Thread: 1:8 vs 1:12 in 223

Hey team,
My apologies if this has been covered before.
I've come across a pretty tidy 2nd hand 223, that's in a 1:12twist, but I had really only been looking at 1:8, so i'm just after some information

Can someone please fill me in on 223 twist rates. I get that the 1:8 seems to be more popular as it can stabilize heavier projectiles. Is there any other differences between them? Is there pros and cons to both?
Is it personal preference? Anyone running a 1:12 ran into any issues with putting down small to medium game animals.

Sorry for all the questions.

Cheers Bevan

Realistically 1:12 means 55gr pills - or at best slightly heavier stubby ones, say approx 60gns whereas 1:8 is easily 75gr long slippery stuff which is excellent if you reload.

Originally Posted by ocean-hunter

Hey team,
My apologies if this has been covered before.
I've come across a pretty tidy 2nd hand 223, that's in a 1:12twist, but I had really only been looking at 1:8, so i'm just after some information

Can someone please fill me in on 223 twist rates. I get that the 1:8 seems to be more popular as it can stabilize heavier projectiles. Is there any other differences between them? Is there pros and cons to both?
Is it personal preference? Anyone running a 1:12 ran into any issues with putting down small to medium game animals.

Sorry for all the questions.

Cheers Bevan

Don't be sorry - your a non virgin 100+ psoter now - so can ask anything you like and steal as many bargins as you wish :-)
@Frodo and a lot others on here will answer better than me - but I also thought was just for the heavier pills

Interested to hear answers myself

I have shot 50gr varmint in a 1/7 and 1/9 AR barrel piece of piss at 100yds. I now use mostly 77gr in my Howa 223 and that flies well out to 900yds which is why I sought out this tighter twist.

If in doubt, go for a 1/8 rather than a 1/12 IMHO.

Sent from my SM-G980F using Tapatalk

I have two 223 a 1:12 zastava and a 1:8 ruger. Both shoot the 62 grain belmont very well but anything heavier doesn't go too well in the slow twist.
Probably the most effective bullet I have found is the 55 grain Sierra hpbt. Within 200 yards its astonishing.
It has taken red and fallow, pigs, lots of goats and wallabies plus the odd rabbit and hare. They are getting spendy now for bulk shooting but are cheap when you want something you can rely on to bring home the bacon, venison, etc

Hell for over 30yrs there was only the slower twist barrel & most people didn't even know what you meant if you asking about twist rate, some type of Black Art !!

Some wondered why the 30/06 shot the harder bullets better than the 308Win, back then the 30/06 had a much faster twist rate .

We all used the 223 to shoot the shit out of deer with 63gr & 70gr slugs with no trouble, granted the shorter 70gr Speer which is a hard slug to .

Having said that if I had the choice now days & shooting Bigger Game & or longer range (Mono metal as well) I would get the faster twist barreled rifle .

Originally Posted by Scout

Hell for over 30yrs there was only the slower twist barrel & most people didn't even know what you meant if you asking about twist rate, some type of Black Art !!

Some wondered why the 30/06 shot the harder bullets better than the 308Win, back then the 30/06 had a much faster twist rate .

We all used the 223 to shoot the shit out of deer with 63gr & 70gr slugs with no trouble, granted the shorter 70gr Speer which is a hard slug to .

Having said that if I had the choice now days & shooting Bigger Game & or longer range (Mono metal as well) I would get the faster twist barreled rifle .

Good point,
The rifle in question is a blued 8 year old winchester m70 featherweight, I'm hoping to take a look at it this coming weekend, if it lasts that long.
Can anyone shed some light on these

Greetings Ocean-Hunter,
I have two .223 rifles. One is 1 in 12 twist and the other 1 in 8. I would dearly love it if they were both 1 in 8. The 1 in 8 twist will shoot the heavier high BC projectiles and the 1 in 12 will not. Both shoot the 55 grain projectiles. Get the 1 in 8
Regards Grandpamac.

My CZ527 is 1:12, runs really well on 55gn soft points. Red sbs fallow deer tip over with neck shots. Found out pigs are tough buggers and need to get one in the ear if broadside. Ferrets just pop pretty much wherever you shoot them.

I would go 1:8, I have found my one shoots cheap 55gr easily under 1moa (Never bought expensive factory .223) and anything I reload is 55gr to 80gr

Originally Posted by ocean-hunter

Good point,
The rifle in question is a blued 8 year old winchester m70 featherweight, I'm hoping to take a look at it this coming weekend, if it lasts that long.
Can anyone shed some light on these

awesome rifle...snap it up QUICKLY...
I too have zastava and have shot pigs and deer with it...no problem
dedicated big stuff round is now a 50grn ttsx.....they awesome...my varmit rounds are 50grn vmax devastating ...I dont stretch barrel past 300ish..dont twiddle n fiddle with scope,just point and shoot and stuff dies.
personally I dont see point in running 60plus grains in .223,if you want to go heavier buy a .243

Slow twists can do weird things to long projos. In years gone by I used to reload for my Sportco .222 and was given quite a few .223 tracer rounds. I pulled the projos, they were about 63 gns from memory but about as long as a 77gn .22 cal projo. The .222 was a 1:14 from memory.
The flight path was something to behold: for the first 200 or so it flew a reasonably stable arc, then you could see the projo start scribing a lazy clockwise spiral, about 50m in dia, and it would end up anywhere. Tracer burnout was somewhere around 800m, but there was no way you could ever figure out which way it would go. Completely unpredictable flight path.

My Tikka 223 1:8 shoots 40gr VMAX around the 1 inch mark, although not as consistent as heavier projectiles, as others mentioned, the disadvantage of a fast twist rate rifle using light projectiles isn't that big of a deal.

Originally Posted by mimms2

Now that's a mental picture. .223 vs ferret!
Video or it never happened

Wait hold on i'll just grab my Ferret Gun lol !

My current .223 is a Sako 75 1-8 twist, shoots lighter bullets well (.50)and the 75gr/77 gr aren't as good, (1") or so. all previous .223 were 1-12.
for general hunting with in 250m or so, i don't think there much difference, a non varmint bullet 55-65gr will get it done,
Try the 60 partition, 64gr Winchester soft point 70gr Speer or the Serria 62, 63gr or 65gr,
All my 1-12 twist rifles shot the partition, and 63gr Serrria good enough for hunting.
Grab that Winchester, they are great rifle, and no longer made in .223, if your not happy with it, it sell easy or get a 6x45 (.223), barrel spun on.