Home Forums Hunting & Shooting AR and Tactical Rifles Accuracy expectations?

And you don't even have to head or neck shoot em with a 223 to kill em very well. 50ish X bullet does wonders in the lungs. They claim even better through the shoulders so to speak.

Rost495 you may be right. You need the bullet not to pass through and transfer all the energy from the bullet to the deer. That is the way I load the lighter 270 bullets. You can get too light of bullet and or not enough energy so it is still a balance to the size of game.

you worry too much, the 223 is not capable of ever needing that much accuracy. if I plan on shooting beyond 300 yards even at a coyote I am using something more powerful, a 1 moa ar 15 will put your shots within 1.5" of aim at 300 yards. I like accurate guns as much as the next guy. I don't see the point of 10 shot groups either. If its not dead, killed, knocked over, shot up, or otherwise taken care of be it animal or target after 3 shots, there is something wrong.

The 223 is born of a great accurate cartridge the REM 222. It was a bench rest king in the 60s. I believe the load was 4198 with a 50 ish grain bullet. So the 223 should be capable of great accuracy.

CC-Usually you're harmless, but now you're just being annoying. Evidently Jeff did need that much accuracy. But then again, he wasn't shooting dirt clods either.

You are a better shot than I. 1 moa is 3 inches at 300. Then add the shooter error, IE wobble, no one holds perfectly still. Thta often doubles the group size. Then add it mis judging distance and worse yet wind.... you could be off way more than 1.5 inches.


But being that I"ve shot yotes the other side of 500 with the 223 and a few other AR15 based calibers, evidently it can be done.

10 shot groups are what we shot in rapid fire competition. You test for what you shoot, at the distance you shoot. Though I admit I only shot 10 shot groups in the end testing at 600 while we shot 20 shot groups almost exclusively. Figured 10 told me enough.

So you'll see not everyone just hunts with an AR. Or just plinks. Or just target shoots.

Not that any of it matters, if whatever you do keeps you happy thats all that matters.
And if you need or want larger rounds for whatever thats good too. I have from .224 through .338 at the moment in the safe plus 2 50 cal not counting black powder or pistol rounds...

CC, I am sorry that you live such a sheltered life. You have no respect for the little 223. I would suggest you do a little research or maybe get out to a range and see what's going on these days. There is some remarkable shooting and killing being done with .224 & .243 calibers, WAY North of 300 yards

I think Cummins isn't off base, just a different view really.

A lot of how well a round works these days is due to bullet advancement....

And if you are still shooting standard factory gun, factory trigger and 55s, 200 yards might seem to be it.

And there isn't a thing wrong with grabbing a 220 swift or 6mm for a long yote, but if what you have in the car is a do all AR loaded with something like 75s or such, and you have a scope that has dots or knobs... never seen a yote walk away from me at 300....

I'll even agree that 223 is not the ideal 300 yard deer round and especially not if I was trophy hunting, but I"ll also offer we watched another fellow competitor gal thats probably 60ish years old a few years back, whack a buck that was not small, and scored just under 170. 223 bolt gun. 69 SMK. HSM factory ammo. About 160 yards. SHot in the lungs, no shoulders. Bang flop. Granted it wasn't a 300 yard shot, but it was a fairly good sized deer that didn't move a step after the shot. And Ann has been heck on wheels shooting almost a half case of same ammo on pigs, javelina, deer etc... from close to over 300 yards since she also shot highpower with us, but she only shot out to 600, not to 1000 like some of us did.

Folks just have different views. And if I had a choice, Id probably not grab a 223 on a trophy hunt so to speak, but if offered a chance while not on a specific hunt, I'd not hesitate.

Heck if I still had a 22-250 or a swift, it would probably be the one on the porch for yotes since its flatter.... but don't have a fast twist one in the stable at the moment so the 223 that I'm SO familiar with, gets the nod and does just fine.

Kind of sorta what I meant by sheltered. I would not pick a .224 of any flavor for a trophy hunt but like I would not pass up a trophy if I had the right bullet and shot!

I have a customer who's Dad at one time had a huge exotic operation just South of Columbus. He hauled and sold exotics all over the country and most of his sales were down South in Mexico.

We were riding the pasture's one day and John stopped, rolled down his window and absolutely pole axed and Eland cow from about 180 yards with .224 TTH. Now this was a fairly large animal and I saw the outcome of a perfectly place shot to the heart lung region.

But, even after seeing that I surely would not take a .224 TTH to Africa on a Eland hunt. But it did again prove that a properly placed premium bullet, trumps all.

Funny they claim the TTH is a somewhat new round but the 6mm Rem necked to 22 has been around for a LONG time.

I remember shooting a buddies at 1000 long before the "TTH" came out.

Thats a factor of a good projectile really fast imparting shock to the animal. IMHO. And seems to work really well.

Jeff