IMR Powder for .223 55grain

I load a compressed charge of IMR4320 topped off with a Sierra 55gr game king hollow point bullet.

My rifle is a Savage with a 20 inch heavy barrel, it consistently shoots groups of 5/16 of an inch at 100 yards with the above load.

Best Regards
Bob Hunter
 
The .223 is not real picky that's one good thing about it. I have had excellent results with BLC-2, Benchmark, Varget, 3031, with 55gr V-Max's, Sierra HPBT's, Nosler FBHP's, and Dogtown FBHP's. For my 1-12" rifle 3031 is my go to load and it does a pretty good job in my 1-9" but Benchmark, and BLC-2 are my go to loads for my 1-9" but all 4 of these powder's shoot under 1" in my rifles.
 
~ 15 years ago I was at a 200 yard range with Ruger #1 223 55 gr Vmax and some loaded with H335 and some with IMR4895.

The 335 groups were higher on the target, but larger groups.
The 4895 groups were lower on the target, but smaller groups.
 
My experience, too.
I like the way Ball powder meters, but extruded is usually at least a little more accurate... in MY rifles.
 
My powder of choice has always been W748 for .223 in my Ruger #1 heavy varmit. To be honest, I probably only tried 3 or 4 powders (4198, 4895, 3031) before settling on W748. That was 30 years ago. With .75MOA groups, I just quit, figuring the rifle was better than me and trying for anything better was just wasting barrel.

With only a couple pounds of W748 on hand (and locally unavailable) and 1100 .223 brass to load, it was recommended on this forum that I try BLC-2. Taking that advice and with an 8 lb keg of BLC2 in hand, I've loaded some mid range charge rounds to test in my AR. They cycle and fire fine, just haven't had a chance to check for accuracy at the range yet. These are really just range rounds, so I'm not looking for ultimate accuracy with my AR. I'm not planning to work up a load for max accuracy with the BLC2 at this point. I'll try them in my #1 at some point, but with quite a bit of carefully crafted ammo for the #1, It would only be an interesting experiment.
 
For me, best accuracy for several bullets were: AA 2230 with the 65 gr Sierra GK; H335 with the 40 gr Nosler BT. With the 55 gr NBT, Varget gave good accuracy, but I'd need more work to be positive.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top