I just bought a new Hornaday sixth edition loading manual. When I read what they said about the 223 WSSM it confirmed what I was thinking. Per Hornaday, "We examined the throat of the rifle with a bore scope after approximately 350 rounds and the erosion was significant. This cartridge is going to be HARD on barrels." Even if they chrome line the barrels, I have to believe 700 to 800 will be the extent of the accurate life for a barrel chambered for the 223 WSSM. From what I have seen, once a throat strarts showing significant erosion it don't last very much longer.

Thought this might be of some interest to you varmint shooters.

Shoot Safe, Shoot Straight.....RiverRat

RiverRat,
I don't believe it will be any harder on a barrel than any of the other hot 22 centerfires. If you want barrel longevity get a .222 If you want performance try something different. The .223wssm or the .243wssm surely will not be for everybody but as for me, I plan to give the .243wssm a whirl. I have a 22-250 Ackley and I don't see how you could "improve" on it.(pun intended) Jim

I dont think i would buy the 223WSSM for plinking or target shooting so i guess if you take into account how many bullets you use to set a scope in and how many you actualy use for hunting, It would last me for years!!! You dont buy a sports car thinking of how long it will last, you buy it for the rush!

Barrel life will depend on rate of fire- I have considerable experience with the 22/243 Middlested, which can be as hard on a barrel as you can get. Accuracy can be gone in as little as 500 rounds or as long as 2500- depending on how you treat the barrel- if you are a PD shooter and fire many long strings before cooling down, the only 22CF's you should own are something from 223 on down. The 223WSM could be a decent coyote cartridge, but I will stick with the 22/243.

I agree, if you bought a rifle, found a load quick and only used it for hunting such as coyotes, or the occasional crow, ground hog, etc., it would last quite a long time. Since I like to shoot and live where I can everyday, I will keep my 223. Having said that, I am going to neck up the 243 WSSM to 6.5 and experiment with it this winter for possible use as a 600 and 1000 yard F class rifle. Just thought I would pass on what Hornaday, had to say.

Shoot Safe, Shoot Straight.....RiverRat

I have 99 cases(lost one to our club footed range master who dropped it while looking at it) that have been reloaded four times and have yet to be trimmed. Over 400 rounds thru my .223 WSSM M70 Coyote and the gunsmith nor I could see any real throat damage. Of course I'm not loading much over .220 Swift velocities at this time. If and when the barrel wears out I'll stick on another one. Long barrel life and high velocity .22 centerfires don’t go together. Lawdog

lawdog_gary:
Have you by chance weighed any of the 223 WSM brass. I weighed one piece of it the other night and, that piece weighed 212 gr. That is only 3 grains lighter than a some of 300 WSM brass weighs. I hope they have put the extra weight in the web area. I know the necks are a lot thicker than the 300 WSM as well. Was just curious?

Have you had any feeding problems with your rifle?

Shoot Safe, Shoot Straight......RiverRat

Riverrat, yes, the 223WSSM is one HONKER of a case. It's only about 15% lighter than my 7mag brass! The neck is .020", most brass is in the .013" range.

My 223WSSM is only at about 180 rounds, but I cannot see any movement in the throat yet. Like Gary, I fire mine with fairly low pressures, and only slow fire.

As an observation, this round heats up the barrel quite a bit less than my 7 mag. Of course, the 7mag's barrel is pretty much toast after only 1,000 rounds. FWIW, Dutch.

RiverRat,

Yes I weighted them but didn't know they were almost as heavy as the WSM brass as I don't own one of those, Y E T!!(this will change IF I can find a rifle to meet my specifications) From what I can find out from the good folks at Winchester they designed the WSSM brass with extra thickness through the case. I have not experienced any problems with feeding but then again I've never been in any real hurry to chamber the next round. So far the biggest thing I’ve shot with mine is a coyote at 270 yards. On ground squirrels with the right load it turns them into bloody jelly. Lawdog

Dutch:
Yeah the 223 WSSM brass is HONKER brass. Gezzzzz I was surprised it was that heavy. I would have bet somewhere around 165 gr. in weight. I checked the water capacity of the piece of brass that I had it held 52.8 gr. A piece of my 260 Rem. brass held and even 53.0 gr with both full to the top of the neck. For what ever that little piece of information is worth.

lawdog_gary:
I am sure the 223 WSSM would turn a ground squirrel into jelly. The lightest 300 WSM brass I have weighed is 215 gr. the heavest is 223 gr. depending on the Winchester lot #. I have found the Norma 300 WSM brass to be heavier at 250 gr. and is far superior to the Winchester 300 WSM brass.

