Home Forums Reloading Varmint Rifles .223 Remington 100 yard group pictures

I went to the range today with a few experimental loads, including one with a new powder I've been itching to try out, Hodgdon benchmark. I coupled benchmark with a Sierra Blitz-king and it turns out their a lovely pair! My Remington 700 VLS printed a .210" three shot group at 100 yards, which is my best group to date (: Sorry about not taking five shots, I understand that it is the standard for 100 yard precision shooting, but I wanted my two other rounds to play around with. Before I left the house I made up a quick ballistic chart for a quick long range shot. So after I shot the group I dialed up 9 MOA on a target at 503 yards, pulled the trigger and smacked a 5"x5" rock dead center! I think I may have found my overall varmint load. Below is a picture of the group at 100 yards.



Here is a blueprint of the load for all you interested:

.223 Rem Winchester brass
1.750" trim length
CCI #400 small rifle primers
26.2 grains of Hodgdon Benchmark
50 grain Sierra Blitzking
2.225" C.O.L.

Feel free to show some pictures of your successful groups with the benchmark powder or Sierra Blitz-King.

Braxton

Here's one with 26grs of BenchMark; three shots with a 62 TSX and three with a 69gr. Nosler Custom Comp.




Not a 223 though.....

wow guys nice shooting, I'm gonna start reloading around December. I can't wait till I get to do some of this What kind of scope are you running on your .223 SniperAce016?

Thanks

Brett (Mac)

Mac-

I'm actually running a mediocre Russian scope on my .223, it was when I was tight on money but I am soon going to get a Bushnell Elite 4200 tactical on her. The Russian scope I have has decent glass, but surprisingly, it tracks like a Nightforce NXS!! I sometimes dial up 16 MOA and when I come back down it is dead on the money where it was before. But actually I just started reloading around last Christmas, so I've already been in it almost 7 months. But if you start reloading .223, pick yourself up some benchmark and don't look back, It is one of the .223's best all around powder.

Braxton

SniperAce016: Great shooting there with your Remington 700 VLS!
Good for you, and the Rifle
I have two Remington VLS Rifles in caliber 223 Remington.
One of them is a limited edition 700 VLSS (all stainless steel, 26" heavy barrel, gray lamintaed stock model) and it uses Nosler 50 grain Ballistic Tips.
It's groups (5 shots at 100 yards) have averaged .589" over the years!
Its BEST group (5 shots at 100 yards) has been a .405"er!
I am VERY happy with this performance as this Rifle only has a Leupold 4x12 variable scope on it!
My other 700 VLS in 223 Remington has a Leupold 6.5x20 variable scope on it and it is capable of rather consistent groups (5 shots at 100 yards) just UNDER .500".
Keep in mind I only shoot my Rifles for group (load development, accuracy or sight-in) on dead calm wind condition days, anymore.
Be sure to keep us posted on that Rifles future accuracy examples!
Which scope DO you have on that 700 VLS and have you had any accuracy enhancing done to the Rifle (bedding, re-crowning, trigger job etc.)?
Keep up the good work - that is great shooting with a Varmint quality bullet!
Long live "Big Green"!
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy

Good shooting. With a bit of tweaking, the VLS is a lot of rifle for the money. I bedded my father's old 223 Varmint Special in a VLS handle and it is a sweet rig. Most stuff shot well in it but load development showed that RL10x, BR-4's, and jammed 50gr moly v-max's at3,340fps were the hot setup. After it showed promise, I loaded up some more rounds and banged out back-to-back 3-shot groups of .13" and .28". I ran it out to 400yds and it put 3 in 1.5" after dialing some wind. I don't normally shoot that good.

It will smoke some crows....

