Home Forums Reloading Varmint Rifles Morning at the range

Took a break this morning from work to take a coworker to the range. He's interested in joining the private range. He's a long time reloader/shooter, which made it nice to not have to babysit.
Anyway, beautiful morning with the slightest of breeze.

My last time out with this .222 rifle was for load development. The 1st powder charge group after cleaning and a fowler was .071". The rest of the groups were in the.1's-.3's.

Today I wanted to try that same load and try some BR-4's. I didn't get into the .0's, but did manage to keep them in the mid .1's to low .2's. I'm running BL-C2 and old Sierra 53gr benchrest bullets. This is my first custom action rifle. I've had several custom rifles build on Remington and Winchester actions over the years. I've always enjoyed chasing those tight groups but was never a top priority in my finances or time. Fell into this Shilen DGA .222 nk .244" with a 36x Leupold and lots of brass and ammo and an assortment of dies. I doubt I'll ever get the full potential out of it but I'm sure having a blast. Thanks for letting me share.

R.D.

Nicely done!

Dammit....now I want a 222

Love the 222 it has been my fav for decades, shocked you are getting that kind of accuracy with BL-C2
Also love the old Leupold 36BR scopes, I still have one

Thanks wasp.

Jericho, do it! You won't regret. I've got an old Rem 788 in .222. It has printed some impressive groups for a factory gun. And killed countless animals. The 1:14 or 1:12 is the way to go. Easy on brass and not a finicky to load cartridge at all. We don't have much target opportunities in my area anymore, so 95%+ of my shooting is at the range. The .222 is a dream to shoot.

Boatanchor, I had never used BL-C2. I had only used
AA-2230. My dad had mentioned using BL-C2 in the 70's, so I decided to give it a try. Definitely quite impressed so far. And I also am loving the 36xbr, I got several.

Keep em tight

R.D.

Nice. I quit buying BR2 and BR4 primers when they went from 35 bucks a brick to 55. IMO there just isn’t enough difference between BR and standard to justify 20-25 bucks. In fact I have had more consistent loads and groups using either standard CCI, GMM or 7 1/2BR. The Rem 7 1/2 is a dandy.

I hear ya Swiftly.
I mostly use Federal primers. I definitely overpaid for these BR-4's, compared to a couple of years ago. But I'm still shooting cheaper than factory ammo. I've never used Rem primers. A buddy did give me a couple of packs of
6 1/2's to try in my K-hornet.

R.D.

The best primer I have used is the Federal Bench primers. I passed on some CCI's to get the Federals. Now I wished I'd of gotten both. The Remington 7 1/2's don't seem to hold a candle to Federal Bench primers.

kwg

RDFIRENUT: Good for you on the great shooting Shilen Rifle in 222 Remington.
I have settled on the Federal 205M Match primers for all my 222 Remington heavy barrel Rifles.
I am shooting Varmint type bullets out of all my 222's now and shoot WAY more afield than at the range these days.
I also have several of the old style Leupold 36 power (and 24 power) Bench Rest type scopes in both silver and gloss finishes.
I like them even though they are a bit slower afield to get the adjustable objective range focus correct but once that is done - Varmints beware!
Once you run out of those Sierra 53's be sure to try the Berger 52 grainers.
They shoot wonderfully for me.
Enjoy that super cool, first rate Rifle - and thanks for sharing that amazing .071" grouping (screaming here!).
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy