223 wssm

Silentnite

New member
I finaly got my 223 shortmag sighted in at 100yds last week. Shot a whole box of bullets to /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/blush.gif 55 gr winchester silver tips. My last 2 shot would prolly fit in a quarter. I goin to take it back to the range later and see if i can get it shootin a little better. Anybody else shootin a 223 wssm around here?
 
I can relate to the ammo cost for the 223 WSSM.
I have an employee that actually got a free Browning ABolt by using some safety points that he had accumulated from work in an incentive plan. It was the only rifle available in a Varmint/Predator caliber. He has had it for about 6 weeks and is trying to trade or sell it due to finding out that the ammo was almost 30 bones a box. Even our local gunshop wont take a brand new in the box 223 WSSM in on trade, says he cant sell em.
 
I mite start reloading. One reason i shot all that ammo is i havent shot in a while and i would flinch alot, but i love my gun! Half of the problem was me.
 
223 WSSM is a Lemon/ Many Tech problems. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/mad.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/angry-smiley-055.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smiliesmack.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/crazy.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/frown.gif
 
My son's been shooting a 223wssm in a Browning Abolt for 2 years now.

Exreme velocity, shoots sub-moa, what's not to like?

I would suggest you start to reload for it, and lay in a good supply of brass.
 
I am very pleased with my Model 70 Coyote in 223 WSSM. Very good shooting gun, just the ammo thing is a pain. Several javelina and predators and even a large ram aoudad have been DRT with that gun, does a lot of damage with the silvertips. In fact, I don't think I have shot anything with the caliber that hasn't been DRT (20+ kills). I have been shooting the 64 gr. softpoints and they don't seem to explode as much and the gun shoots them better. I think if more people tried them instead on knock them, the caliber would be very popular. I have yet to have any accuracy problems with the gun itself, I just need to update the scope. My finance loves the gun, she won't let me shoot it anymore. Low recoil with the power to take hogs and deer sized animals, what more could someone ask for.
 
This caliber is not "accurate" as a whole. Yes you may find one in a pile of a hundred that is accurate but that would be the only one. I had a friend buy a .243 WSSM in the Winchester Model 70 Coyote last year. He had a Timmney trigger put in it and he had a Leupold 3.5 x 10 x 40 VXIII scope on it. We tried every available factory ammo configuration we could find for this [beeep] thing and it would never shoot better than a 2" five shot group.

When he took the gun back to trade it in they gave him $300 for the gun (origionally $750) because they said they won't even be able to sell it. The gun was in mint condition but worth nothing. This gun shop actually stopped buying this caliber because they were having so many customers returning them. Some of the returns actually have carbon marks on the side of the bolt where the gases were blowing by the head of the bolt.

If you read much about this caliber you will find that with the added pressure and the shorter casing there is not enough brass contacting the inner wall of the chamber to make a proper seal. For those of you who don't know....this is not a good thing.

Reloading may fix this problem if you dial down the powder to reduce pressure and you re-use your brass so it is pressure fit to your chamber so it seals better.

Just my two cents
 
i have a browning varmint stalker that will do 3/4" groups fairly easy with factory 55 silver tips 243wssm that is pretty decent shooting
 
Bloody Tailgate - Not true..

The .243 wssm and the .223 wssm are completely different birds. The .243 wssm is a wicked round. Insanely good Deer bullet/velocity combo actually.

The .223 wssm is a great round if you handload and back the speed down a bit. The biggest downfall is the short barrel life you get pushing the bullets that fast.

Don't judge a cartridge by one gun. Especially a recent Winchester mod 70 which is notorious for having an 8lb trigger and marinal accuracy at best. Trading ANY gun will 9 times out of 10 cause you to take it in the shorts.
 
SDVmnt I agree with you that the round is a GREAT killer. I think that on a deer sized animal at less than 300 yds you should be fine. The reason I say a deer size animal is due to the inherent inaccuracy of the WSSM. If you are lucky enough to get one of the straight shooting ones I would even venture to say that a 400 yd shot would be lethal. What I am talking about is that they are more prone to be less accurate because of design flaws. This is speaking of all of the WSSM rounds. If you have to dial the speed down to oh lets say what the standard .223 or .243 what is the point of the added cost of the gun, brass and dies to reload?

