50gr American Eagle HP @ 500 yards

dev110

After I shot the group at 300 yards yesterday which resulted in a 1/2" group which was great, a forum member was wondering what would they be like even further, around the 600 yard mark. This sparked my interest to see what they would be like.

I had checked the forecast last night and it was giving mixed reports and possibly high winds again. I wanted a day where the wind would be low as these have a low BC of .206 which is not what you want for longer range shooting as the slightest wind change will play havoc with the rounds.

Woke up this morning to a heavy drizzle and medium winds, around the 12mph mark. I taught that was it, I wasn't going to get to try them today but half an hour later it cleared and the wind had dropped to around the 5-7mph mark so I got every thing ready as quick as I could and got up to my zeroing site.

I set everything up and on walking back from the target the wind was varying from 5-10 mph full value. I got the Ballistic Calculator out and made my calculations. For a 8mph wind at that range I needed 7MOA left. Elevation was 12MOA.

Cold bore shot was at my zero of 150 yards to make sure things were ok from yesterday. Straight through the centre. I then dialled in the dope and took aim at a clay I had set at the target.

First round was good for wind. Just needed another 1/2MOA. Elevation on the other hand was way off. I needed another 2MOA to get there.

I fired 3 shots at the target and ended up with an 8 inch group. Not good but for cheap ammo at that range I wasn't expecting much.



I believe these rounds are good for 300 yards, can't comment further as haven't tested them at 350, 400. If you want to shoot out further with a .223 you need to be running 75gr or 53gr Superformance with the higher BC.

clivej

Thats not so bad as its just over 1 MOA. The 223 is not as effective out past the 400/500 mark but as you have shown its very good up to that point. Any little bit of wind will blow it about.

Thats where the bigger rounds come into there own


good shooting all the same.

dev110

That is the furthest I have pushed the .223 so far so I could have had a bad habit magnify at that range. I'm out of ammo now and will be for a good while as I will be concentrating on FTR for the next few months.
I would love to try a box of 55gr Vmax at that range and see what they are capable compared to the cheap ammo and then the 75gr. Hopefully in the months ahead.

johngalway

dev110 wrote: »

I would love to try a box of 55gr Vmax at that range and see what they are capable compared to the cheap ammo and then the 75gr. Hopefully in the months ahead.

See if you can lay your hands on some Federal premium as well.

Vegeta

Sure it isn't the tightest group ever but with that cheap ass ammo it seems to me that you'd have hit a fox or a big grey crow 2 out of the 3 shots. I'd be happy with that at those type of ranges

Glensman

dev110 wrote: »

That is the furthest I have pushed the .223 so far so I could have had a bad habit magnify at that range. I'm out of ammo now and will be for a good while as I will be concentrating on FTR for the next few months.
I would love to try a box of 55gr Vmax at that range and see what they are capable compared to the cheap ammo and then the 75gr. Hopefully in the months ahead.

If there's anything exciting you want to try I can put together a load for you.
Let me know the flavour and I'll see how close I can get...

Those 55gr v-max are a good shooting round, but a bugger to load cos of the flat base.

daithi55

these are a great varmint round
there was lots of people putting this ammo down on here
as it was cheap nice to see someone proving them wrong

dev110

Glensman wrote: »

If there's anything exciting you want to try I can put together a load for you.
Let me know the flavour and I'll see how close I can get...

Those 55gr v-max are a good shooting round, but a bugger to load cos of the flat base.

Thanks for the offer Glensman.
If I was reloading for it I would love to make up a load with the Berger 64gr Varmint and as a practice target round I would love to try the 70gr VLD.

poulo6.5

clivej wrote: »

Thats not so bad as its just over 1 MOA. The 223 is not as effective out past the 400/500 mark but as you have shown its very good up to that point. Any little bit of wind will blow it about.

Thats where the bigger rounds come into there own


good shooting all the same.

dev110 wrote: »

That is the furthest I have pushed the .223 so far so I could have had a bad habit magnify at that range. I'm out of ammo now and will be for a good while as I will be concentrating on FTR for the next few months.
I would love to try a box of 55gr Vmax at that range and see what they are capable compared to the cheap ammo and then the 75gr. Hopefully in the months ahead.

great shooting dev. what range finder did you use. i did some testing with 55grain wolf ammo out to 500y as well and was hitting a circular saw blade with them but you would get the odd flyer.
you should defiantly get some 75gr stuff for that distance. they work a treat.

this is a 3 shot group i shot one day at 500y with shanmoll308 when he gave me some tips i was able to do this


the plate is 6" in diameter and the €2 coin in the corner should give you an idea of the group size. clivej might be able to scale the photo with that software he has but i think its about .3moa

did you ever test the 53gr superformance stuff and how did it go for you

i dont have my .223 any more but i do miss it

declan1980

poulo6.5 wrote: »

great shooting dev. what range finder did you use. i did some testing with 55grain wolf ammo out to 500y as well and was hitting a circular saw blade with them but you would get the odd flyer.
you should defiantly get some 75gr stuff for that distance. they work a treat.

this is a 3 shot group i shot one day at 500y with shanmoll308 when he gave me some tips i was able to do this


the plate is 6" in diameter and the €2 coin in the corner should give you an idea of the group size. clivej might be able to scale the photo with that software he has but i think its about .3moa

did you ever test the 53gr superformance stuff and how did it go for you

i dont have my .223 any more but i do miss it

That looks like a very good group at 500yards poulo. I was thinking of trying the 75gr stuff myself.
Clive if you get the chance could you check poulo's group size with your software just for reference purposes.

clivej

The program i use is OnTarget free to download.
http://www.ontargetshooting.com/download1.html
The OnTarget program must have a reference point such as the 2 euro coin to get a measurement from.





Poulo65 OnTarget result.jpg