The AR15 and the Ruger 10/22 have something in common other than the fact that both are semiautomatics. Both can be transformed into precision shooting machines by simply upgrading various parts. Hang a match-grade barrel on either rifle and you will likely be rewarded with a noticeable improvement in accuracy. Switch out their triggers and you should be able to shoot them more accurately.

With such a wide variety of bullet weights available, selecting the right bullet for the intended purpose is critical in building good .223 Remington handloads. (From left to right) Hornady 40-gr. V-Max; Nosler 50-gr. Ballistic Tip; Nosler 55-gr. Ballistic Tip; Nosler 60-gr. Partition; Sierra 69-gr. MatchKing; Berger 73-gr. Match; Swift 75-gr. Scirocco; Hornady 80-gr. A-Max; Sierra 80-gr. MatchKing; Berger 90-gr. VLD.

Shoot match-grade ammunition rather than the mart special stuff and group size will likely shrink even more. A big difference between the two rifles is you can handload ammo for the AR15 but you can't for the 10/22, which brings me around to what this report is all about: handloading the .223 for the AR15.

Not too many years ago I spent a bit of my time shooting super-accurate bolt guns chambered to 6mm BR Remington and 6mm PPC in registered benchrest competition, and my averages for five five-shot groups at 100 yards were always well inside half an inch.

I was impressed with the performance of those rifles back then, and I am even more impressed with the accuracy of top-level AR15 rifles being built today. When fed decent ammunition a really good AR will keep five bullets inside half an inch at 100 yards with boring regularity. To me, this is remarkable considering the fact that it was designed for use on the battlefield rather than at the target range.

The AR15 magazine accepts cartridges loaded to overall lengths up to 2.275 inches; longer handloads must be fired single shot.

I mean, a rifle that looks like something out of the pick and shovel section of a hardware store should not be this accurate. But as hundreds of shooters have proven time and again through the years, when top-quality component parts are assembled with great care the AR15 will deliver accuracy once thought possible only with the bolt-action rifle.

When handloading for the AR15, a relatively quick burning powder such as Reloder 7 (L) is ideal for bullets weighing up to 55 grains, and a slower burning powder like Reloder 15 (R) is more suitable for heavyweight bullets.

Getting Started
The Super Varmint from Les Baer Custom I recently shot is an excellent example of how accurate a really good AR15 can be. But some effort is required on the shooter's part in order for this to happen. For starters, handloads put together haphazardly are good for making noise, but when it comes to ammo for feeding a super-accurate AR you need the best available in order to realize its full accuracy potential.

As odd as it might sound in a report on handloading, shooting factory ammo in a new rifle is a good place to start simply because doing so gives you a baseline for comparing the accuracy of your handloads. This applies more to the .223 Remington than to many other cartridges due not only to the excellent match-grade ammunition available from Federal and Black Hills, but super-accurate varmint loads offered by those two companies as well as Remington, Winchester, and Hornady. Really good match ammo is capable of sub-half-minute-of-angle accuracy, and some of the varmint loads are almost as good.

Choosing The Right Bullets
Next comes the matter of choosing the right bullets for handloads. As a rule, those weighing 40 to 55 grains are the best bets when the .223 is used for varminting and in action rifle competition. Moving up in weight to bullets designed specifically for use on deer-size game we come to the 60-grain Nosler Partition and the 75-grain Swift Scirocco.