Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Custom Rifles & Wildcats Winchester 223 ssm re-barrel advice

I have a Winchester 223 ssm that will not group. Tried different factory and hand loads. Thinking of dropping in a new barrel. Any suggestions.....

rej

I'd suspect bedding..........

Brass is terrible and it is a barrel burner aside from not being accurate. If you are stuck with the WSSM, I would at least to the 243.
Butch

Butch,

What about the brass did you find terrible and which model did you have? And in how many rounds did your barrel and or barrels wear out?

Thx
Dober

MOST, in our experience, were not accurate...methinks its the reason they have dissappeared.....
Ingwe

I want one to make a 358 WSSM on, but I'd be leaning toward the .24 or .25 versions. If the original bbl shot anywhere near decent, I'd have it set up as a switch bbl rig...

1st question:

What kind of action do you have, push feed or control feed?

2nd question:

What model do you have?

3rd question:

What do you want to shoot with it?

1st Observation:

All of the Winchester/USRA 70s in 223 WSSM and 243 WSSM have chrome lined barrels, so they can't be "burned".

2nd Observation:

The Winchester/Olin brass is thick/heavy, probably because the factory ammo is load at, or close to, maximum safe pressures. I personally prefer the Federal brass for feeding my 25 WSSMs, but as with many things, YMMV.

3rd Observation:

All 3 WSSM cartridges share a 1 in 10" ROT, perhaps not the best choice for shooting heavy .224" bullets.

4th Observation:

If you have WSSM questions, www.wssmzone.com is probably a better source of knowledge, while 24HCF is probably a better source of rumor, both true and false. 24HCF member FvA has a rebarreled 223 WSSM that seems to work pretty well. I have a 100% factory specs 70 stainless Ultimate Shadow in 223 WSSM that shoots 1 to 1.5 MOA groups with a variety of factory ammo and will shoot better than 1.0 MOA with the 64 grain Winchester/Olin factory load if I do my part.

I have a small platoon (21) of Winchester/USRA 70s chambered for the WSSM cartridges; 2 in 223 WSSM, 4 in 243 WSSM, and 15 in 25 WSSM. I've shot over 1K rounds through a couple different 25 WSSM and really like both the cartridge and the Winchester/USRA 70s.

I have a Super Shadow 243 WSSM take-off barrel with less than 100 rounds through it, if that would work for you.

Jeff

daaaaamn Jeff-- You bought all the .25's that they made, didn't you?

Mark, the brass is too thick in the neck. It doesn't like to resize, and the necks split. I was stupid enough to put another 223WSSM custom barrel on mine and it was still not better than an honest 1"MOA rifle with handloads. I had my barrel throated to take 70-80grn bullets to take advantage of the extra case capacity. 700 rounds and both barrels were eat up with alligator in the throat. A 243WSSM barrel was then installed,factory take off, and it got shipped down the road. My 22-284 shot better and a little longer. It was also a poor cartridge. It is now a 6.5X284 and I am happy with it.
Butch

Guess I got lucky with my Super Shadow as it puts 50gr Moly'd V-Max into 3/4" all day.

My bud loves his 243WSSM pushin a 85TSX.....so I'd go 243 or just dump the whole setup.

Actully, I started out buying 9 stainless Ultimate Shadows, 3 each in 223, 243, and 25 WSSM so that my 2 kids and I would each have 1, then it got a little out of hand. I bought a bunch of them when they were being dumped on the market in late 2005, before Winchester/USRA shut down the CT operations. I think that I paid an average of $425+/- for the 25 WSSMs; 3 factory specs Coyotes, 3 factory specs Super Shadows, 2 factory specs CM Ultimate Shadows, 4 factory specs SS Ultimate Shadows, 1 Super Shadow action with a SS Coyote barrel, 1 Super Shadow action with a Shilen SS varmint contour barrel, and 1 SS Ultimate Shadow barreled action bedded in a McM Compact.

In 20 or 30 years, the 9 that will (probably) remain in NIB condition might be worth more than their current value. I probably won't be around, but my kids and grandkids might enjoy them or the $$ they get for them when they are sold.

If you like Winchester 70s, what's not to like about a package that produces nice 257AI/25-284 type velocities from a slightly shorter, slightly lighter, and slightly handier package? OTOH, I currently have around 50 250-3000s, 1 25 Souper, 13 257 Roberts', 3 257AIs, and 4 25-284s, so I have the mid-sized .257" bore cartridge niche pretty well covered.

Jeff

Fed. brass seems better than Winchester . I got lousy accuracy with my standard dies(Hornaday) and Win. brass . The necks were way oversized and the bullet pull was obscene . I switched to a Redding full bushing die and Fed brass and immediately had a 2/3 MOA long range shooter . It does seem you need to bump the shoulder back each time or you will get hard chambering.....so a neck bushing die won't work as well, at least not in my rifle .

I don't doubt the 223 will eat up a barrel rapidly with full loads, but thats the price you pay for the performance....I doubt any 22 of similar capacity is going to be much better . I think the chromed factory tube will last quite a while with 60 gr V-max and 65 gr game kings @3800 . 75 gr match slugs will easily make 3500 , but they go thru the paper sideways .

If I ever re-barrel , I will go with a 25 inch stainless tube with 1 in 9 or i in 8 twist .

My #1 pdog rifle is a Winchester/USRA 70 Super Shadow with a 1 in 14" ROT barrel in 25 WSSM. It will shoot almost any 75 grain bullet better than I can hold and it is particularly accurate with 75 grain VMax. The only problem with it is that whenever I take it to the Rosebud, the other guys want to shoot it when the wind is blowing their 17s and 20s around.

Jeff

REJ,

I've been building 358 WSSM's off the M70 WSSM actions, so if you are going to sell the WSSM, I'd be interested.

If not, I've got a used take off 223 WSSM barrel off a super shadow, believe it only has a couple hundred rounds through it, that you can have for the price of shipping.

Marty ~ Thanks for the offer. I was trying to get away from the 223 wssm. Everything I have read said they have issue and mine does. Its a super shadow in a custom stock. Bedding is good. The gun just will not group consistently. Was looking to drop another caliber after market barrel.

rej