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

[Nutkin13]

I've bought 2 barrels from Shaw a regular 223 & a 223Wylde.. both 26" 1/8 twist Magnum contour. Both more accurate than the nut behind the trigger. Did my own blueing with a Chem blue kit I had.
Factory 55gr loads spit out at 3500fps. My 75gr home rolleds I try to get close to 2882fps

I really struggled to decide on contour. I was very, very close to doing either magnum or their heavy sporter.

I settled on sporter figuring that at only 18" it'll be plenty stiff. Also I have to carve less wood out of the stock to get it to fit and float in the original wood stock

 

[SC HUNTER]

I stumbled across this site by accident a few weeks ago while researching 7mm-08 terminal performance because I want a more compact rifle with less recoil that I would want to shoot more often. I saw a comment from Mr. Form talking in depth about 6.5 CM vs. 7mm-08, which led me down a rabbit hole to here. I'm 50 pages and 1,000 comments in with 9,000 more comments to go. My wife is starting to get suspicious and jealous since I've been glued to my phone the past few nights, lol.

I'm in my early 30s, and I've been hunting my whole life, but nothing serious like y'all do here. I sort of just accepted all the conventional fuddlore from mainstream forums and YouTube and didn't think much past it. I've been shooting a .30-06 since I was 14 because that's what I was told was needed to anchor 120-lb Deep South whitetails.

Anyway, this isn't a particularly noteworthy comment, but I just wanted to express my gratitude for totally changing my viewpoint and educating me. I still have a lot to learn, but knowing that my dream of a short, handy, mild-recoiling rifle that's capable of ethically harvesting big game is a reality is exciting.

Welcome! I'm also in the South more so the South East over in Georgia and a 223 will kill them dead as a door nail. I'm shooting a 6.5 Creedmoor most recently but I've killed hundreds of deer with a 223 and probably over 1000 hogs with the same caliber. BTW a 7mm-08 is an awesome caliber that I love alot!

 

[dirtshooter]

Alberta is in the process of making changes allowing hunters to use a .22 centerfire. We'll be able to use them 77tmk soon enough!

 

[Nutkin13]

I've probably had 7 or 8 223ai's over the last 20 years. All have been on r700's. Ive had adl, bdl, and m5 w/aics mags. The aics fed the smoothest but I can't recall ever having issues with any of them off hand. Adl and bdl mag boxes need the spacer cut out and another put in to run longer coal. Never done one on a tikka though.

Any tips or tricks on removing/replacing the spacer?

 

[BradArnett]

Any tips or tricks on removing/replacing the spacer?

Just use a dremel and cut it out. I've drilled a couple holes in the back of the mag box and pored a spacer with bedding compound. Epoxied a thin piece of aluminum, and glued a piece of delrin in there also. Just make it as thick as you need it for coal. The factory follower will have a little room to move forwards and back but won't be a problem.

 

[HighUintas]

Had anyone reloaded the AAC 556 head stamp brass? It doesn't look sealed or crimped... I haven't tried decapping it yet.

I'm wondering if it is worth reloading since I have a pile of it.

 

[Taudisio]

Had anyone reloaded the AAC 556 head stamp brass? It doesn't look sealed or crimped... I haven't tried decapping it yet.

I'm wondering if it is worth reloading since I have a pile of it.

I reloaded a pile of it for a while. I thought there was a slight crimp on them and I lightly used a crimp remover. Got three reloads out of the brass before I started popping primer pockets. I would reload the aac brass again. This photo is after the third firing.

 

[HighUintas]

I reloaded a pile of it for a while. I thought there was a slight crimp on them and I lightly used a crimp remover. Got three reloads out of the brass before I started popping primer pockets. I would reload the aac brass again. This photo is after the third firing.

I don't have a crimp remover. You think it would work without using one?

 

[Taudisio]

I don't have a crimp remover. You think it would work without using one?

If I were going to load aac brass again, I would try to seat the primers before using a crimp remover.
The remover I used was a cheap hand tool, so if you do need one, they are just a few bucks. I don’t think I should have used one in the first place.

 

[HighUintas]

If I were going to load aac brass again, I would try to seat the primers before using a crimp remover.
The remover I used was a cheap hand tool, so if you do need one, they are just a few bucks. I don’t think I should have used one in the first place.

One of those primer pocket uniformers? I have one but never used it. I'm thinking that would do it if I need to

 

[Taudisio]

One of those primer pocket uniformers? I have one but never used it. I'm thinking that would do it if I need to

“Primer pocket reamer”

I don’t know if your uniformer will remove a crimp. As far as I know, a reamer and a swage tool, are the only ones for removing crimps. The swage tool being the better option according to others that have one. The uniformer is for cutting the depth of the pocket if I’m not mistaken and is one of the rabbit holes that I do not participate in. Someone else should probably educate us both if I am wrong haha

 

[waspocrew]

To my eyes, I don't see an obvious crimp on the AAC brass. I have a pile of it, but haven't tried loading it yet. Trying to seat a primer would definitely let you know if it's crimped or not.

 

[waspocrew]

Not the best at capturing with the phone, but you can see a very obvious crimp with LC brass. The AAC looks completely normal to me.

LC


AAC

 

[Taudisio]

Not the best at capturing with the phone, but you can see a very obvious crimp with LC brass. The AAC looks completely normal to me.

LC
View attachment 853757

AAC
View attachment 853758

Iirc, I saw some half circles around the primers on the aac brass and assumed they did a crap job of crimping. Looking back, probably just flaws in the brass and not actual crimps. Hence why I said what I said before.

 

[HighUintas]

Thank you guys for the info. I'd check myself on my fired brass at home, but I'm not home at the moment and was trying to decide if I wanted to buy some bullets that are on sale at the store to reload those cases

 

[AK4570]

One (one only!) quick twist of a VLD chamfer tool will handle any crimp issues mosrikkytik without long term affects on primer fit. Sit down with a couple 1 gal buckets (one empty, one full) and your favorite TV show (currently Mysteries of the Abandoned) and knock out a couple thousand rounds.

Caveat emptor: Chamfering can be overdone leading to sloppy primer fit... hence the "one only" warning. If so desired, the primer pocket swager route does a better job although possibly taking a few extra second per case.

Best regards,
John

 

[Reddish]

Swager was my preferred tool for LC brass.

 

[Reddish]

Anybody hunted with the ol 75gr Hornady Interlok?

 

[RDF1]

One (one only!) quick twist of a VLD chamfer tool will handle any crimp issues mosrikkytik without long term affects on primer fit. Sit down with a couple 1 gal buckets (one empty, one full) and your favorite TV show (currently Mysteries of the Abandoned) and knock out a couple thousand rounds.

Caveat emptor: Chamfering can be overdone leading to sloppy primer fit... hence the "one only" warning. If so desired, the primer pocket swager route does a better job although possibly taking a few extra second per case.

Best regards,
John

I cheat and run brass on a dillon 1050 to remove crimp and trim to length and full length sizer. That way if I want to run a few test rounds I can throw a primer in a case and charge of powder and seat with rock chucker.

 

[9487329]

Dramatic reenactment of this thread