Good luck with the WSSM's gentlemen, I am sure looking for to seeing what it will do as a 6.5 at long range. I am hoping for an ACCURATE 3050 fps from a 26" barrel with a 123 Lapua Scenar. Time will tell.

Shoot Safe, Shoot Straight.....RiverRat

[ 09-15-2003, 05:26: Message edited by: RiverRat ]

I haven't shot one yet, but I'm curious, will it do anything a good 22/250 is lacking,,,

Maybe the .243 WSSM will do what the .243 WIN. has always claimed, and never delivered.
Before anyone gets heated over that comment, I might add that I haven't been without a .243 WIN. of some type for over 40 years.

Just the way I see it,,,,,,,

I don't know if it'll do what the 22/250 will do, but I just finished working up a 53 gr. XLC load that prints 2" groups at 200 yards with two out of the three loads I tried.

I started at 39 grains of RL15, and got soot just about down to the base. I ended at 41 grains, and 3850 fps, without any hints of pressure, and good accuracy. I figured that should take care of a coyote or small deer this fall? FWIW, Dutch.

Dutch, That sounds pretty good. I'm interested in the preformance of the new cartridges regarding the "delivery vs. promised". Many companies like to bend the numbers. The following example is directly out of the Winchester cataloge, and compares the .270 WSM with the .270 Wby.Mag.

Example from cataloge:
.270 WSM / 130gr. / 3275fps.
.270 Wby./ 130gr. / 3200fps.

If you check the numbers for the .270 Wby.Mag. in Weatherby's cataloge they claim 3375fps. and my own loads show 3468fps. with no pressure signs of any type.
hummmmmmmm,,,,,what do you think?

Winchester is not alone in this conduct.

Just the way I see it,,,,,,,,

Ma Bell, given that the regular 270 is often listed at 3100, 3200 for the Wby is a little pokey. 3300 for the WSM should be do-able, based on the usual capacity comparisons.

Based on what I see as far a velocities with the 223WSSM with factory loads, and the case capacity (about 10 grains more than the Swift; 55 to 46), they are keeping the pressure lower than I would otherwise expect.

One the things I notice, however, is the large increase in velocity per grain of powder. As big a case as it is, the increase is over 100 fps with both light and heavy bullets. It's almost like the burn rate of the powders increases in this case at higher pressures? FWIW, Dutch.

I think that its just another marketing ploy for you buy these calibers.
If you ever want to change this action to another caliber you are stuck with this short action that nothing but the WSSM case will fit.

The barrel erosion problem is there and soon so will the accuracy.

These calibers are showing good velocities in the larger calibers because they are made for short barrels. But dont show any gain when you go to the longer barrels and the longer cases that hold a bit more powder.

The 223 and 243WSSM will more than likly fade into extinction in a few years.

No, I do not have any, but as one stated, what can they do that the 6mm. Remington, 243, 220 swift and 22-250 cant. JMHO

Bolt

[ 10-12-2003, 05:14: Message edited by: bolthandle ]

There is room for a faster twist .224 cartridge of maximum bore capacity. The 6mm's have a leg up on the .224's right now for long range varminting due to their faster twists.

As to the specifics of the 223 WSSM I am waiting for more information.

Good point bolthandle. These new wssm seem to only over lap cartridges we already have and from what I have read about them accuracy is only about 1-1/2" MOA at this point. I feel you can find the speed and bullet style in a caliber thats already in production. Its just another case of a cartridge thats not needed.

[ 10-25-2003, 10:54: Message edited by: vmaxx ]

Vmaxx, you are reading the wrong stuff. I have a WSSM, and .5 MOA is no problem with either 75 gr. Amax and 80 gr. noslers. Even the XLC's are printing moa at 200.

The last time I shot factory loads, the three holes mostly overlapped. It was in the 2's (and I quit shooting the 5 shot group: no sense in tempting fate....).

Given how well I can shoot, that's a friggen miracle, in itself.....LOL! Dutch.