Favorite.223 Match Pills

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I'm looking to make some big pill match ammo for my 20" bull barrel AR .223/5.56. Anyone have any favorite loads? 500 yard performance numbers? ....1:8 twist rifle. Normally for my .223 I use Benchmark for 55 gr and below bullets and CFE-223 in my 62 grain loads but I'm not married to either powder either.
 
1:8 leaves you a good range of bullets. I like the Sierra 69gr Match Kings #1380C which do well in my 1:7 barrels and should fare well in your 1:8 barrel.Powders I like are Win 748 and also VitaVuori 135 pushing the bullets around 2700 FPS. Obviously your mileage may vary and these are paper punching bullets.

Ron
 
Thanks Ron, 69 gr Sierras were what I was leaning towards.
I will be using Fed Brass, BR-4 Primers and weighing each charge since I'm trying to make match grade. I'll play with the jump as much as possible but I do want it to fit in my magazine.

And yes these are intended for paper punching....my coyote slayers are 62 grain Federal Fusion bullets
 
Been there and done that, right down to the BR4 primers. I have had good ignition with the BR4 and also the CCI #41 as well as the usual CCI 400 and CCI 450 primers. I would throw a light charge and then trickle to my desired weight. Something I have noticed with .223 Remington is case uniformity seems to matter more than with, for example my .308 Win loadings. Then too, it could be an overactive imagination on my part. Good luck and I hope you get good groups early in the game. :)

Ron
 
Yea I could see that, but the case uniformity should be ok after they have been fire formed. I will also be weighing bullets and sorting. I do not normally do all that but I just wanted to see truly how big a difference all the attention to detail makes at extended range (for the .223 at least).

Not that I ignore quality control, I am very meticulous with my bolt gun loads. But weighing bullets, checking case volume of each case, etc is not usually in the prep agenda
 
Um, not to point out the obvious here,
But which is it? 5.56 NATO or the much shorter throated .223 Rem?
What will properly fit into a mag, feed semi auto, and most importantly chamber correctly will depend on the actual chamber you have...

Stuffing a long seated 77 grain round into a short .223 chamber might go very badly...
 
Agree that you should know your chamber and whether it's a .223 match type chamber or ok for longer rounds and a longer throated 5.56 chamber. Short .223 chambers are usually for varmint weight light bullets.
 
I saw another blown up AR last weekend.
The guy had .223 chamber in a 'Match' barrel,
Stuffed a 'Custom' round in it and split the top end apart...

Since I was present, I saw exactly what went wrong,
The round was too long, kept the bolt from locking full battery, the fist couple rounds were 'Smoky' & 'Chunk' sounding with violent ejection,
Third or fourth round pushed the bolt far enough back it got the bolt carrier to split out, and the upper reciever too...

No one hurt seriously, but the guy will probably have a powder Tatoo for a while on his left wrist.

Box of 77 grain 'Long Range' ammo on the bench...
Don't have to guess what happened much past that point.
 
I know my chamber, it is 5.56, and I have a gauge to check seating depth. Plus I use the cut case method where I split the neck, let the bolt close slowly with a bullet being pushed back into the case gently....sounds like the guy at the range made a rookie mistake. Also I seat ogive to base in every gun where using COAL can be misleading if you have a short throat....good looking out though

Also, out of battery ignition can be caused by attempts to roll crimp pushing the shoulder out, or just plain poor resizing (short stroke) and not necessarily the bullet being to long forcing it into the lands.
 
OK, you have a grip on what you are doing, couldn't tell in the first post.

Out to 500 I use cheaper 65 grain Hornady for paper punching.
Gets real tricky beyond 500...
Hornady seems to have the hot ticket for consistancy right now, and for the price in bulk I can't walk past them for range ammo.

You are the FIRST person that I've seen on the forums comment about bulged shoulders & out of battery firing besides me.
Seems to be a forign concept to most, but it's actually pretty common to one extent or another.

Its the cheap AR copies fault, along with 'Mix & Match' parts,
A properly built rifle *Should* be like Stoners original design and NOT allow firing unless the bolt is locked into place, but the clones don't have nearly as tight tolerances as the original design and allow the firing pin to strike when not in full battery lock.

Good to know you know EXACTLY what you are doing!
 
Thanks Jeephammer
I have been doing this a while, I do as much research as I can and talk to people when I don't know. I like to get opinions from others if nothing else to confirm a suspicion or thought.

I asked because I have never tried to make a load to the tightest of tightest tolerances. And really i just want to see how much difference it makes. I get sub moa without bullet sorting, literally weighing each charge, checking to ensure perfectly same exact case volume etc...but maybe I can get down into that rarified 1/8 or better.... maybe not, maybe my gun is incapable. But hey it's my hobbie and all I'll waste is a little time.
 
The 75gr Hornady BTHP is a darn good bullet for the 500 yard line, especially if you have a "load from the magazine" requirement.

I don't crimp any of the match bullets I shoot.

For powders that you have, CFE-223 would be the one I started with to see if I could get acceptable accuracy. Other than that, I'd try IMR4166. I use PowerPro 2000-MR for my 75 and 80gr service rifle loads, so I know that a ball powder can give you good results in an AR-15.

Jimro
 
I personally use the 75gr Hornady BTHP match bullet over 2000-MR with BR4 primer for my 600yd F-Class load from a 24" barrel with 1:9 twist. Works great at 600yd.

My second best load is the 69gr Sierra TMK over CFE223. Same primer.

Both using LC case (after a lot of prep).


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jwrowland77 said:
I personally use the 75gr Hornady BTHP match bullet over 2000-MR with BR4 primer for my 600yd F-Class load from a 24" barrel with 1:9 twist. Works great at 600yd.

My second best load is the 69gr Sierra TMK over CFE223. Same primer.

Both using LC case (after a lot of prep).


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But... But...

You can't shoot 75gr bullets from a 1:9" barrel!

(Just kidding, my 1:9 won't shoot light bullets and only likes 69-75gr)

I do have a short throat, though so I can't get a lot of powder in my cases.

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FiveInADime said:
But... But...

You can't shoot 75gr bullets from a 1:9" barrel!

(Just kidding, my 1:9 won't shoot light bullets and only likes 69-75gr)

I do have a short throat, though so I can't get a lot of powder in my cases.

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That's what they say......LOL. Most the time it's that stupid chart folks pass around without actually testing for themselves. Drives me nuts. Lol.


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According to some of the bullet stabilization software, the Hornady 75 grain BTHP will stabilize out of a 1:9 twist rifle provided you operate near max published velocity (2800fps). It is a relatively shorter bullet at .983 inches long compared to some of the Berger VLD's or SMK's 77 grain. It will stabilize at as low as 2700 fps and maybe lower in some guns.
 
Mississippi said:
According to some of the bullet stabilization software, the Hornady 75 grain BTHP will stabilize out of a 1:9 twist rifle provided you operate near max published velocity (2800fps). It is a relatively shorter bullet at .983 inches long compared to some of the Berger VLD's or SMK's 77 grain. It will stabilize at as low as 2700 fps and maybe lower in some guns.
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Yep. That why I went with that one. Did tons of research and calculations before I ordered. Plus it's s big reason I went with the powder I did. It likes to be run on the upper end.


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