powder recommendation for 223

I use Blue Dot in single shot 223s with light bullets.

For heavy bullets in non adjustable gas systems I would try IMR-4166. It is the same speed and density as IMR-4895, but with temperature stability and anti Copper fouling coatings. I have not tried it, but I would bet money that would work well.
 
My WOA heavy stainless match service rifle shoots about .9 moa off a nice sturdy rest with 77gr. Nosler CC's using 24 gr of R15 or 23.9 gr of Varget. For my plinking/training ammo I like hornady 55 fmj's with 25.9 gr of W748 , Benchmark is a great powder for lighter 52 gr bullets. There is a ton of awesome powders for 223.
 
I can say from loading for a few rifles that what has worked well in one. Work well in all. For all I did work up loads to assure the rifle would handle the load.

Bang for the buck accuracy- Hornady VMax 55 grain with H335. Out of my bolt action Savage it gives sub half MOA on a bad day. I used 4 of them to kill 4 coyote at a distance of 425 yards. All went down where hit. The FMJ 55 grain BT would give 1 MOA compared to the VMax. I list this load as the bullet price is affordable, and they tend to still have them in stock when everything else has sold out.

Next in line is my favorite accuracy load.- Hornady 68 grain HPBT Match with Reloader 15 Varget will work here as well with results that are very close to the RL 15. With a bipod, and sand bag under the rear stock the load is a sub .25 MOA with FL sized brass out of the bolt action. The AR rifles that these have been shot out of made the owners of them swear they had magic bullets. Group sizes for all were cut in half or better. Once I can put decent optics on my Ruger AR I will be pushing this load out of it. With iron sights I am not going to bother as once it is past 50 yards I am not going for groups.

I will also put in here my economy load.

50 Grain ZMax with IMR 4166. It works very well. Strangely the 4166 while not the best at any of the weights gave the most conistent results across a wide range of bullet weights. Also the Bullets are the cheapest I could find for a 500 count of premiums. They shoot far better than the 55 to 62 grain cheapo bullets do.
 
Thank you all for your input. I am taking copious notes and working up my loads according to various suggestions.

I went out today and tested 3 sets of various loads on 3 different bullets.

1. Nothing exploded and I have all body parts.

2. It was remarkably clear that there was a sweet spot in each set.

3. I about pee'd my pants at the improvement in accuracy from the factory loads I have been shooting. I would guess about a 25-33% improvement in groupings with even more improvement in the sweet spots.

Thanks again to all!!!
 
WtfTG, now you are beginning to understand the obvious gains with handloading. The "indirect" benifit is the fact your cpr is cheaper so you can basically load and shoot match quality ammo for the same cost as store bought bulk ammo. I personally enjoy experimenting and restng handloads just as much as shooting.
 
I recommend H335 with somewhat lighter bullets. 55 grainers shoot extremely well (smaller than 1/2" at 200 yards) over 23.1 grains in my Stevens 200, 22" standard barrel, 1:9 twist.

A 1:8 twist barrel should be even more flexible, though it may prefer heavier bullets over lighter ones.

W748, at 25.1 grains, works equally well, in my rifle (with the 55 grain bullets).

For 68 - 69 grain bullets, Vitavouri N-135 (24.1 grains) seems to work very well.
 
24.0 grains of IMR-4895, under a 68 grain Hornady HPBT match bullet. COL = 2.250". Best .223 load I've found so far (0.26" at 100 yards.... 0.61" at 200) - for my rifle.

Just found this load a few days ago. Lucky enough, as I have an 8 lb. jug of 4895 that I was wondering what to do with anyway.

Your mileage may vary.
 
wpsdlrg said:
24.0 grains of IMR-4895, under a 68 grain Hornady HPBT match bullet. COL = 2.250". Best .223 load I've found so far (0.26" at 100 yards.... 0.61" at 200) - for my rifle.

Just found this load a few days ago. Lucky enough, as I have an 8 lb. jug of 4895 that I was wondering what to do with anyway.

Your mileage may vary.
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24 gr seems to be the magic number with multiple powders for heavier match bullet accuracy in the AR's. My top accuracy loads for my WOA match service rifle is 23.9 gr of Varget , and 24 gr of RL15 using the 77 gr Nosler CC. Both these recipes yield a consistent .8 MOA at 200 meters shooting scoped and off a nice sturdy bench rest
 
I don't know what it is about 24gr of powder, but it does seem to come up a lot when you are talking 75 to 80gr bullets in 223 for Service Rifle competitors.

One high master shooting a space gun told me, "24 grains of anything suitable under an 80gr Amax is a winning combination." So far I haven't found him to be wrong.

Jimro
 
I use H335 and CFE223 for all my AR loads. Accuracy is under 1 inch at 100 yds. I have some Varget, IMR3031 and H322 but haven't tried them yet.
 
Jimro said:
24 grains of anything suitable under an 80gr Amax is a winning combination." So far I haven't found him to be wrong.
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Jimro is this recipe a compressed load ? I am strongly contemplating trying the 80gr AMax , i've tried 168's and 208's in .30 cal with excellent results
 
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