Savage Edge 223 Ammo

dtm6582

dtm6582

New member
I know I'm looking for trouble here (and that I should load my own..of course), but I was fortunate enough to pick up one of these rifles the other day. I bought some cheapo 223 ammo to get my scope adjusted at least to within reason. I really hope I'm not THAT bad of a shot. I didn't measure the groupings, but it wasn't pretty.

So...two questions. For factory ammo, what would you use as a decent round for plinking, with cost and accuracy being the two highest considerations? And more importantly I may end up using this gun for coyotes. Does anyone have some experience with this gun (or the other savage models in 223) and an accurate factory load.

Thanks in advance guys.
 
Buddy of mine picked one up the other day... did a little trigger work and lapped the pipe a little with some JB bore paste. He's running the Hornady 52 HPBT factory loads, picked them up at Sportsman's Whorehouse for about $25 for a box of 50. They shot in the 3/4" range with me behind the switch... he was keeping them in about 1.5-2"... which is minute of coyote for a far piece. They were clocking a little over 3200 out of that 22" pipe... not too shaby for factory fodder.
 
Try some black hills for hunting as far as plinking use the cheap stuff. I don't know why you care how good plinky ammo groups??

Don't expect "chepo" ammo to group at all!
 
Thanks for the info guys. dmpowder, have you ever seen that black hills ammo at a big box retailer or do you normally order it online? I've been to a few places and haven't seen them anywhere that I can recall.

I may give those HPBTs a try. I live pretty close to a, ahem, whorehouse as it were.
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I didn't even think to try those white box rounds. I have some for my 22-250. They seem to shoot pretty well.

I guess I was really fishing for some ammo around 6 to 8 for a box of 20 that groups at least respectably. I bought the 223 mainly for plinking but I want somewhat consistent results.
 
6- 8 dollar ammo is pretty optimistic. Most ammo in that price range is FMJ military stuff. I dont use the FMJ's because I wont hunt with them. Try Googleing " Cheap .223 Ammo"" You can find decent prices at some locations. Good luck
 
You can get some Wolf Ammunition in soft point or hollow point for about $6 around here but not sure how well it would group. Cabelas is also running a special on some sort of russian ammo (not wolf) for about $4 a box. I dont reload and shoot Privi Partizan 55gr soft points out of my Stevens and can cover 4 shots with a quarter at 100 yards. Im getting it for $10 a box so its not too bad of a price for that kind of accuracy.
 
Heres a link to the stuff cabelas has on sale. Its Herters brand. Not sure how good it is but for $3.99 a box it would be well worth a try.

http://www.cabelas.com/product/Herters-223-Remington-Ammunition/1084963.uts?Ntk=AllProducts&searchPath=%2Fcatalog%2Fsearch.cmd%3Fform_state%3DsearchForm%26N%3D0%26Ntk%3DAllProducts%26Ntt%3D.223%2Bammo%26x%3D25%26y%3D10&Ntt=.223+ammo

Well nevermind, for some reason the link isnt working properly so youll just have to look it up.
 
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Cabela's has black hills ammo link .

But agree with the white box also. That is all my buddy hunts with in his Savage Predator 10 22-250. I have only reloaded for my .223 (AR) but I will tell you that my plinking rounds cost .08 to shoot and they would shoot right around 1/2 groups. So that is just one of the many plus sides to reloading.
 

I picked up an edge in 25-06 this year, it grouped inside a dime with my hunting loads so your .223 should do pretty darn well once you get some good ammo in it.
 
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I was looking into cheap ammo and found a website that compared the surplus stuff. It had taken apart a bunch of different ammo and weighted the powder charges and bullets. They found the silver bear to be the most consistent. I bought some of the 62 gr sp and ran it through an armalite ar I had. It shot tight groups. If you got a real messed up tip it would through it off, but for the price it worked real good. I shot it through a Howa I had and it shot good enough to hunt coyotes with. The new ar I got it don't like it to much. I wish I could get my hands on the 62 gr hp and try them. This ammo looked promising from Fiocchi. http://www.midwayusa.com/viewProduct/?productNumber=312291
 
Thanks for the info guys. I just ordered some Black Hills 52G HP ammo to give a try. It's not particularly cheap, but around 50 bucks for 100 rounds isn't too bad either. I'll probably just zero with that and use it for hunting. Then pick up some cheap stuff (I get about $6 a box for 20 round FMJ surplus here) for shooting milk jugs in the desert.

I guess I may need to reconsider reloading. I don't think I shoot enough to justify it...but I would probably shoot more often if it was a little more affordable.
 
Originally Posted By: dtm6582I guess I may need to reconsider reloading. I don't think I shoot enough to justify it...but I would probably shoot more often if it was a little more affordable.

Reloading doesn't "save you money"... it just allows you to shoot more for the same amount of money... at least that's my wife's observation.
 
It saves you money eventually. How many years down the road that is...

I figure the price of dies, brass and bullets into the cost of any new caliber. I haven't shot factory since I was 18 or so.
 
The federal bulk pack at wal-mart shoots ok out of my Stevens .223. Not as good as my own loads, but not bad. I can't remember the exact price but I think it was something like $79 for 200 rounds of 50gr hollow points. I could get around 1.5" maybe a touch more if I was shooting good off the bench. Killed a few prairie dogs with it.
 
i just got a remington 700 sps tactical and for breaking the barrel in i picked up some PMC rounds from sportsmans for 7 a box. at 100 yards i got a 1.25 5 shot groups off bipod. now i worked up a load with a 69gr sierra matchking and shot of my bipod at 200 and shot a 3 shot clover leaf. was real excited.
 
Originally Posted By: NdIndyIt saves you money eventually. How many years down the road that is...


Don't know... I've been doing it for 20 years plus... I haven't seen any deposits in my bank account from Nosler... or Hornady... or RCBS... you get the point.

I guess I would shoot a lot less if I didn't reload... so I figure I spend the same amount of money that I'd spend on factory fodder... just in components... and that means I get to shoot more for the same amount of dough.
 
It is cheaper to reload in the long run than buying factory loads. But you do end up shooting more and getting trigger time and we all know that is more important then saving a couple dollars!

Back to the OP my Edge is a .243 but it shoots .5 with Fed 100gr SP's! And yes the dies are in the mail and then I can end up shooting more because of reloading!
 
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