Jaycee...as mentioned great glass is a must. I would rather have an average rifle with a great scope than a great rifle with average glass.
A good point BrainOnSigs,
A glass upgrade is on my "to-do" list..
Just reading through some of the suggestions has given me some things to look at. Just for the heck of it I measured up the distance to the beginning of the lands... It's a LONG way away from where any factory ammo would be.
I estimate hand loaded rounds for this thing would look more like a 6BR cartridge than your average factory .223 , and that's probably a lot of the trouble right there.
I figure it's not so much the heavier bullets that are working , although that's probably a factor too, but mainly it's the longer rounds that are working better.
Just look at a 50gr Rem UMC round beside a Hornady 75gr match , you don't need a fancy measuring rig to see one is longer that the other.
Roll on reloading time ...