The Major's .223 Match Ammo

It's Accuracy Out Of The Box

 By Robert Whitley
Precision Shooting Magazine 2004

For highpower shooters, there is nothing like a good supply of match quality ammunition at the right price. Unfortunately, unless you are willing to constantly load or reload, there are very few sources for accurate but reasonably priced highpower ammunition suitable for across the course competition. This was a dilemma for one particularly good highpower shooter, Carl A. Leisinger III, who decided not to sit idly by and accept what was available, but plunged headlong into a new business for the production and sales of accurate .223 ammunition. Most of us would not be so ambitious, however, Carl, a retired Major from the New Jersey State Police, is used to taking command of situations and making things happen. The business Carl started is CAL III Enterprises, L.L.C., which is currently the sole distributor for Hornady's “3-D Brand” match ammunition. The “3-D Brand” ammunition is different from, and not to be confused with, Hornady's other red boxed “match” ammunition. CAL III Enterprises, L.L.C. entered into an arrangement with Hornady to have Hornady manufacture the “3-D Brand” match ammunition to Carl's requirements and specifications, and the net result is another great accuracy product available to shooters.

Carl has a long and successful background in highpower shooting, and most shooters would recognize him as the man whose picture was on the front cover of the Bushmaster (Quality Parts Co.) catalog a few years ago, after winning the New Jersey State Highpower Championships with a stock Bushmaster DCM competition rifle. The picture on the cover showed him with the Bushmaster rifle and a 100/10x target he shot during the championships. Carl has also been the captain of the New Jersey high power rifle team since 1981. In addition, in 1992, Carl was on the National Civilian Rifle Team and won the prestigious Elihu Root Medal at Camp Perry that year.

Carl's work background is extensive and dovetails well with his new business. As part of his work with the New Jersey State Police, he was the supervisor of the State Police Laboratories, and prior to that he worked in and supervised the Ballistics Laboratories for 14 years. He is also an expert in forensic ballistics, and a gunsmith as well.

The Ammo

While the “recipe” for the ammunition is straight forward, there is a lot more involved than just the assembly of the components. The basic ammunition (i.e. at the time of the writing of this article) consists of Hornady's 75 grain .223 boat tail hollow point match bullet, loaded in once fired military brass (usually recent LC brass), with around 23.5 to 23.9 grains of Varget like powder, all ignited by a “proprietary” Hornady supplied primer. You will notice the words “Varget like” powder are used, since Hornady will not commit to admitting that the powder is Varget, even though Carl's requirement was that the ammunition had to be loaded with a temperature insensitive stick powder like Varget, and as far as everyone can tell the powder is akin to Varget. The ammunition is loaded with no crimp and an overall length of approximately 2.230”, which makes it ideal for magazine feeding for AR-15's.

Chrono testing of the ammunition indicates that it shoots the .395 B.C. Hornady 75 grain match .223 BTHP bullet at 2800+ fps from both 20” service rifle barrels, as well as longer (i.e. 26”) match rifle barrels. Of the testing done by this author, the mean velocities of 5 shot strings out of three different 26” Krieger AR-15 spacegun barrels were 2869 fps, 2854 fps and 2867 fps, with standard deviations of 22, 16 and 23 fps. A number of service rifle shooters indicate that the ammunition chronos at just around 2800 fps in 20” service rifle barrels.

What adds to making this ammunition good, is the quality control behind it. Even though Hornady was given Carl's specifications for production of the ammunition, when CAL III receives a shipment of ammunition, Carl does extensive sampling and testing of all lots of the ammunition to assure himself that the ammunition is 100% (see separate chart). If a lot of ammunition does not pass Carl's testing and sampling, it is rejected and will not be sold or distributed by CAL III. Carl's background with the State Police and Ballistic Laboratories makes him well qualified for this critical part of the process.

