Brown/Silver Bear .223 accuracy

[spazzymcgee]

I've seen many threads regarding Russian Ammunition, and that it will indeed function properly in most rifles. However, what I have had absolutely no luck finding is the accuracy of Brown Bear and silver bear .223 ammunition at 100 yds with a Remington 700 sps tactical with a 20" barrel. It seems to be moderately accurate when spat out of AR's, but never have I heard anything of the accuracy out of a 700. Can anyone shed some light on this subject for me?

 

[birdshot8's]

you did not mention the bullet weight, but my older 700 has 1 and 14 twist and did not shoot the 62 grain bear bullets as well as the 55 grn bears. i bought several boxes of the 55 grain ammo and it shot about the same as most of the other 55 grn fmj ammo i have tried.

 

[spazzymcgee]

I figured with the high twist rate of most 700's that the 62 grn bullets wouldn't work well. But I basically wanted to know how both the 62 grn and 55 grn rounds performed. Where you using Silver or Brown bears? And what group or around what size of group did you get at 100 yds?

 

[birdshot8's]

the 62 grn were silver bear and the 55 grn were wolf. shooting from a sitting position, with crossed sticks for a rest i was getting about a five inch groups for 5 shots, with the silver bear. with the wolf ammo i was getting 1.5 inch groups.

 

[Onmilo]

While I use Silver Bear .223 for practice ammo, I hold no illusions that it anywhere near match grade accurate.

2-3" groups from your bolt rifle should be satisfying as a result at the range you noted.

 

[spazzymcgee]

Thank you both. However anyone else with any experience with this subject is also welcome to put in their .02 cents.

 

[wally]

2-3 MOA matches my experience in a variety of guns that are more accurate with better ammo. I shoot a lot of it because my steel plates run 4-8 moa and its more than good enough for this. As they say, "Quantity has a quality of its very own!"

 

[highorder]

Silver Bear 62gr. shoots 2moa from my 1/9" AR.

 

[David_the_0311]

I just got some silver bear 55gr and i plan to shoot it soon, I have shot wolf at 100 out of my Remington sps tactical. and it put five rounds in about a 2 inch group, its far from match ammo but its not too bad for seven bucks a box .

 

[MIL-DOT]

IMO, you're wasting time and money running steel cased Rusky ammo through a bolt action 700 SPS Tactical. My 1/7 Spikes AR likes the 62 gr. Silver bear just fine, but unless you're just having fun blowing up water-filled milk jugs or something, this is the wrong ammo for your platform. Again....just MHO .

 

[wnycollector]

I'm getting a very consistent 3-4moa in my 1:9 AR from 62gr Silver Bear.

 

[David_the_0311]

Im going to try some match grade and try out some 60 gr vmax as soon as my buddy gets it loaded up for me ... i dont reload yet but i think im gonna start. as for the wolf and bear its mostly for passing time and messing up milk jugs...

 

[David_the_0311]

correction to earlier going to go with 55gr vmax

 

[Kwanger]

Not quite what was asked, but here's another option for you....steel cased cheapness but with darn near match grade accuracy.....

http://www.ammunitiontogo.com/produ...training-55gr-fmj-ammo/cName/223-556-fmj-ammo

 

[B3nT]

excellent experience w/"training" steel case in 75 grain

+1 Kwanger

I picked up 1000 rounds of this steel-case Hornady "Training" ammo, but mine was 75-grain BTHP; it's labeled .223 rather than 5.56. Price was $239 plus Austin sales tax, over the counter. 20 white boxes of 50 rounds each in size; I've shot maybe 170 rounds of it, and like it in my 8:1 20" heavy Lothar Walther barrel.

Group size at 100 yards shrunk to about half the size of the Golden, Silver and Brown Bear 62-grain I'd been shooting -- 5 shots of Hornady averaging between 1 1/4 to 2 inches, one about 5/8", compared to the Russians at 3 to 4 inches, with some closer to 5". So under identical range conditions, the Hornady was easily twice as accurate. Monarch brass Croatian .223 55- and 62-grain was noticeably better than the Russian, but not close to the Hornady. At 0.24 cents per round, compared to maybe .20 for the Bears, the Hornadys are very satisfying.

This was on a table, with a stubby bipod, and a sandbag under the rear stock. Stools provided were only adjustable long ago, and all are shorter than I'd like, so not a perfect situation, but pretty good.


A friend gave me a box of pricey Federal 77-gr LE rounds; these were the $1.50 a pop kind. They were in fact better than the Hornady budget training ammo; one group of three was all touching, and two were more or less an inch. (The other two had one rogue in each, and I know each one of those was me.) That kind of stuff isn't in my budget.

But a friend got me reloading. That's another world all its own, and even my early efforts look comparable to the pricey Feds, actually better. And a little cheaper yet; I'd been saving brass for a year, and so didn't need to buy any right away.

So, in order, in my gun, more or less:

Bears 3-5" Brown, Silver, Golden were frustratingly similar.
2 1/2 - 3" Monarch 65 grain BTHP
1 - 2" Hornady Training 75 grain Training BTHP
<1 - 1 3/4" Fed LE 77 grain BTHP
<1 - 1 1/2" Handloads 68- and 69-grain Hornady or Sierra match

Handloads rule, though: more groups on the smaller end. I am not a deadeye; even with the bipod, some of the variance is me. I am about to try 75-grain Sierra match bullets, which others have said are a nice weight.

 

[wlemay]

I went shooting yesterday, using silver bear 55gr .223. I was trying out a new scope that I had previously zeroed at 100 yards for longer ranges. At about 50 yards groups were great, all of the shots were right on top of one-another.

-At 100 yards groups were like 2-3MOA with a few strays every so often.

-At 200 yards groups were 5+ MOA?

-At 300 yards groups > Dinner plate....

Lesson learned... Silver bear is great for making lots of noise and short range shooting / plinking with friends, but it is terrible if you want to accurately shoot long range. Not saying its not worth getting, I mean its the cheapest ammo you can buy and I have not yet had any jams or duds in the 500 rounds or so of this stuff that I have shot.

However, next time I try to sight in at long range I will without a doubt use higher quality ammo.

 

[wnycollector]

Silver bear is great for making lots of noise and short range shooting / plinking with friends, but it is terrible if you want to accurately shoot long range.

+1 on that. Silver Bear 62gr is ok out to 200 yards, past that it is frustratingly inconsistent.

I just ordered some hornady 75gr steel match ammo for my 1:7 BCM middy and 1:8 RRA ATH to shoot at 300 yards. I'm hoping that it is as accurate as Black Hills 75gr MHP since it is a few cents cheaper/round.

 

[FC]

My 1 in 9 AR seems to have a particular taste for the Brown Bear 62gr hp ammo, I've shot many 1" 20 shot groups with it at 100 yards and it seems to hold that accuracy out to 300 yards, I haven't tried it any further. This rifle has a 24" heavy stainless barrel, if you feel it useful for comparison.