After oh, 7 or 8 years of agonizing over rebarreling my old faithful 223 Tikka T3 lite, I finally did it.
I went with a Preferred Barrel Blanks 223 AI 1:8 Lite Hybrid Contour Finished at 24".
It always slightly annoyed me that the gun balanced half on the mag and half infront of it. This got even worse later in its life with a heavier scope making it balance pretty much on the mag. Lousy for 1 hand carry. Its primary use is jack rabbits, so its almost always in my hands ready for a runner. I wanted to move the balance forward of the mag, and maybe put a can on it some day, so I chose the Hybrid Contour. Balance to me is perfect now, my entire hand just infront the mag. Paid to have it lapped too. Light cleaning then borescope, looked real nice.
I had a T3x varmint stock laying around with the factory spacer kit. Not a huge fan of tikka stocks, but its tolerable with the pistol grip. Put it in there for now and got an aluminum trigger guard. I want a carbon fiber one day, but yesh they are expensive. This configuration was to my surprise only 6lbs 4 oz before the pic rail etc.
EGW hunter rail, seekins rings, and 6-24x50 midas tac brought it up to hair over 9lbs, yikes. This scope is temporary for load development. Probably move my 2-10 tract toric over to this eventually. That will bring it back to 8.5ish lbs. Less if i go back to the talley LW rings, but I kinda like the pic rail.
Started with 10 factory rounds of Fiocchi 40 gr vmax to get her on paper. Went home and cleaned it. Seriously, like zero copper. Some barely even blew the shoulder out.
Got a lot of xterminator laying around I got for 24.99 a lb and thousands of CCI 400 I haven't found a good load for. Loaded up 53gr vmax with 24.0, 24.5, and 25 gr in starline 556 1x fired brass (from my other tikka 223). Shot these after work. All only about 3000 fps. Brass formed well though. Zero pressure.
I have worked with this combo in a 18" AR, so i knew this was very slow and there were no pressure signs. My AR load is 25.5 and I have been up to 26.0. THIS IS OVER BOOK MAX. Dont blow your face off!
Decided 25.5 would be safe, and I loaded 50. Here are the results. Fired from an unstable table. Put 8 in the berm.
The 25 shot string was first. Fired 5-7 slow, let cool, repeat. It started out with all vertical stringing. The last 10 or so stopped the vertical stringing, moved down, and started horizontal stringing. I am not positive if this was my hold or not. I did remember after a few shots the lighter gun with more traditional stock likes to be driven more than my 20lb chassis guns lol. So maybe its me. I think it was just the barrel settling in though. The 15 shot string kept the lower POI and horizontal stringing. Wind was mellow and I was waiting on my condition. Mirage was more than usual for my area.
Cleaned when I got home and almost zero copper again.
Still zero pressure signs and velocity is low. Loaded 50 more with 26.0. Went the following day, but someone was in my spot, grrr. I will pick the best between 25.5 and 26.0, and then I will fire form the remaining 150 cases. Looking busy hunting 2 legged tail the next couple weekends, but I will report the results soon. After fire forming it is on to the n133 and I'll get out the creedmoor scale and tweezers...
I am very pleased with the initial results, and thanks to everyone who answered my questions over nearly a decade!
UPDATE 2-9-25
Tested 26.0 gr xterminator today. The wind was very switchy and blowing a little faster. Considering the condition, I think it shot better. On the other hand, I think I am shooting the gun better, as I have it recoiling more consistently. On the 4th group I was getting really annoyed and impatient waiting on conditions. The chrono numbers are not as good. However, I loaded it over 2 days instead of one, and my scale was driving me crazy drifting more than normal. Think I will believe the target and load up the rest at 26.0. Still no pressure signs. The primer just starting to flatten a little, but that is it. I bet I could shave some more off the group size if it was in a more comfortable stock.
I went with a Preferred Barrel Blanks 223 AI 1:8 Lite Hybrid Contour Finished at 24".
It always slightly annoyed me that the gun balanced half on the mag and half infront of it. This got even worse later in its life with a heavier scope making it balance pretty much on the mag. Lousy for 1 hand carry. Its primary use is jack rabbits, so its almost always in my hands ready for a runner. I wanted to move the balance forward of the mag, and maybe put a can on it some day, so I chose the Hybrid Contour. Balance to me is perfect now, my entire hand just infront the mag. Paid to have it lapped too. Light cleaning then borescope, looked real nice.
I had a T3x varmint stock laying around with the factory spacer kit. Not a huge fan of tikka stocks, but its tolerable with the pistol grip. Put it in there for now and got an aluminum trigger guard. I want a carbon fiber one day, but yesh they are expensive. This configuration was to my surprise only 6lbs 4 oz before the pic rail etc.
EGW hunter rail, seekins rings, and 6-24x50 midas tac brought it up to hair over 9lbs, yikes. This scope is temporary for load development. Probably move my 2-10 tract toric over to this eventually. That will bring it back to 8.5ish lbs. Less if i go back to the talley LW rings, but I kinda like the pic rail.
Started with 10 factory rounds of Fiocchi 40 gr vmax to get her on paper. Went home and cleaned it. Seriously, like zero copper. Some barely even blew the shoulder out.
Got a lot of xterminator laying around I got for 24.99 a lb and thousands of CCI 400 I haven't found a good load for. Loaded up 53gr vmax with 24.0, 24.5, and 25 gr in starline 556 1x fired brass (from my other tikka 223). Shot these after work. All only about 3000 fps. Brass formed well though. Zero pressure.
I have worked with this combo in a 18" AR, so i knew this was very slow and there were no pressure signs. My AR load is 25.5 and I have been up to 26.0. THIS IS OVER BOOK MAX. Dont blow your face off!
Decided 25.5 would be safe, and I loaded 50. Here are the results. Fired from an unstable table. Put 8 in the berm.
The 25 shot string was first. Fired 5-7 slow, let cool, repeat. It started out with all vertical stringing. The last 10 or so stopped the vertical stringing, moved down, and started horizontal stringing. I am not positive if this was my hold or not. I did remember after a few shots the lighter gun with more traditional stock likes to be driven more than my 20lb chassis guns lol. So maybe its me. I think it was just the barrel settling in though. The 15 shot string kept the lower POI and horizontal stringing. Wind was mellow and I was waiting on my condition. Mirage was more than usual for my area.
Cleaned when I got home and almost zero copper again.
Still zero pressure signs and velocity is low. Loaded 50 more with 26.0. Went the following day, but someone was in my spot, grrr. I will pick the best between 25.5 and 26.0, and then I will fire form the remaining 150 cases. Looking busy hunting 2 legged tail the next couple weekends, but I will report the results soon. After fire forming it is on to the n133 and I'll get out the creedmoor scale and tweezers...
I am very pleased with the initial results, and thanks to everyone who answered my questions over nearly a decade!
UPDATE 2-9-25
Tested 26.0 gr xterminator today. The wind was very switchy and blowing a little faster. Considering the condition, I think it shot better. On the other hand, I think I am shooting the gun better, as I have it recoiling more consistently. On the 4th group I was getting really annoyed and impatient waiting on conditions. The chrono numbers are not as good. However, I loaded it over 2 days instead of one, and my scale was driving me crazy drifting more than normal. Think I will believe the target and load up the rest at 26.0. Still no pressure signs. The primer just starting to flatten a little, but that is it. I bet I could shave some more off the group size if it was in a more comfortable stock.
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