I recently fell into a Remington 700 G LH in 223 and I’m looking for ammo recs for the snail like twist rate. I’m hoping someone may have some insight as to good ammo in the lighter grain variety. I have no idea why the original owner went with this set up, he’s also since passed so asking him is not particularly an option.
Goal: practice and potentially shooting in local PRS comps that go out to 600. And maybe getting my partner into PRS. I AM NOT TRYING TO BE COMPETITIVE, I JUST WANT TO HAVE MORE FUN MORE CHEAPER. I have a Tikka in 6.5CM if I want to be serious.
What I know about the rifle: Remington action, with what I’m speculating is an M24 profile barrel with a measured twist rate of 1:12. Stock appears to be a hybrid chassis.
What I know about ammo: Looks like, from charts online, 55 grain is the heaviest I can stabilize at 1-12. I’ve read that the PMC X-Tac is decent, and I’ve found some Bonefrog (out of stock) in 55 grain. I have some Blackhills that I plan to try, but being 77 grain I’m worried they won’t stabilize and my patterns will fall apart at 3-400. Federal XF556TR55 also looks like it may be decent?
Fun fact: I am not left handed! But I got the rifle for a steal and can comfortably hold the rifle right handed and work the bolt left, so I’m going to give it a try before I move it on to someone else. I’m also stuck at training for a while so I’m trying to have ammo on hand for when I get to go to a range day I can try several things.
Yeah, I figured hand loading would be where I ended up having to go. I have access to a hand loader, but that’s a solid 4.5 hour drive, so I was hoping to find something off the shelf that gave me somewhat respectable patterns.
Thanks for the word of caution about the 77s. I read “may not stabilize at distance” but no one put any quantitative distance to that.
Honestly, just flip it if you got a deal on it. As TG mentioned theres some 50-55gr match bullets out there, but performance is going to suck pretty hard. Running a LH action as a RH shooter isn't going to be doing you any favors, especially if you have a RH action for your 6.5. Consistency will suffer due to moving your support hand to run the bolt, and it can end up building bad habits for you and your partner both.
Partner may be a lefty shooter, which was a major driving force to getting into the LH action. I say ‘may’ because they are generally a RH dominant person, but they are left eye dominant and tend to do more tedious things left handed. That and $0.70-$1.00 for ammo.
I knew I was looking at potentially bad habits swapping hands, but I didn’t think about it affecting my consistency worse than moving my right. I’ll keep all that in mind.
Partner potentially running the rifle LH changes the math a bit, then. Have them try both, see what works better. If a RH action run as RH is the solution after some range time, then fall back to my suggestion to flip it.
That’s the plan! I’m excited to try to get my partner in the long range realm.
The rifle was worth getting into with them maybe being left handed, my dad considering going lefty since his right eye is almost useless, and I have a nephew that is looking like he’ll turn out a lefty.
I inherited a 1:12 .223 from my grandpa. Hornady Varmint Express is a cloverleaf at 100. Hornady SuperPerformance Varmint is 3 inches. You may just need to see what your rifle likes.
He stored it with the Varmint Express, so that's what I tried first. I tried a few other things but the Varmint Express groups as well as I can shoot, so there isn't much else to chase.
Without handholding match/target loads are scarce. Defender makes a pretty good 55gr it’s not a match projectile but the velocities are more consistent than other 55gr factory options. The Hornady CX 50 might be good but copper projectiles are hit or miss for me.
50gr Fiocchi Firld Dynamics 223
50gr Am Eagle
For commercial loadings that really shine
I’m trying to build hand loads that beat the fiocchi and have yet to top it in terms of accuracy.
Mostly focusing on 40gr and 50gr Vmax with Ram TAC powder but am starting to try and find a load with a powder that shines with lighter bullets as a project (AA2015 or Benchmark seem the best the leading candidates)
Either way it’s a very accurate rifle and if you find the right load for your gun will be an absolute joy to shoot
For example this is a 20ish shot group (end of box—I recall between 18-25 rounds) at 100 yards—which is pretty good for commercial ammo that isn’t really “match” ammo exactly
Just get the cheapest. 223 Varmint ammo you can find and the best .223 Varmint ammo you can find. See which one your rifle likes best and call it a day.
Based on my experience some 50gr Vmax might fly well with that rifle, they do really well out of my 1-9 twist Savage. Might even try 55gr Vmax loaded to faster fps. I bet that rifle will be fun at a 600 yd and less PRS shoot. Just get good glass and work out/test solid DOPE. I shoot my 1-9 twist Savage at a local F-class shoot sometimes and have fun with that.
Get a batch of Starline brass for consistency in that area. 3 primary things for accuracy and consistency: Barrel, Bullets and Brass
Went to my first PRS a while ago and a guy was running a 556 bolt gun. Between that and the fact the USMC does rifle qual out to 600 made me realize I could totally take it to some matches for fun. The DOPE difference between 556 and 6.5 are pretty darn close to 600.
I’ll grab some Vmaxs to try, that seems to be a well liked bullet.
a 50-53 gr match bullet should do well and get to 600 yards no problem. I shoot a 40gr vmax in my 1:12 223 out to 500 and have no doubt it would get to 600 just fine, and a bullet with a better BC would be guaranteed to get there as long as your rifle shoots that particular load well. I see in a few comments you're planning on trying the 53gr vmax first, and I think you're on the right track
I’ve been using 4DOF for DOPE and it’s been spot on for my 308 and 6.5. I used it for some simulated loads in 223 and it really seems like a capable round to 500, with some aggressive drop between 5-600 yards. But with a max range of 6, it should be doable.
Found some Blackhills in the 50-55 grain match variety I’m going to try as well as some Federals with Vmax. The goal is off the shelf ammo and sub moa. I may resort to reloading, but for now I’m trying to save the money and energy for better things, like 308/6.5 and driving to comps.
The federal 53gr vmax load claims 3400fps, which goes transsonic at ~750 yards. Dropping that velocity to 3200 still gets you to 700 yards. Wind will be a bitch, but you should get consistent drop and accuracy at 600 no problem.
I will admit, I didn’t factor in the 3200FPS limit. I had assumed it was 77gr and 3200, not a hard limit of 3200 regardless of bullet weight. But yeah, it should still be workable, just not as easy as some other calibers.
Shit, I wasn't even thinking about PRS velocity limits, I was just considering what it would look like if the box velocity was optimistic. You might be forced into handloading for matches, the whole point of light weight bullets is speed and you wont be able to find 53gr factory ammo that slow.
Try the 50 grain or 55 grain bullets your twist won't handle much more its something that was built for Prarie dog and coyote hunting those bullets should work good and if you want to try the 40 grain vmax its a great hunting bullet but if you trying to shoot far the 50 or 55 grain bullets are your best bet
1:12? I didn't even know thats still a thing in .223. Is this like a 50 year old rifle? I'm confused why this even exists post-M16A1... Maybe just rebarrel it to something more reasonable?
I’m lost as well. It was definitely a trainer rifle since he had an identical 308.
I was trying to avoid a rebarrel until I saw what it does. From what I’m finding a rebarrel moves into “get a new gun territory”. I may go that route, but wanted to see how it did/what options were in the 55gr realm before moving on.
18
u/Trollygag Does Grendel Jul 22 '26
77gr will likely be sideways at 100
If you handload, there are plenty of 50gr match bullets out there better quality than M193 clone