Observations on an Atypical Lot of Federal LE223T3


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The Federal 223 Remington Tactical 62 grain ammunition is loaded with a bonded soft-point bullet with a cannelure; the 62 grain TBBC. (All the better to shoot your auto-glass with, my dear!) There is a scant amount of lacquer sealant at the case mouth (mostly in the cannelure.) The primers are also sealed and crimped. As you can see from the picture above, the components come loaded in a shiny nickel plated Lake City case.

The 62 grain TBBC has a solid copper base that comprises approximately one third of the length of the bullet.


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When chronographed from a 20” Colt M16A2 barrel over an Oehler 35-P chronograph, this particular lot of LE223T3 produced a muzzle velocity of 2831 PFS.  This muzzle velocity is approximately 140 FPS slower than the average of previous lots of LE223T3 that I’ve chrongraphed from the same barrel.

Previously to conducting accuracy testing of this particular lot of LE223T3, the single smallest 10-shot group of LE223T3 that I was able to obtain shooting from the bench at a distance of 100 yards was 2.13” (with many of the  groups being significantly larger).


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This particular lot of LE223T3 was accuracy (technically, precision) tested from one of my semi-automatic AR-15s with a 20” Lothar-Walther barrel that has a 223 Wylde chamber and a 1:8” twist.  

Three 10-shot groups fired in a row from the bench at 100 yards had the following extreme spreads:

0.93”
1.10”
0.87”

for an average 10-shot group extreme spread of 0.97”.  I over-layed the three 10-shot groups on each other using RSI Shooting Lab to form a 30-shot composite group.  The mean radius of the 30-shot composite group is 0.32”.


The smallest 10-shot group . . .

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The 30-shot composite group . . .

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That is extremely impressive for a TBBC.

Damn!

That is pretty impressive for that load.

Agreed... very impressive.

Thank You for sharing Molon. I always appreciate your efforts and posts.

   Thank you for posting and by the way, good shooting!

This isn't very atypical for current issue fbi loadings based on what I'm told.

Isn't the FBI load the FBIT3?

I have a good stock of that for my HD needs and it's not what I would call an accurate load in my rifles at 100 yds.  3 inch groups from my 1/9 carbine and 2 inch from my 1/7 rifle.

The TBBC in .224 is not known for superb accuracy.  That group Molon Posted is superb.

Granted, he used a match grade barrel, but still atypical for that bullet.

LEO only?

Or is the same stuff SG had for $2 per round?

Yes, it is, and the FBI agent I spoke to about it said no way in hell did legit ammo get dumped to the civ market. He said a ton of it didn't meet spec and was dumped, but none of the good stuff, which he  found to be well under MOA. Although I bet he meant 3-5 shots and not 10.

Which has nothing to do with this thread.  This thread is about Federal LE223T3, not XM556FBIT3.


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It uses the same projectile, which many have opined is the source of the inaccuracies associated with both loadings. I think mayhap the FBI caused there to be a projectile evolution in either manufacturing, or product design, or QA/QC, and that has of course filtered over to the LE line, which accounts for what you are seeing with this load. So no, while not directly relevant, it is still a tangential explanation for what you are observing, although just a hypothesis.

Da nada!


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Officially, yes. Unofficially, and legally, no.

Convince Speer to release the 62 grain TBBC as a reloading component.


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De rien.  


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I get sub-half-MOA accuracy with Wolf steel-cased, bi-metal jacketed ammunition.  Maybe your FBI buddy should get the FBI to adopt Wolf ammunition.



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One of.  They also issue Winchester RA556B.



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Bringing this up from the dead, but does the 55gr version of this (T1) have similar accuracy potential?

I just tried some of the 55gr (223 version with "21" on the headstamp, latest style box) and got excellent accuracy. MOA at 100 yards (5 shot groups) in my Larue Stealth. I was so surprised that I took one apart, believing it was not using the TCCB bullet but sure enough, it had the "T" on the base.

Previously, I had tried some of the 556 pressure 62gr loads that MUST have been a rejected lot because I was getting 4MOA + and got rid of it fast.

What is the lot number?
I own a bunch of this.

Which? The 62 or 55gr?

The 62 The op posted about.  Big group

Every lot that I've ever fired other than the exceptional one for this thread was 2" - 3.5" at 100 yards.

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