I’ve been handloading for about 6 years now, mostly 9mm, 357 Magnum, and 223 Remington, but a little 45ACP, 30-30 and just started 308 Winchester a few months ago. This issue concerns the 223. My standard load is 23.5 grains of H335 with a 55gr bullet seated to 2.230. I never really paid much attention to brass head stamps as this load is not at maximum and it shoots fairly accurately in my Ruger American (22” barrel with a 1:9 twist). I have noticed a wide swing in velocity at the muzzle, and attributed that to the various brass manufactures as all other conditions are equal (trim length, powder charge, seat depth, etc).
So, I decided to run some velocity tests with different head stamps and all other factors being identical. I loaded 5 each of Lake City, PMC, 2 different Federal, and Military brass with my standard load. All brass trimmed to the same 1.750 length. All powder charges were weighed by hand. All had the same CCI 400 primer. All bullets were weighed at 55gr, and all were seated to 2.230. The results are below.
Mil – average 3031 with a 100 FPS difference min to max
Lake City – 3022 average with 96 min-max
PMC – 2987 average with 80 min-max
Federal – 2988 with 132 min-max
Federal cartridge – 2954 average with 128 min-max
For grins I also checked some commercial PMC. Average was 3144 with 104 FPS difference min-max.
I understand the differences between averages attained with the different head stamps. My concern is the spread of velocities within each group. With all factors besides head stamp being the same, shouldn’t my spread between minimum and maximum velocities be much less? Is this as good as it gets, or am I missing something?
So, I decided to run some velocity tests with different head stamps and all other factors being identical. I loaded 5 each of Lake City, PMC, 2 different Federal, and Military brass with my standard load. All brass trimmed to the same 1.750 length. All powder charges were weighed by hand. All had the same CCI 400 primer. All bullets were weighed at 55gr, and all were seated to 2.230. The results are below.
Mil – average 3031 with a 100 FPS difference min to max
Lake City – 3022 average with 96 min-max
PMC – 2987 average with 80 min-max
Federal – 2988 with 132 min-max
Federal cartridge – 2954 average with 128 min-max
For grins I also checked some commercial PMC. Average was 3144 with 104 FPS difference min-max.
I understand the differences between averages attained with the different head stamps. My concern is the spread of velocities within each group. With all factors besides head stamp being the same, shouldn’t my spread between minimum and maximum velocities be much less? Is this as good as it gets, or am I missing something?