Accuracy Out Of The Box

In eastern Pennsylvania, among the highpower community, this ammunition has been “the talk of the town”. One of the avid proponents of this ammunition has been John Sylvester, who is not only a noteworthy highpower shooter, but is also the owner of Seneca Arms Co., Inc., in Green Lane, PA. Seneca Arms is a retail gun shop, which John says has “sold tons of this ammo” to service rifle, highpower and other shooters.

At Camp Perry in 2001, John won the prestigious Nathan Hale Trophy (i.e. high scoring civilian service rifle shooter in the National Trophy Individual match), and he has been a regular on the list of President's 100 competitors at Camp Perry over the years. As a distinguished high master, John said he was constantly confronting the fact that reloading took up a great deal of time, and that he needed a good supply of reasonably priced accurate ammunition to resolve this problem. John's original intention was to use the CAL III ammunition for practice, but he quickly found out that the ammunition “shot very well out of all kinds of barrels”, and after shooting a number of “stellar groups” with the ammunition, he decided to use it in local reduced course matches as well. John indicates that for this past 2003 highpower season, he has used this ammunition almost exclusively in local matches, and that for reduced course matches (i.e. between 100 to 300 yards) “it does not pay to reload” because “this ammo is capable of producing groups well within call”. In 50 shot matches, John said he has regularly been able to shoot scores in the mid 490's with the ammunition. He shot the ammunition in a full course 800 agg. match at New Holland, PA, “just before Camp Perry”, and came up with a 786/26x. Later in the year, he shot the ammunition in the PA State Highpower Championships, and won the 600 yd. slow prone portion of the match with a 199/10x on a calm day.

My own testing and shooting with the ammunition has confirmed John Sylvester's findings. My first test of this ammunition was done at a 100 yd. range with an AR-15 spacegun sporting a 26” Krieger 1:7.7” Twist barrel. I mounted two MR-31 slow prone targets on the target board, one for sight in, and one to see how well I could shoot with the ammunition. After shooting the sight in target to get a decent zero, I proceeded to shoot ten rounds at the next target which yielded a 100/5x (see separate photo), with all shots well inside the ten ring. In testing at 200 and 300 yards, the ammunition delivered “on call” results as well. I also shot the ammunition in practice at 600 yards on a day with some intermittent crosswind gusts which yielded me a high master score of 194/4x (i.e. 96/1x and 98/3x). Most of the dropped points were 9's out the left at 9:00 o'clock, one shot was an 8 at 3:00 o'clock, all of which indicated the effects of the crosswinds on the bullets, and my poor ability to read and adjust for wind. My low x count was also indicative of the windy conditions, especially since many of the shots out of the x ring were also at 3:00 or 9:00 o'clock.

At the time this article is being written, CAL III is retailing this ammunition for $255 (plus shipping) for 1000 rounds, which breaks down to $12.75 per 50 round box.

Overall Assessment – Thumbs Up!

After working with the CAL III ammunition, and shooting a number of matches with it, this author would concur with John Sylvester's statement that for reduced course matches (i.e. between 100 to 300 yards) “it does not pay to reload”. While carefully assembled, well-tailored hand-loads can undoubtedly have an incremental accuracy advantage over the CAL III ammunition, the CAL III ammunition does not give much away, and the difference is, in many cases, marginal at best. At 600 yards, in more calm or steady wind conditions, the ammunition also appears to perform consistently well. For a shooter who would rather skip reloading, and just wants to go out and shoot, the CAL III ammunition clearly provides a feasible, economical and competitive alternative to hand-loads. 

Carl A. Leisinger III
CAL III Enterprises, L.L.C.
P. O. Box 7082
West Trenton, New Jersey 08628-7082
Phone: 609/883-3729
Email: Cleising1@Comcast.Net
Website: www.radomski.us/njhp/major.htm

John Sylvester
Seneca Arms Co., Inc.
116 Gravel Pike, P. O. Box 178
Green Lane, PA 18054
Phone: 215/234-8984