Why a 223?

[MathGeek]

Back when I was the main one shooting in the family, I liked the bigger cartridges: 30-06, .308, etc. Ammo was a lot cheaper back then, I would usually only shoot 20 rounds or so plinking and trying some longer range work at the farm, so the cost and recoil never added up to much.

Now, I've got 3-4 enthusiastic shooters in the household and they're fond of shooting matches, so there are a lot more hungry mouths to feed. An F-Class match is 60 rounds for record plus sighters, for 70 rounds total. This can take it's toll on a young lady's (or younger man's) shoulder shooting heavier bullets. The bigger calibers also cost about twice the price to feed (per round) at any given level of ammo quality.

The wife and children have grown really fond of their .223s Rem and a .222 Rem. Sometime in the next couple of weeks, the NRA will announce the standings in the Woman on Target postal match. Our ladies should be well represented. That's a 10 shot group in the center of that target, shot at 100 yards, with a nickel shown for comparison. My daughter often shoots one of the pea shooters in benchrest matches. She usually doesn't win, but she's started to consistently post 0.5 to 0.6" groups at 100 yards with a factory rifle.