available. Excited to move away from TAC and start using this with the TMK’s instead!

What don’t you like about the TAC?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

Tahr

Lil-Rokslider
Joined
Dec 13, 2018
Messages
127
Red stag and a young Fallow spiker.

Both about 150 yards. Both lung shot. 60 grn Hammer Hunter. 20" 223 @ 3150 fps. Both bullets passed through. Red stag ran about 30 yards. Fallow just did the .223 stagger and dropped.

Good blood trails. Pics of lung entry and exit on Red stag.
 

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ElPollo

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Joined
Aug 31, 2018
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1,601
I’d love to see some data on what these non-lead DRT 79 gr loads do on game. Anyone try them yet? They seem like they’d be a much better approach than most of the other non-lead options, and the BC is actually a little better than the 77 gr TMK. I saw a post in the 6.5 thread of someone who used the 135 gr .264 on a Roosevelt elk. The wound channel looked impressive. Would be interested to hear about lower end upset velocities.

 

ztc92

WKR
Joined
May 8, 2022
Messages
350
What don’t you like about the TAC?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

It doesn’t meter very well in my RCBS chargemaster and I found it to be pretty temp sensitive. My TMK loads shoot well with it but I ran into pressure in warm weather due to the temp sensitivity despite doing pressure testing in the summer when I first started load development.
 
Joined
May 19, 2014
Messages
380
Location
So Cal
Fired up on the .223!

Just got a .224 Bartlein Barrel 7 twist. Going to have an old Rem 700 ADL in .222 that I picked up for super cheap re-barreled and set it up to shoot the 70-90grn bullets.

For those of you who havent purchased a Factory rifle and built your own do you have any preference for chamber Specs? Go .223 Rem with dummy round of my liking to set the free bore or just go with a .223 Wylde and run it how It is cut?
 
Joined
Oct 17, 2022
Messages
59
Fired up on the .223!

Just got a .224 Bartlein Barrel 7 twist. Going to have an old Rem 700 ADL in .222 that I picked up for super cheap re-barreled and set it up to shoot the 70-90grn bullets.

For those of you who havent purchased a Factory rifle and built your own do you have any preference for chamber Specs? Go .223 Rem with dummy round of my liking to set the free bore or just go with a .223 Wylde and run it how It is cut?
I prefer the wylde over .223. It lets you push rounds into 5.56 pressures. I’ve heard fantastic things about compass lake engineering and their chambering. Might be proprietary with them and AR only but if there was a way to get a Remington 700 barrel cut to their specifications I’d rock that in a heartbeat.
 

robtattoo

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Joined
Mar 22, 2014
Messages
3,503
Location
Tullahoma, TN
Fired up on the .223!

Just got a .224 Bartlein Barrel 7 twist. Going to have an old Rem 700 ADL in .222 that I picked up for super cheap re-barreled and set it up to shoot the 70-90grn bullets.

For those of you who havent purchased a Factory rifle and built your own do you have any preference for chamber Specs? Go .223 Rem with dummy round of my liking to set the free bore or just go with a .223 Wylde and run it how It is cut?

I had my Ruger American chamber recut (actually, I HAD to have it recut....) & went with the Wylde chamber. It gives a little more flexibility on developing load OAL with no real downsides, other than maybe a tiny loss in velocity. My best load at 2.26" (factory .223 OAL) wasn't a patch on how it ended up at 2.40"
One thing you'll have to watch though, is mag length. I don't know the spec of .222 but most factory .223 mags are short. You might only get a couple of thou over 2.26. I ended up with an MDT, AICS pattern, 10rnd box that allows up to 2.50.
 
Joined
Dec 30, 2014
Messages
9,622
Fired up on the .223!

Just got a .224 Bartlein Barrel 7 twist. Going to have an old Rem 700 ADL in .222 that I picked up for super cheap re-barreled and set it up to shoot the 70-90grn bullets.

For those of you who havent purchased a Factory rifle and built your own do you have any preference for chamber Specs? Go .223 Rem with dummy round of my liking to set the free bore or just go with a .223 Wylde and run it how It is cut?

Lots of good results from folks with Wylde chambers. I just inquired with a smith about getting a new tube on my RSS and he doesn't have a wylde reamer but proposed just throating it longer to meet the wylde distance to lands.

This drove me to dig into the difference between 223 rem and wylde on chamber prints. It looks like with a throating reamer it should be pretty easy to get close on the throat, the leade angle might differ slightly. The main difference from there is the wylde has a little more diameter everywhere around the case which in theory should allow a little more powder before pressure, a little more chamber clearance on an identical sized piece of brass, and slightly more resizing of brass when it's sized by a 223 die. In the big scheme of things, there doesn't seem to be a wrong choice. My loaded LC brass measures around 0.253" neck diameter which is pretty tight on a 0.2550-0.2540" 223 rem chamber neck. Lapua loaded neck dimension is more like 0.2510". If you're using LC or similar neck thickness brass, the wylde chamber would be more desirable to me.

wjAOlWq.jpeg
 
Last edited:
Joined
May 19, 2014
Messages
380
Location
So Cal
Lots of good results from folks with Wylde chambers. I just inquired with a smith about getting a new tube on my RSS and he doesn't have a wylde reamer but proposed just throating it longer to meet the wylde distance to lands.

This drove me to dig into the difference between 223 rem and wylde on chamber prints. It looks like with a throating reamer it should be pretty easy to get close on the throat, the leade angle might differ slightly. The main difference from there is the wylde has a little more diameter everywhere around the case which in theory should allow a little more powder before pressure, a little more chamber clearance on an identical sized piece of brass, and slightly more resizing of brass when it's sized by a 223 die. In the big scheme of things, there doesn't seem to be a wrong choice. My loaded LC brass measures around 0.253" neck diameter which is pretty tight on a 0.2550-0.2540" rem neck chamber. Lapua loaded neck dimension is more like 0.2510". If you're using LC or similar neck thickness brass, the wylde chamber would be more desirable to me.

wjAOlWq.jpeg
Awesome, thank you all for the input. I will go "Wylde" and see how it shoots. Dropping it off at the gunsmith in the next few days.
 

Marbles

WKR
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May 16, 2020
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AK
Blue Collar Reloading has at least 10,000 TMKs in stock, that is after I bought 1,800 from them. Shipping is a good price too, even shipping to AK.

 
Joined
Aug 23, 2014
Messages
5,374
Location
oregon coast
I’d love to see some data on what these non-lead DRT 79 gr loads do on game. Anyone try them yet? They seem like they’d be a much better approach than most of the other non-lead options, and the BC is actually a little better than the 77 gr TMK. I saw a post in the 6.5 thread of someone who used the 135 gr .264 on a Roosevelt elk. The wound channel looked impressive. Would be interested to hear about lower end upset velocities.

I’m very tempted to order a couple boxes
 

Tahr

Lil-Rokslider
Joined
Dec 13, 2018
Messages
127
Here are the in and out holes from the Red stag (a page back) that I posted about. 60 grn Hammer Hunter. The in hole is the bigger one, the out the smaller one. The exit only made a tiny hole in the skin (its just the unexpanded shaft that flies through.

It's interesting mucking around with various bullets but I think day in day out under all conditions the TMK (matched by 80 grain Berger jacketed customs that I also use) probably wins. But, the Hammers do excel on the bigger deer.
 

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