I had never done any shooting past 100 yards when I started hunting the coyotes on the farm, so naturally I thought a 223 would be fine for the job. I got a Remington 700 SPS varmint which had I believe a 14 twist barrel (26" long and heavy). Only once I figured out what ranges I actually had to shoot and then started missing coyotes regularly at 350-450 yards did I start looking seriously into what the problems were. The gun shot 55gr Vmax bullets into 1/2" at 100 yards, so I knew that wasn't the issue. I also had a 3-12x42 Nikon Monarch scope on it with side focus, so no parallax issues either.
Then I started target shooting "in the field" with prevailing wind and I discovered that the 55gr Vmax bullets were drifting 18-40" at 350 yards depending on the wind and it was no longer a mystery why I had a problem. The Nikon scope also had covered turrets, making it difficult to dial any corrections and the reticle, being a second focal plane was of no assistance for holding over either. The straw that broke the camels back was the fact that 55gr was as heavy as I could go in that barrel. So I sold off the Remington and after doing some research found that 1:9.25 is about the fastest twist available on bolt guns unless you really spend a LOT of money. So I got the Savage 10 PC. I believe I paid $550 for it. Got a scope base, and transferred the Nikon scope. Went out and bought some Hornady Superformance 75gr match ammo. There is not much factory ammo out there that has a heavier bullet with a decent BC in 223. The first time I fired it was in the middle of a snow squall in freezing conditions and I was the only shooter at the DNR range. It shot 1/2 MOA, first group. So I knew that it would stabilise that bullet under any hunting condition I was likely to see, which is one of the problems you can create when you develop hunting loads in the summertime...
Shortly after getting it sighted in, I had it zeroed for 250 yards, since that was close to my most common shooting distance. Then a coyote showed up chasing turkeys one morning at 130 yards and I missed it. Turns out that when zeroed at 250, the bullet is about 3" above the point of aim at 120 yards and so if you aim center of the chest, there is a good possibility that you just part the hair on its back... That coyote was dumb enough to show up again the next morning (it was an old female with bad teeth) and this time I held low and had a 1 shot kill. There was a 2" exit wound from that match bullet and it didn't even take 1 step.
Shortly after that I had a custom turret made for that load at a cost of a little over $100, you can do it online at the Nikon "spot on" website. Now I just have to dial to the appropriate distance and I am set for drop. Wind drift of the 75gr is half what it was with the 55gr and energy is nearly double at extended range. But on the other hand, that bullet is not traveling nearly as fast which makes shooting at moving coyotes remain a black art. With that, I concluded that I had gone about as far as I was going to with the 223 and that I needed to looks elsewhere for better performance. That was where the 243 Win came in. The site 6mmbr.com has a ton of info comparing all the different small bore cartridges to each other and one thing that stood out was the performance of the 243 Win for wind drift compared to nearly all the alternatives.
So I went looking and I ended up with a Model 12 LPV in 243 Win (stainless barrel and action, laminated stock) for about $750. For some reason I had a hard time getting a one piece scope base and so I ended up with an aluminum base from EABCO.com This will most likely be replaced with a Warne Maxima steel one piece base in the near future. I transferred a Nikon Monarch 4-16x50 from my only other Remington rifle to it and bought some Hornady Superformance 95gr SST ammo for it. It was the first rifle that I had to increase the trigger weight on since it just scared me to death when I first shot it. I don't believe in ounce trigger weights on guns that go into the field... It never shot spectacularly with the Hornady ammo, just a bit over MOA. But the BC on that 95gr SST was better than anything I had fired before and it was definitely going at a decent clip compared to the 75gr 223 ammo. The 75gr stuff was doing 2800fps from the 20" Model 10 barrel, whereas the 243 Win 95gr SST was doing 3200 from the Model 12 26" barrel. All I can say is that no coyote goes far after taking a hit from one of those 95gr pills. In between I upgraded the scope to the Vortex Viper PST 4-16x50 FFP. Its a great scope, thats all I can say. Next one will be a 6-24x50 FFP for my 308.
I wanted to go better than the SST and thats when I discovered that the 9.25 twist on the 243 was just barely stabilizing those SST bullets. When I tried 95gr VLD's, the groups opened up to over 2" at 100 yards. Checking for stability with a calculator showed that the twist rate was the problem for sure (in winter conditions). So I got my first true "Match" barrel a Shilen varmint profile, 26" long with an Ackley Improved chamber and an 8 twist. I loaded up a batch of 50 95gr Berger VLD's with a maximum charge of powder (for the regular 243 chamber) and did a range trip. Man, even with reduced performance since I was fire forming the brass to the chamber, I got 1/2" groups at 100 yards.
So it has taken me a while to catch on, but I am much better prepared for longer distance shooting than I was just a short time ago. I had to invest some money, but it is a small outlay compared to getting an atv, motor cycle or UTV. I actually traded an AR 15 for a dirt bike to use when scouting the property. I'm sure that guy is happy with his trade in light of recent events....
The alignment was messed up when they were dropped but the glass did not break which impressed me. :thumbsup: I bought a Nikon 7x50 binocular and those are much better. I am sure they are not as good as the higher end glass, maybe, but they only cost me $100 or so. The 7x50's I bought have a compass which is nice when I am trying to clear my property lines. I can see much farther with the binoculars and find a large tree to use as a landmark. 