I have had my 223 Remington Encore Barrel for over a year now. It's about time that I give it a work out.

I have posted some of this build before:
What I have currently is a Blued Encore Frame with factory synthetic pistol grip. (The plan is to switch this to a Stainless Action when I come up with another one.) The barrel is a 15" Stainless Steel, Tapered MGM set up for the BullBerry Hanger Bar forend mounting system. Twist rate is 1 in 10. For a forend I have an 11" Tony's Stock's and Forends in Black Onyx. The sight set up starts out with an Evolution Gun Works Scope Base, Warne High Vertical Split Rings (One Pair Only) Triton Tactical Bubble Level (Anti Cant Device) and for glass I have a Weaver 30mm, 8X - 32X Classic Extreme Rifle Scope. These rings are high enough to easily cock the hammer on the Encore without a hammer extension. NOTE: Original Encore not a Pro Hunter

I had forgotten from around 18 months ago, but I apparently sent in a Dummy Round consisting of a Hornady 60 grain V-Max seated long to have MGM Throat the barrel for.

To start with I took a few rounds of GI 55 grain Ball to get a rough zero. With the long throat, if it were not for gravity I am not sure it would have hit the ground. I next did a few reloads consisting of 50 grain Hornady V-Max bullets seated to an OAL of 2.30. Next up was the Sierra 55 Grain SPT Flat Base seated to an OAL of 2.366. (Neither the 50 or 55 were long enough to touch rifling.) The next load was the one I had planned to use originally, the Hornady 60 grain V-Max seated to an OAL of 2.384. The last load in this test batch was a Sierra 69 grain Match King seated to an OAL of 2.396.
Much better results all around. The top performer ended up being the 69 grain Sierra Match King.

Back to the house for another batch of reloads. This time I upped the charge under the 69 grain Sierra Match King. I also loaded up a few 77 grain Sierra Match King's with an OAL of (2.435) just to see for myself that they would not work well in a 1-10 twist barrel.

Big Surprise I got a hair smaller group out of the 77 SMK's than the 69's. My 300 yard Group with the 69's was 3.00", while the 77 SMK 300 yard group was 2.75". This was with a tape measure not precision measuring equipment. I also realize this could have been reversed the next groups fired. The 69's and 77's were both grouping pretty much identical. This goes to show you cannot believe everything you read. Pretty much everything you read in print says the 77's will not shoot in anything slower than 1-8. Mine are shooting just fine from a 1-10 twist barrel so far. I will need to keep an eye on accuracy during the year as weather conditions change.

Monday I reloaded a 50 round Box of the 77 grain SMK's.

I did a little research and determined my Scope Height to be 2.075 Inches. I did a little calculating and determined my velocity should be around 2600 fps. I do have a chronograph however it was very overcast today. Armed with the above information I put together a drop chart.

When I got back to the Range I worked on fine tuning my 100 yard Zero a little more. I then shot a group at 200 yards dialing the scope up 2.00 MOA. Dead On. I then painted a Dot approximately 3" in diameter on the 300 yard steel plate. I dialed up 5.00 MOA and held for the center. The first shot hit dead in the center of the Red Dot. The next three shots were just off the dot Right, and shot number five was again on the dot. Did I mention we had a pretty good wind blowing today.

I then cut a Clay Bird sized hole in some coroplast and used it to spray paint a round Red Dot the size of a Clay Bird on the 400 yard steel. I was not paying attention to the wind flags. The wind changed directions from North to South for a few minutes. I was not holding for wind anyway. I fired Three rounds that went in to about a Three inch Cluster around three inches high and Left. The Left I am sure was wind.

When I got home I brought up the Ballistic Program again and upped the velocity figures to 2625 FPS. I then typed up a Drop Chart to go in the lid of my ammo box, along with all the Reloading Information to duplicate this load.

EDIT: I will need to check the new drop chart after chronographing the load.

I would call today's Range Work-Up a success.

I friend went to Graf today. I had a couple box's of Hornady 60 grain V-Max bullets on his list to pick up. They were out of them, along with about any other .224 bullets. It looks like I may be shooting 77's for a while until the 60 grain V-Max bullets get more plentiful.

Bob R

Now that's some nice shooting. I could not match that with a rifle. Also nice to find out Graf's retail store is back open, I hadn't been paying attention of course they don't have any bullets I want in stock anyway.

Interesting that the heavy bullets shot so well out of a 1-10". That might open up some new possibilities for my 1-9" Fireball, emphasis on might.

Great shooting. I have a 12" factory Encore in 223 but haven't tried anything heavier than 50 grains. It does well with the 50 gr V-Max. I have a box of 69 grainers to load up and try. It has a 2x6 EER scope on it.
I tried a rifle scope on a 22 some years back with mixed results. Think I need to give one a try again on the 223.

My xp in 221 Fireball always shot the old 70 gr. Speer bullets very well.

On the use of a rifle scope. I looked at lots of rifle scopes before I found one with enough eye relief that I was impressed enough to give it a serious try for a primary hunting scope.
The Weaver Classic Extreme scopes on the lower power settings work for me. They are rated at FOUR Inches of eye relief on the lowest power settings. I can back off the scope I would guess Eight to Ten Inches and still keep the cross hairs on target.
The Grand Slam I believe is the replacement for the Classic Extreme. It is rated with only Three and a Half Inches of eye relief on the lowest power setting. I have not had my hands on one so far to see how well one might work. The Classic Extreme scopes are pretty much all sold out now.

I have 2.5-10X Classic Extreme scopes on my 260 Remington, 7.62x54R, and 356 Winchester Encore Barrels set up for Deer hunting. The 8-32X Classic Extreme is on my 223. If doing it again I might have put another 8-32X on the 260 Remington barrel instead of the 2.5-10X. On my longer shots with the 223 Remington barrel in the original post I was dialed up to 16X. The 8-32 was the last Classic Extreme scope I bought, and I did not try it out until now when they are all sold out. It is working out much better than expected.

Bob R

I was chronographing a new bullet (160 Hornady designed for the Marlin Express) to use in my 7.62x54R Saturday after the Steel Challange Handgun Match. I was working my charges up to see where the 160 would max out. My local shop has Three more box's of them if they work out. That will be another story.

I decided to shoot a few of the 77 grain 223 loads through the chronograph to get an accurate velocity reading. I threw out a couple of slow rounds, and kept the Five shots that were most consistent. As good as the 223 barrel is shooting I probably should weigh the charges, and switch the primers to Bench Rest and see what happens.


The average velocity reading ended up being 2605 FPS. Which is right on the money with my initial velocity guess (2600) based on 16 Inch AR15 velocities with 77 grain SMK bullets.

I will now start working with my 7.62X54R Loads.

Bob R

Awesome bob!

I have several things to work up loads for but cannot find the time to get it done. I have 2 223?s to get started on, a browning X-bolt rifle and black stock xp 100 handgun. The xbolt has a 1/8? twist, which I will try 69gr sierra match and sierra 55gr hpbt in it. I will start with varget and rl-15. I have a few 40-55gr selections to try in the xp100. My 14? contender shoots 40gr noslers and sierra 50gr blitz pretty good with H322.
Enjoyed your report. Keep it up!

KYODE Keep TAC, and CFE223 in mind also. They may be worth trying.

Bob R