I'll be picking up a .223 and although I don't have any real interest to rush out and have anything done to it, I am curious to hear about what can be achieved with the AI version.

I know the .22-250AI is quite a lot hotter than the .22-250 and from the one set of load data I looked at it looks like you can get a couple hundred more fps from the .223AI.

Can you simply fire .223rem in the AI chamber to fully form the AI version?

Like what I've heard about so many other AI versions, it it just not worth the trouble?

Express,

I had a beautiflly accurate 223 AI reamer made for my shop and I feel it may be one of the best AI rounds out there.

Perormanc ewise, I am seeing near 22-250 performance with the little case, certainly not the full equal to but very close to factory specs for that round.

Out of 26" barrel my customers are getting the 40 gr Ballistic Tips well over 4000 fps anf the 55 gr pills pushing over 3500 fps pretty comfortably.

Accuracy with the action blue-printing process I do is producing 1/4 to 1/2 moa rifles using factory barrels. Custom match barrels such as my favorite Lilja barrels are getting averages in the solid 1/4 moa or less.

It is a hell of a little round. Provides performance all out of porportion to its size.

As far as fireforming brass, take a 50 or 55 gr bullet, with a good load of medium burning powder, I like H-335 for this purpose, 25.0 gr for the 50 gr and 23.0 gr for the 55 gr.

Prime the case, powder it, seat the bullet and shoot, out comes the new AI case.

The AI chambers should be cut with a 0.004 to 0.005" crush fit on the case shoulder when the round is chambered for firing. THis is the proper way and the way I chamber my rifles.

You will feel this crush when the bolt is locked down. This provides a positive gas seal and also prevents any case stretching while fireforming.

Also, this greatly aids accuracy using these virgin brass in teh AI chamber. My AI rifles, all of them in quality barrels are averaging in the 1/2 moa range when shooting the virgin fireforming loads.

They are about 100 fps slower then the standard round for this fireforming load but still plenty for extremely useful varminting until you get your brass fireformed.

Weither this fireforming step is worth it to you is your decision. I will say that for extremely high volume shooting such as firing 500 rounds a day prairie dog hunting, a wildcat is not a real good idea.

To get a decent supply of fireformed brass will take its toll on the barrel life.

For anything but this type of high volume shooting where a few hundred rounds of brass is plenty, the AI rounds are a very useful increase in performance over the standard rounds.

Good Shooting!!

Kirby Allen(50)
Allen Precision Shooting