I'm not sure why I've waited so long to post on this one, but I'm stuck on layover at the airport for a few hours, and the 223rem is far and away my favorite small game cartridge, so I'll try to put down a few thoughts.

As Ridge Runner mentioned, for what it's intended, the 223rem really has no peers.

As a kid, I grew up hunting small game and calling coyotes with a borrowed 22mag or 22 Hornet. Not surprisingly, I found them wanting for range and power on coyotes, so when I bought my first coyote rifle, I went with a Rem 700 in 22-250. It took about 4yrs after that before I bought a 223rem/5.56 in an AR, meant for 3gun, and at the time, it was a hard decision to use the 223rem since I was so caught up on the hype that the 22-250 was far superior. Once I finally committed to the AR-15 and the 223/5.56, I was hooked! Nothing against the 250 or the Hornet, but there's nothing that the 250 does in the field that I can't really do with the 223rem, and if I want a Hornet-like load in the 223 to be nicer to fox and cats, I can load it lighter - you can't load a Hornet hotter...

I'll admit that I'm looking forward to hearing Ridge elaborate on why he considers 223rem and 5.56 to be completely different animals, simply because I personally haven't taken interest in differentiating the two for myself. I've never owned a rifle chambered for a pure 223rem chamber, but alternatively, I haven't owned a piece of 5.56 ammo or brass in over a decade. All of my rifles are either 5.56 or 223 Wylde chambers, plus I only buy 223rem factory ammo and reload on 223rem brass. My reloads are set to my chamber's dimensions and I run my powder charge to get the best accuracy with the highest velocity that I can without producing pressure signs, even if it's a little over or a little under the book's recommendations. So I suppose take it with a grain of salt that I say "223rem" but I'm actually meaning to say some kind of compilation of 223rem factory ammo and 223rem brass loaded to fit 223 wylde and 5.56x45mm chambers with pressures that might be 5.56 level.

I'll also echo Ridge's comments that the 1:8" twist is the most versatile for the 223rem/5.56. Whether you need or want that versatility is up to you. When I'm after deer, I tend to throw a larger caliber, so my 223rem's are really for coyotes and smaller game, plus hogs. As such, I almost exclusively shoot 50grn V-max's for coyotes, which run well in all of my 1:9" barrels from 16" to 26". My wife's 26" Savage 12 223rem shoots 75grn A-max's very well with a 1:9", but I can't get my velocity high enough in my 16" AR Carbines to stabilize them. I occasionally dabble with 53 and 55grn pills of various flavors and do well with them, and I've found that 60grn Nosler Partitions do very well in the 1:9" also. So I suppose my opinion and advice would be this: If you're ordering a custom barrel, get a 1:8", but if the rifle you want has a 1:9", I wouldn't let that stop me, unless I really needed to shoot 75-90grn bullets.

So I suppose that fast-forwarded through my bullet choice experiences. 50grn Hornady V-max's get my nod most of the time for coyotes, but I shoot 50, 53, and 55grn Vmax's, Ballistic Tips, Accubonds (rarely), and Ballistic Silver Tips pretty regularly through a year. For bulk shooting, Remington UMC 50grn JHP's shoot INCREDIBLY well in my wife's Savage and in my Bushy Varminter (in the 1's and 2's from her rifle) - hence my healthy supply of Remington R-P brass. I started making semi-regular trips to TX and OK in the last couple years again for piggies, and started playing with the 60grn Nosler Partition for that application. As far as I'm concerned, an AR-15 loaded with 60grn partitions is THE hog rifle and load combination for me!

I'll admit, I'm sure I sound hypocritical about the 223rem and deer vs. 223rem and hogs. I've shot rather large pigs with 50grn V-max's and 60grn Partitions, as big as any deer I could find, but the ranges are short and I exclusively shoot behind the ear on hogs, whereas I don't typically go to the neck shot on deer, and I can find myself reaching out farther. I'm sure the 60grn partition would kill deer very well with vitals shots out to 200yrds and beyond - and I've killed deer with 22-250 and 223rem plenty of times, but I just tend to take something else after deer. I gotta have an excuse to tell my wife that I need more than one rifle, right?

There are few things that I enjoy in life better than taking a 223rem to the range with a bucket full of ammo and coming back with a bucket full of brass.