Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters 223 WSSM

Yesterday a Model 70 Stealth II in 223 WSSM was brought into my shop for consignment sale. Young man said it belonged to his father that passed away some years ago. This rifle has a 6.5 X 20 Leupold scope. It included 400 rounds of new brass plus dies and 56 fired factory brass and 4 unfired factory rounds.

I'm thinking I will just buy this rifle and was wondering if anybody has much experience with this rifle and chamber combo? Pet loads etc. Looks like with a 1-10 twist one must use some real tuff bullets to prevent coming apart in flight.

Any help would be appreciated.

I have one,it is super accurate .I use mostly factory rounds, have not worked up a load for it yet.

The brass is probably worth as much as the rifle the way things are at present.


Jerry

My son has a Browning in 223wssm, and we load for it.

This cartridge is hard on brass, usually we get 3-4 loadings per piece, then we get a crack in the neck. I will anneal the brass and see if we can improve on that.

It is a speed demon. Hornaday manual says they got 4,600fps with a 40gr Vmax.

We load a 60gr Vmax at 3,700fps, and it is a hammer on coyotes. I shot a coyote with it at about 180yds, and watched a large piece of coyote fall back to earth. At first, I thought it was a bird falling out of the sky, until I got there and found the coyote chunk.

Powders like 4350, 4064, RE15, are good places to start with 40-55gr slugs. If you shoot heavier bullets, switch over to RE19/22, 4831, etc. to get great speeds. Magnum primers are what we use.

My son first had a Winchester Super Shadow in 223wssm. It was the most inaccurate gun I had ever come across. My notes say 2 on paper, 3 off, at 100yds, with many different combo's. The bets load I found for it gave 2" groups at 100yds. He then traded it for the Browning, which shoots great.

I recall reading that someone borescoped a Winchester wssm barrel and found the chrome lining to be highly inconsistent, with bare spots showing.

My advice? Shoot the gun before you buy it.

Here are some loads tried in my sporter-weight Winchester 70, which has a Lilja barrel:

.223 WSSM, 22-inch barrel, 1-9 rifling twist:
35 Nosler Lead-Free CFE223 49.0 4463 1.37
41 Cutting Edge Raptor RL-15 45.0 4149 .70
50 Sierra BlitzKing Big Game 46.0 3802 .69
50 Hornady V-Max Varget 42.5 3862 .80
50 Speer TNT Green Varget 42.0 3856 1.03
53 Barnes TSX Big Game 46.5 3927 1.62
55 Sierra HP GameKing Varget 41.0 3753 .51
60 Nosler Partition Big Game 44.5 3658 1.21
70 Berger VLD Acc. 4350 45.0 3470 1.01
75 Hornady A-Max H1000 49.0 3267 .78

The groups are all 5-shot at 100 yards.

The reason .223 WSSM brass tends to crack at the necks sooner than most other rounds is its relatively thick, so needs to be annealed more frequently.

Adding 100-120 fps to the velocities from my rifle would be about right for a 26" barrel, but the truth is that while the .223 WSSM is a little faster than the .22-250 and Swift the difference isn't huge.

Thanks John,that sure makes a purchasing decision easier.

If you get into the WSSMs try and find some Federal brass, as it is thinner than the Winchester/Olin brass and doesn't need as much attention. I have some 25 WSSM cases that have been loaded over 8x with only about a 2% case failure rate.

For a few years, the 25 WSSM was my primary pdog and deer cartridge, but I've moved on to other/different cartridge/rifle combinations.

I passed on that rifle in 223 WSSM. I will just use my Swifts and 22-250's for long range and the 223 Rem. for 0 to 300 yds. Thanks for the replies.