Capt. Don Martin Report post Posted December 22, 2014 Recently I purchased a Rock River Arms Fred Eichler AR. It comes with a 1-8 twist rifle and I was curious about the accuracy of this rifle out of the box. So I started accumulating various factory ammo ranging from 53 grain, 55 grain, 69 grain and 77 grain bullets, both standard and match. After putting on a Burris 223 scope on it, I sighted it in at 100 yards using 55 grain bullets. It shot OK, but the groups were nothing to write home about. I started thinking that maybe there was some ammo out there that might really tighten up the groups. So I decided to let my faithful intern, Laura Borden, who has proven she is a rock steady bench rest rifle shooter, try out the rifle utilizing different brands and weight of bullets. Starting off with 55 grain ammo, she got the best results using PMC Bronze, in 55 grain FMJ. She got a solid 3/4 inch group with that ammo! All the other 55 grain ammo, which included brand names like Hornady, Remington, Winchester and even Federal, shot disappointing groups. When we moved into the 69 grain ammo, I had two boxes of factory ammo that we tested. The first one was Federal Match using Sierra 69 grain HPBT bullets. The group with that ammo was amazing! Then she shot the Winchester Match ammo that again utilized the 69 grain Sierra HPBT. These are the two groups! The top one is with the Federal ammo and the bottom is the Winchester. She did shoot some 77 grain ammo. One was Fiocchi and the other was Winchester. Both were match ammo. The group with the Fiocchi was great, but the Winchester ammo was disappointing. The Fiocchi group is the one marked with a circle, while the other two shots are part of the Winchester group. Anyway I was wondering if anyone else who owns one these guns has had any luck using any other brand and/or weight of bullets? The sole purpose of this project is to take a javelina at 300 yards this February in Unit 18B. Don't ask me why, I can't tell you, it's just on my bucket list to do. Over the years I've taken many javelina with just about every firearm I own; including handguns, both semi-auto and wheel variety, (38 Spl, 38 Super, 44 Special, 44 Magnum) and shotguns shooting slugs, muzzleloaders, and even a Savage Striker in 22-250 caliber. Many pigs have been taken with various center fire and even rim fire 22 magnum rifle and a 5mm rimfire rifles. Picture below. Again, I can't tell you why I have this goal, but that is why this I got this rifle/scope combination. At this point it looks like I'll be shooting the 69 grain ammo at the little porkers this spring. However, if you've got some other ideas, I'd like to hear them! Don Martin Arizona Wildlife Outfitters Kingman, AZ Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
lancetkenyon Report post Posted December 22, 2014 I am a hand load man myself. I have a 24" Bushmaster Varminter that will consistently shoot 1/4 MOA with my 69 SMK recipe, and 1/2 MOA with my varmint loads. If you hand load, that is the way to go to wring all you can out of just about any rifle, for accuracy, speed, and bullet choice. Lake City brass 69gr. Sierra Match King 25.0gr. Hodgdon Varget CCI BR-4 Primers Loaded to mag length (don't remember COAL off the top of my head) Mixed brass 50gr. Hornady V-Max 25.5gr. Hodgdon Benchmark CCI BR-4 Primers Loaded to match factory length (don't remember COAL off the top of my head) With the 69 SMKs, it will also shoot out to at least 850 yards with astounding precision, and we are shooting it out to 1K now. Wind REALLY starts pushing them around at 600+ yards though. I think 300 yards with a .223 and 69 SMKs is very doable for javelina. I would even say 400+ yards if the rifle will do that accurately every time. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
briant_az Report post Posted December 22, 2014 I built this "pistol" just for the javelina hunts this year. For some reason I want to shoot one with an AR even though I've never shot one with any other rifle. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Capt. Don Martin Report post Posted December 23, 2014 Thanks guys for the replies.. I do reload, but haven't done it yet for the 223. I'll give that recipe a try. Ever try any other brands of primers. I ask cause I got several thousand Federal.. Don Martin Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
lancetkenyon Report post Posted December 23, 2014 In my varmint loads, I have used Remington and CCI 400 & 450 SR Mag primers as well when starting out with no apparent different (the 450s were a little hotter, about 40fps) velocity of POI. Groups remained similar too. I just try to buy one type of primer, and have gone with the CCI BR-4 since I bought 1000 when I first started, and I can usually find them fairly easily. If it ain't broke, don't fix it. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
