Steve;
Top of the morning to you sir, I hope this finds you well and if it's wet in your area of the world as it's been here, then warm and dry too.
While I missed this the first time around, I'll answer as follows.
1. Currently I don't own any of the initially mentioned cartridges based on the .223 case other than a bolt gun in .223.
2. While I'm loathe to "ever say never", at this point I can't see building anything like a 6.5 Grendel - have a Swede and am much enamored with it - or a 6x45 as I'd likely lean towards a 6 Creed instead.
3.When I first picked up the .223 bolt gun, it was one of the first 1:8 twist Ruger Americans that crossed the medicine line. I found one at Prairie Gun Traders and I think Epps had one too, but anyways I wanted to try longer .223" bullets to see if I could stretch them in the wind a wee bit.
Way back in the early '90's I built a dedicated coyote bomber, but it's a .22-.250AI with a 1:14 twist like we all built back then, so 55gr is the sweet spot with it for wind drift, accuracy and velocity. Honestly life sorta got in the way for my plans to play at extended ranges, but I'm hopeful that I'll be able to perhaps finally get to it more this upcoming summer. I've got many boxes of 75gr A-Max and a good variety of powders, now all I need is the time!
Since we're not working around the AR action length, it just makes more sense to me to pick the overall characteristics of the cartridge I'm interested in and go from there - usually with a bolt gun, but not ruling out single shots either.
Hopefully that made sense sir. All the best to you all as we head into summer.
Dwayne
