PPU 69-grain And 75-grain Match 223 Rem Ammo

223 rifles tend to be divided into two general groups – varmint and small deer bolt-actions and manually-operated straight-pull AR15-types, which are normally used for Civilian Service and Practical Rifle type disciplines. It’s the latter area I’m looking at here as most guns in this class have medium/heavy barrels usually in 1-8 or 1-9 rifling twist. Best performance is usually achieved with medium/heavier weight bullets generally of the Match, hollow point boat tail type typified by Sierra HPBT MatchKing.

PPU MATCH

Prvi Partizan (PPU) has established themselves in the UK as a quality and cost effective product and offers a surprisingly wide range of calibres. In 223 Rem they do everything from target to hunting and on test I have their MATCH line consisting of 69 and 75-grain BTHP loads. Ammo is packed in 20-round boxes with a plastic divider; cases are Boxer-primed and well up for reloading too. The test rifle was my SGC AR15 A2 with 20” H-Bar barrel in 1-8 twist, so very much the machine of choice. On top a Leupold 4.5-14x50 LRT with M1 turrets and TMR reticule.

PPU quote the following speeds for the two loads - 69-grain 2837 fps and 75-grain 2723 fps. From past experience with 223 ammo of this type those figures did seem rather high to say the least! I would expect the 69 to be doing around the 2600 fps mark and the 75 about 2500 fps, in both cases more than good enough. With any hybrid straight-pull like an AR15 the real concern is primary extraction, as get the load too hot and it’s very hard to unstick the fired case from the chamber easily. Again we shall see!

Stripping down a cross section of ammo gave the following average figures. 75-grain load: bullet 75.5-grains, powder 24.1-grains fine green/grey, spherical ball. 69-grain load: bullet 69.2-grains, powder 23.8-grains, the propellant here looked a tad finer than the 75 and was also a different colour though the same shape.

SURPRISES

From past experience with these two weights I was expecting the 69-grainer to be the best, but this test turned that on its head. The 69s were averaging 2608 fps with an impressive extreme velocity spread (ES) of 28 fps. Groups however exceeded the inch with an average of 1.25” and might suit a 1-9” twist rate better. Switching to the 75s was a real eye opener as I have never had such good results with this weight before. Speed well quicker than the 69s at 2658 fps and an ES of 19 fps; very respectable indeed! Groups too were awesome with an average of 0.65” with a best 0.5” but nothing over 0.70” either. Primary extraction was not an issue either with empties coming out with no effort.

NAME: 223 Match 75gr PPU Rifle
AMMUNITION: Ammunition Pack 100 A495 223 Match 75gr PPU Rifle Ammunition Pack 100 A495
PRICES: £65.65 per 100 (either weight)
CONTACT: Henry Krank & Co Ltd, 0113 256 9163 www.henrykrank.com

FOR: Well priced and accurate Good primary extraction
AGAINST: Not a lot
VERDICT: A good drop of 223 Rem match ammo Try both to see what suits your rifle best