If you have one and it shoots great that's awesome! I just would not advise anyone to go out and buy one.

Oh and SDVmnt I wrote that the gun we were shooting had an aftermarket trigger and it was set at 2.5 lbs. The thing was glass bedded creating a full floating barrel, with the heavy barrel. This thing should have been a tack driver. The dealer said if it was in the standard .243 round he would have given him about three hundred dollars more.
 
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Don't know where you're coming up with this "inherant inaccuracy" of the WSSM's. That's the exact oposite of what the cartridge was designed for. Using the same amount of powder as the STD cartridge (when talking 243) and doing so more efficiently. Giving you the extra velocity. Look at any benchrest cartridge. 6mm BR, 6mm PPC, 22PPC etc... They're all short and fat. From an accuracy standpoint, a short and fat cartridge gives you the benefit of having the burn point of the powder closer to the center. This results in a more accurate cartridge.

From Guns-N-Ammo - "It could be said the .22 PPC is the grandfather of the .223 WSSM and, for that matter, all the current crop of "short magnum" cartridges. The PPC demonstrated in competition the accuracy and efficiency of the short, fat case design. A short powder column burns more consistently, which makes for more consistent velocity and thus accuracy. Powder also burns more efficiently and produces higher velocities per grain used."

Ask anyone with a DTECH/OLY 243 wssm to show them some groups from theirs.

The only WSSM that would be necessary to "back down" on the speed is the .223. You're pushing a 55gr bullet 200fps faster than the 22-250 can. Back it down to 22-250 speeds and you'll be able to keep the barrel going before burning the throat completely out of it.

I don't have any WSSM's. Just a 300WSM Would have an upper in mine from Mike but am going try the 6mm WOA for brass availability. Have several friends with them however and all shoot incredibly well. The 243 wssm is one of the few that will make it. The WSM's are doing very well in the 270 platform. Getting 7mm Rem Mag performace from a 270. The 300 and 325 WSM's are phenominal cartridges as well.

As for the Winchester.. You can't polish a "turd" ;P Floating, glass bedding, a barrel with a huge throat and a gravel road of a barrel will not gain you anything. Disparaging a line of cartridges simply because you knew someone that had one in a platform with less than "stellar" performance in it's latter years is kind of funny.
 
As for right now im sticking with it. Im going to get some trigger work done to it. I still have alot of shooting to do before, i will ever think of getting rid of it. If i ever do get another gun it will be a .223 or a 22-250.
 
SDVmnt you are bringing in cartridges like the .22 ppc and .270 WSM which are not the same as the WSSM. Super Short is the important part. If we went with this reasoning (shorter is better) than our shells would all look like tuna cans. There becomes a point where a little shorter is TOO SHORT. Yes if you have a custom gun with a custom fitted chamber it will be accurate no matter what caliber you are shooting. And with the tollerances of todays factory gun makers some will be good, but others will be bad. The WSSM chamber has to be machined so tight to seal when fired (because of the lack of surface area of contacting the chamber wall) that some of them just fail to do it. If you're telling me that Winchester can't make a gun that works well with the load and they are the only manufacturer of the shells what does that say for the caliber? All I am saying is that they have had more problems with WSSMs than with any new variation in many years.

Not sure where you are getting your numbers from on the 22-250 reference either. The .223 WSSM is not pushing the 55gr bullet 200fps faster than the 22-250 it is 100 fps, but if that is your argument...get the 22-250 it's been around for 60 years. Also, if you have to back the rifle down to keep it from "burning the throat out completely" it is a sign that they are pushing it TOO FAR.

If you want to hear some of the other problems with the round here are some...

1. Because of the added pressure created by the powder burning at a higher rate some of the casings are becoming lodged in the chamber.

2. Because of the shape of the casings (short and fat) they are not feeding well into the chamber. They pop out of the mag (internal or external) and jamming on the way in.

My experience is not with only one gun, it is straight from the mouth of several people that make thier living selling guns. I travel all around the country for work and I stop at several gun shops and gunsmith shops to chat. When I asked several of these professionals for tips to fix my friends gun they commonly told me to tell him to re-chamber the rifle to something else. I don't argue with gunsmiths.
 


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