Thread: Varmint Rifle .223, .243, or .270

JDCAL29,

+1 on the 0.223 Remington; if you would like to use projectiles appreciably heavier than 55 gr, go for a 1 in 9 twist barrel.

Have fun !

Best regards

Russ

Originally Posted by JDCAL29

We ended up going with the Savage Axis/Edge Scope Combo in 223. I'm not to keen on the camo pattern on the gun.... but that was the only option for the attractive price of the rifle package.

Here's a subject I can talk about all day long!

You guys made a nice choice! I have a older savage (pre-accutrigger) that is awesome! I did replace the trigger, but that's another story.

Just so you know, Savages are well known for accuracy out of the box. I would recommend purchasing several different boxes of ammo in different weights (40-62gr) and see which ammo the rifle likes the best. More than likely if it's like most Savages I've owned and worked on, you will find that it likes the heavier stuff, say 55-62 gr. Once you have found that, play around with different mfg's of that weight and you will be golden.

Now, go and take care of those pesky varmints!
Scott

If you guys ever get into reloading, I have several recipe's that I would share with you that would make a good starting point.

I LOVE my Savage 22-250. Fun, powerful round.

21 grains IMR 4198, Winchester primer, Winchester trimmed fire formed brass, hornady V-max molly ballistic tip 55 grain seated to match my chamber headspace, gets me one 30 calibre hole at 100 yards out of my Savage 12-vss varmet (223 calibre). I have the trigger pull set way down at 2 pounds. Sub MOA at 200 yards. You could always go to a 338 Win mag. Then if you are even close, you will still kill the buggers from the concussion. That is a devastating round. Shot an old coffee can at 100 yards with a 250 grain soft point. It was an old metal can, filled it with water and no top. Blew the bottom out, split the can in half down the front and blew the entire thing into the bank so deep you could see the contours of the rocks in the bank behind the metal, and blew water straight up a good 20 feet. One of those holy @$#$% moments. Then again, it is a few dollars per round to shoot but what an elk gun.

My .223 WSSM shoots like that...took me forever to get the load just right though...

Me to. I have at least 15 different recipes in my loading log, settled on that one. One of the big keys is fire formed brass so you get a perfect chamber fit. You just neck size them, not full length resize. Down side, if you have a couple in that caliber you have to keep the ammo separate. I have two different loads, one is just for this rifle, the other is full length resized to work in any 223.