VarmintGuy: I have heard the Nosler 50 grain Ballistic Tips shoot great in my rifle, but when it came time to buy some bullets, none were in stock, so I instead picked up some 40 and 50 grain v-max's and 50 grain Sierra Blitzkings. This was actually my first load using benchmark powder and Sierra Blitzkings, for some reason I have been getting very lucky finding a great load right off the bat. You were also saying about range conditions, this group was shot in less than ideal conditions, a steady rain and slight wind. I also shot the group in a prone position with a rear rest on a slanted hill over a row of corn with the target being about 10 degree's uphill, lol. My scope is a mediocre Russian scope from Kalinka optics, it's model is the Veber VPOI 6-24x50, the glass isn't the best but it tracks like a dang Nightforce, I can go up 20 MOA, come back down and its dead on the money everytime. Although I plan on buying a Bushnell Elite 4200 tactical, I bought the Russian scope just to hold me over until I could get a decent job to afford one, believe it or not I'm only 17. As for accuracy enhancing, there has only been a trigger job from my old shooting coach, he got it to break pretty clean at 2 pounds, but bedding or free floating has not been done, and with groups the size of the one pictured above, there is no point to bed or free float a rifle when it already shoots so darn good.

Braxton

SniperAce016: Braxton again that is great shooting for any aged shooter and any brand scope!
Yes, I have had really good results from several Rifles that I own shooting the 50 grain Nosler Ballistic Tips.
I have a ton of them and if need be I will send you 20 (gratis) for some load tests if you would like.
Amen to your plan to over-look any modificatiosn to your VLS.
I own several VLS Rifles in other calibers including 204 Ruger, 22-250 Remington and 260 Remington - none of them have been glass bedded or re-crowned either.
All have had trigger adjusting done to them though.
Wishing you the best with your VLS!
Like one of the other posters said the VLS is a lot of value for the money.
And it sure sounds like his (or his fathers?) is shooting real well also.
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy

not benchmark but with H335, may try benchmark as well.

Whats up with you guys...?


NONE of you can hit that dime......





Ingwe

FIVE shots.
Show us more targets.
That said, I have a load, 50 BKs, 400 CCIs, using 4895 and LC brass that is about that good. Better than me, anyway.

to Dave, not my 223 but you asked for five shots, the grid background is 1/8" x 1/8"

I can't imagine why u'd want to switch scopes if the rig is shooting that well...consistently, and tracks that consistently.

JPro, not trying to de-rail the thread, but wha t ype of steel did yo use for your target? I'll post some group pics tomorrow. Got some sub 1" 20 shot groups out of my AR recently with Black Hills 60 grain VMAX red box. After the first 5 or 6 they don't touch the paper any more, just all right through the first raggged little hole. Pretty amazing for my shooting skills! And I haven't been waiting on BBl to cool, just shoot as soon as I get steady again. No idea who made the upper as there are no markings, but it shoots.
Blue box re man moly coated shot to same poi so did 77 smks and 62 tsxs. I can't find a load in this gun that doesn't shoot within an inch of one another as far as poi is concenrned. Some of the TSX's opened up to 1.5 or so but plenty good for deer and hogs.

Good shooting guys......Hard not to like the .223.

5100, but it's a quarter...

Dats actually pretty cool....



Ingwe

Any of you ever had a gun that shot most loads into same POI. I can load a mag with my AR with 60 black hills VMAX, 55 Hornady VMAX, 77 Black hills VMAX, and my 62 tsx handloads. Loaded at random all in same mag and shoot a 1-1.5" group. Don't know what twist the bbl is. All I know about it is that it has an 18" stainless bbl.

Yep, plus 69, 77 gr SMKs and Custom Comps.

700 VS with Elite 4200 24 power Mil-dot scope Jewel trigger set at 8 ozs 40 Vmax 25 gr AA2015 5 shot group Targets are 1/2" diamonds with 1/4" dots.


Same rifle both groups 52 Amax 23.8 both groups 5 shots


Same rifle 50 Nosler 23.6 AA 2015 5 shot group



Benchmark is an excellent powder and 26.5 and a 40 Vmax will shoot just as well.....