Thread: .223: The Ins & Outs of it

my wife was preggers with our first...I went hunting in greenstone for a week and took enough smokes for two days...came out and had enough $$$ to buy pack of John Brandon 15s or a meat pie...the pie won...my good wonderful Mrs said use your smoke money and pay off a rifle,so off to Dixs we went..the yhad mini mauser in hornet....oh boy was that tempting,even had open sights..but I ordered one in 223 as ammunition was cheap....it duely arrived and came home with a 3x9x40mm nikko stirling gold crown (Finnwolf has that awesome wee scope now) and 100 rounds of norinco yellow packet FMJ to break rifle in.
down to local secluded beach..fire one shot,clean,shoot clean,shoot clean,shoot 2 clean,shoot 2 clean.... shoot 3 call it good.
went out spotlighting on mates place,20-30 hares dropped no problem...another place similar number of rabbits...mate loaded me up some reloads 55grn winchester projectiles and 24.5grns AR 2206 H it shot tiny wee group.....WOW
went up to my wallaby spot with my young bitch "Buttons" we walking around hill face and she started acting all goofey like (oh if I had only known about indicating dogs then) I EVENTUALLY twigged she knew something was around,looked across gully and say mob og pigs making good their escape,sat down,rifle braced elbows on knees,3 shots three neck shot porkers.....WOWY WOWY.....
was close to dark by time they were gutte and propped open so returned next day to collect...I was hooked
many years of shooting wallabies,learnt to reload for cost....
then discovered varmit type projectiles..that was eye opener on wallabies,no more runners....
barnes 50grn ttsx preform like a 130grn coreloct out of .270 just in reverse order of damage on animal... its the near shoulder that looks worst with barnes...
at a guess Ive fired 1000-1500 rounds through the wee Zastava and it still more accurate than me....half dozen folks have killed first animals with it....
put a 3x9x50mm older leupold on it,sighted in 1.5" high at hundy about 15 years ago and havent shifted it since...
it will put just about any ammunition from 45-64grns into ragged group hovering around inch...and thats a COMBINED group....eg it doesnt matter which ammuntion is in rifle it will hit within inch at hundy....... rifle cured flinch for me...its reasured "Royal twelve/Jasper" he could shoot...sub inch group with 5 mixed rounds prooved that.....so YES I do love my wee Zastava.
she sitting in gun case waiting to head out after wallabies tomorrow...RUMPYs young fella might just shoot his 2nd wallaby with it tomorrow,he sure pulled one out of box to get the first...RUMPY held forestock up on end of his upright barrel,young fella lined up rifle with butt OFF/ontop of his shoulder, as was too long I held buttplate in hands and he moved Xhairs onto wally and squeazed trigger...neck shot at about hundy yards..... try that with a heavier calibre.