My wife just bought me a M21 in .223 and was wondering if anyone out there has the same rifle. I'd like to know what load combination has worked best for you and any feed back you might have. Thanks in advance.

I have had one for some time in 223. Mine likes H335 (26 gr) CCI primers and Hornady 55gr V-Max. Its a wonderfully accurate rifle.

Does your wife have a sister??????????
It will be a very cold day when my wife will purchase a firearm for me!

You should have no problems getting tiny groups, if yours shoots like mine. Best groups have come from 53MK's using Benchmark powder/Rem 7 1/2 primers, and Federal cases (though I do not advocate the Federal cases). These loads go into 0.35" with me driving. About any 40 to 55gr bullet I've tried does no worse than 0.7"; even the Win USA white box (45gr HP) ammo does 0.7".
I think the rifle will do better than I can shoot it.
You sure got a sweet wife, or she bought some jewelry you haven't seen yet.....

While I do not own that rifle I do own eight different .223 rifles. One load that consistantly groups well, if not the best, in all my 223s is a 55 grain Nosler BT over 25.5 grains of W748 in Winchester cases and Remington 7 1/2 primers. OAL is 2.25". Good Luck.

One load I have had good luck with is 28gr of H380 and the 55gr Nosler BT. Has been very accurate for me.

Mike,

I've recently purchased that very rifle and am VERY impressed with it's capabilities. My rifle wears a Leupold M8 12x with turrets on top of it,with a fine duplex reticle.

Feeding it 26.5grs of H-335 in R/P brass stoked with CCI 400's and a moly 50gr V-Max,yields itty-bitty 3-shot clusters that hover sub .25MOA and have dipped into the high .1's in favorable conditions. I opted for land engagement(I'll spare you that dimension,so as to keep the naysayers at bay) and that combo yields 3385fps with amazingly low SD's.

That load was the first one tried(complete with engagement of the lands) and I've zero intent to search further,for either accuracy or performance.

I find the rifle to be an incredible value and a nice blend of both Class and ergonomics,coupled with amazing accuracy potential.

To say the least,I plan to purchase more.....................

MIke,

My Varmint Extreme 21 in .223 is about 8 years old, and has the 1:14 twist so it likes the lighter bullets. 27.5 gr. of H335 with 40gr. Nosler BT's has produced so many tiny groups I bought H335 in 8lb. jugs, and 40gr. BT's in shrink wrapped boxes of 1000. Good Luck!

I have a M21 in .222 Rem and its every bit as good as the other posters have claimed. The thing flat out shoots and I can't recall shooting any load, factory included, that ever grouped more if even close to 1"/100. The pet load groups in the low .30s consistently and has shot smaller groups when I'm up to the gun's capabilities. It wears a Leupold M8 12x AO with the target turrets.
For the money ($1,000) its the best out of the box gun I've ever owned...and other than installing the scope/rings I haven't done a thing to the rifle to improve it.

[ 10-08-2003, 18:44: Message edited by: Kentucky Nimrod ]