Longest distance for 4-inch group with .223 bolt action rifle?

[Para Bellum]

Hi Folks,

how far would the max distance for a 4-inch group with a .223 bolt action rifle be?

I am asking because I want to buy/build a superaccurate bolt action rifle to compete with at 300m and beyond. I wonder if I need a .308 for that or could go on even with the .223 with a good bolt action rifle like a Tikka T3 tactical or Steyr Pro Varmint?

 

[Drummer101]

Past 300 yards and 223 will be fine but, I would go for the 308 because of the wind. And the 308 will be much cheaper than a ultra high end 223.

 

[N00b_Shooter]

some people shoot 1000 yard F class with a .223 so 300 yards shouldn't be a problem. The lighter recoil is always good too

 

[brian923]

have you thought about an AR-15? i have one that is put together as a custom gun. (i can give you specs if you want, but if you dont know about them, it will just be ranting and raving. let me know) anyways, i have come across a handload that will consistantly shoot 5 rounds into 1/4" @100 yards.

this photo shows the first bullet impacting low, but that was a cold bore shot with a mirror clean bore. no spoilers were fired. i wanted to see where the impact would be when i just arive to the hunting field. im am very impresed wih my rifle.

i have not been able to test this round at 300, but i would speculate it to shoot around the 2-3 inch group if i did my part at 300 yards. maybe even better, but i havent been able to shoot anywhere that far (yet). im dying to find out though. thats using a handload. i know that hornady and black hills ammunition also shoot fantastically from this rifle. 75 grn hornady tap and 77 grn black hills ammo are amazing. im am using a 68 grain hornady HPBT in that particular handload.

this is a group of 5 rounds of winchester 55 grian BT's shot out of the same rifle. now mind you, this is a 1/7 twist, so this, i think is pretty darn good for slinging cheaper factory lightweight bullets out of a slow twist barrel.

 

[ndking1126]

.308 will be less affected by wind, but the .223 can easily handle 300 yards or more. longrangehunting.com has the guy shooting it at 1 mile with reasonable accuracy in .223. Interesting read, too.

 

[kiwi56]

223

At 300m you are talking 330 yards, an accurate 223 would have no problem apart from wind but other .224 calibers would probably be more suitable, especially if you live in an area that gets windy weather. The 22-250 and 220 Swift would have more reach and able to handle that distance much better I have Ackley improved versions of both the 223 and the 22-250 and would much prefer using the larger caliber for anything over 300yards. The 22-250 also gives you the option of shooting much longer distances should you ever feel the need to.
with my 22-250 AI I have taken rabbits at 480 yards but that has been tricked out with a medium Varmint barrel on it.
Down side to the larger cartridge is slightly more noise and a little more recoil but hardly noticably different and ammo is a little more expensive or slightly more expensive to reload for.
Recoil shouldn't really come into it because if you can't take the recoil of any .224 centerfire you should take up knitting.
You are probably going to get people saying that there is tons of cheap ammo for the 223, well yes there is but its probably not going to give you sub minute of angle groups and certainly won't be suitable for shooting groups at 330+ yards.
If you still decide on a 223 or any .224 centerfire above that go for the fastest twist barrel that you can lay your hands on, preferably 8 inch twist or even less so you can stabilise the heavy weight bullets, be aware that some manufactures are still only giving their barrels a 12 inch or 14 inch twist.

 

[Kiwi Hunter]

The Provarmint is pretty accurate for a factory rig

Mine goes (30 mm squares): 100M

200M

So does a .12 MOA group mean a 3500+ yard 4 inch group? Perhaps not

It can stabilise the 75g A-maxes but nothing longer - worrying about "accuracy" is only a small part of the equation for LR, accurate rifles are easy enough to build / buy. You need to be looking for the highest BC pills you can find and a barrel that can stabilise them. These are the ones which will buck the wind and stay on target out to long ranges and throwing them as fast as possible is essential.

Shooting to 300y is 6mm BR / 6.5x47 lapua / 6.5XC etc territory - beyond that and getting into LR a .338 lapua mag takes a lot of beating (cue the hate from other LR cartridge followers...)

See - you need that Blaser

 

[kiwi56]

223

A lot of the newer rifles of reasonable quality can deliver 1 MOA without too much trouble even with reasonably light barrels but if you are wanting 1/2 MOA day in and day out or better buying a new rifle could be a lottery, you are probably better to buy a good secondhand gun and make it your project rifle as you will probably need to spend quite an amount of money replacing parts and doing work on it. Among the easiest of rifles I have found to work on and get parts for is the Remington Model 700. The 700 is not the most rigid action around but even so they can be tweaked to give good accuracy.
I have a 700 in 22-250 Ackley and the list of work was like this.
New Scope mounts, new Timney Trigger, Bell & Carlson stock with aluminium Bedding block, New Mab Match Barrel fitted and new Burris scope fitted.
At least doing it this way you can go out and shoot the thing and do the modifications one step at a time. This also tends to keep the wives and girlfriends happy as the money does not disappear out of the bank account on one occasion.

 

[eastbank]

i have a out of the box 700 rem varmite with laminite stock and 4x12 leupold scope that will shoot 1-1.5 inch five shoot groups at 300yds from a rest with the right loads. the only thing i did was to adjust the trigger to lighter the pull. i find my self useing it more over my 22-250 for causel varmite hunting. eastbank.