Benefits of a bolt gun vs AR15?

[adcoch1]

The height is a very good point, might make some difference in how stable the rifle can be off of a rest. Hmm, hadn't thought of that...

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[MAKster]

It seems to me that the greatest improvement in AR accuracy will come from installing a two stage match trigger. That will drop the trigger weight to around 4-5 pounds which is much closer to a hunting rifle trigger. A standard M16/M4 trigger can be up to 8 pounds.

 

[MrBorland]

so I ask the question: for a target rifle, what benefits would a bolt gun in 223 have over an AR15? Or what benefits would the AR15 have over the bolt gun. I am mostly talking targets here, not really hunting scenarios

The type of shooting i am looking at is not timed shooting, just punching paper at a range.

If shooting off a rest with little or no time constraints, and/or going for maximum precision, a bolt rifle would generally be my choice.

As far as 600 yards with a .223, though, I'd want to shoot heavy (69-77gr) bullets through a barrel with a relatively fast twist, and it seems to me it's easier to find an AR than a bolt gun with a fast twist. Bolt .223 rifles with a relatively fast twist seem to be limited to Tikka and Sako, though as accurate bolt rifles go, they certainly have excellent reputations.

 

[wolfeyes]

AR is much more fun to shoot!

 

[David4516]

I don't know that it matters. I think a good quality AR-15 or a good quality bolt action will probably be more accurate than the shooter anyway (I know for me at least, when I get a bad group, it's almost always because I goofed up, not because of something wrong with the gun).

As far as 600 yards with a .223, though, I'd want to shoot heavy (69-77gr) bullets through a barrel with a relatively fast twist, and it seems to me it's easier to find an AR than a bolt gun with a fast twist. Bolt .223 rifles with a relatively fast twist seem to be limited to Tikka and Sako, though as accurate bolt rifles go, they certainly have excellent reputations.

I just shot my .223 at 600 yards (first time I've attempted this) about a week ago. My rifle has slow twist rate (1:12) so I was shooting 55gr, and I think 600 yards is starting to push it for 55gr, my "group" looked more like a shotgun pattern, but at least I was able to hit the target.

Disclaimer: I think it might have done better had I used the turrets on the scope to adjust for elevation. Instead I was using the mil dots in the reticle as a "bullet drop compensator" which I think was a little less precise. I noticed that my group was much larger vertically than it was horizontally...