What is your longest shot with a 5.56 rifle?

Not exactly 5.56, but...

650yd on an 8" steel plate
Savage 12FV .223
Hornady 75gr Steel Match ammo (and faster, higher BC handloads)

Very, VERY fun!

You're going to hear some amazing stories on this post. Might even hear how someone had to use a spotter because of the curvature of the earth they couldn't see the target. At best the 5.56 is a 300 yard cartridge, beyond that it's a crap shoot.

Same as BoilerUP, not me but my brother shoots steel at 400 and 450 yards with a 223 bolt gun. But hey it's all ballistics. Trust me, I have seen something I once thought impossible. I saw a guy hit a 20"x40x target at a mile with a .308. His name is Todd Hodnett, look him up. He teaches people long range shooting and does what most believe is impossible. You just have to correct for wind and drop.

25 yards. The bullet entered the target adjacent to mine and the rifle was happily disposed of immediately after.

At best the 5.56 is a 300 yard cartridge, beyond that it's a crap shoot.

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Don''t go to Camp Parry, they will laugh at you.

Jim

I am going to say right at 500 yards............

At best the 5.56 is a 300 yard cartridge, beyond that it's a crap shoot.

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That's obviously an opinion. Perhaps you shouldn't make it sound like a fact for all the inexperienced guys on here looking for "good" information. Its comments like that, that will make a forum lose credibility.

Back when I was assassinating crows, I routinely made shots out to 300 yds. Anybody who think the 5.56 is limited to 300 yds is uninformed!!

400 yards on a 11" target.

I shoot the 75gr Amax from my 223 at 2915fps; at 650yd it is flatter with less wind drift than .308 175gr Federal Gold Metal Match.

I have shot a few HighPower Matches and the final stage is 600yds. I feel confident that it will go out further.

kenken

At best the 5.56 is a 300 yard cartridge, beyond that it's a crap shoot.

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Sombody forgot to tell my service match AR that she's just fine with the 600 yard target.

300 yards with a 5.56/223 is easy. If you are maxing out at 300 yards with a 5.56 it is you, not the gun.

5 round application at 400 metres, from the prone on the KD range. Normally we only had to qualify out to 300 metres, but one year they had us qualifying out to 400m. May be our unit just had a really good ammo budget that year...

Longest shot is 275yds consistent on clays with a Mini-14. Haven't tried farther, but I'm not that great of a shot. Kinda puts the 300yd theory to rest though...

450 yards, At a friends land we were shooting a 12" plate with ease. We all had red dots. I was using an Eotech XPS2-0. We used spotters. It was a cold day, so it was easy to see the bullet path thru the air with a spotting scope.

Some ARs with their scope combos (for me) and 600 yards is very doable on steel targets ( old guy with eyes fading ). Others not so much but as in most things ammo is a rather large deciding factor.

I've never shot the first round of 5.56/.223........

At best the 5.56 is a 300 yard cartridge, beyond that it's a crap shoot.

Please come to the Tactical Rifle Match in Pueblo West. We routinely shoot anywhere from 25m to 400m. It is not a crap shoot as you put it, it is marksmanship. And I use nothing more than a 1-4x scope shooting from improvised field positions.

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hahhaah that was rather tactically said; kept waiting for someone to go ballistic!!

The very best part of shooting a 223 "long range" (for the purposes of this thread, >300yd) is the ability to spot your own hits and misses through the scope, without a brake or suppressor. Well, that and its about as cheap shooting as you can possibly get.

At 650yd with the Hornady 75gr HPBT around 2800fps it was bang/recoil, one-one-thou- and you'd either see the steel plate swing with "ting" a split-second later or see splash from the miss. Dial adjustment, get back on target, and send another downrange.

Given that I don't have more than 650-700yd available to shoot, already have hunting rifles set up, and I've experienced what the puny little 223 can do at those ranges with appropriate bullets I'm seriously contemplating selling my 26" 260 Rem barrel and building a 223AI for the 80gr A-Max.

You're going to hear some amazing stories on this post. Might even hear how someone had to use a spotter because of the curvature of the earth they couldn't see the target. At best the 5.56 is a 300 yard cartridge, beyond that it's a crap shoot

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That is a very accurate assessment if 5.56 was changed to 22lr. I pop 12" balloons routinely at 300 yards (windless conditions) from a Contender pistol.

300 m....bahaaa

The following is an excerpt from the United States Navy Fleet Marine Force Warfare Specialist Personal Qualification Standard. These guys know a little something about the 5.56mm

"110.2 Discuss the following characteristics of the M16A2 service rifle:

Description and technical data - The M16A2 is a lightweight, gas-operated, air-cooled, magazine-fed, shoulder-fired, weapon that can be fired in the semi-auto and auto (3 round burst)

Caliber………………………………….5.56mm
System of Operation………………….gas operated, semi-automatic, 3 round burst
Length (w compensator)…………… 39 5/8 in
Weight (w/30 round magazine)……...8.79 pds.
Maximum effective range…………….550 meters point target/800 meters area target
Maximum range……………………….3600 meters
Magazine………………………………staggered, 30 round capacity"

Are we talking 5.56x45 or 5.56 caliber aka .224?

I've killed a groundhog at 200 yards with a .223.

I've killed a groundhog at 400 yards with a .225 Winchester