Best Powder for reloading 223 LR bullets?

[BT Sniper]

Well I have a new 223 bolt gun coming my way and I expect to be testing some new 22cal bullets made from 22lr brass. Gun is a Savage 12BVSS 223rem and was wondering what loads you guys have had best luck with these bullets?

Gun has a 26" barrel! with 1-9 twist. I expect to start with bullets in the 55-65 grain range.

Anyone actually experienced decrease in accuracy when we push these bullets too fast? We have all heard about this so called 3200FPS limit with bullets made from the 22LR brass I'm but looking for some actual first hand load data.

Think I have read good things about Varget?? maybe like 25 grains or so? Anyone else have any first hand info? I have the "one book" reloading manual for the 223 rem so I can look up loads all day long but I'm looking for any recamendations, primer choice too if you care to share.

Thanks

BT

[357 Voodoo]

Brian i use varget and benchmark for the 223. IMOP bench mark excels for the lighter bullets IE 60 grn and under. with Varget about the max you can stuff in the case is around 24grn and it needs to be settled in to do so.

my loads are

40 grn 22.8 benchmark
55 grn 21.6 bmark
65 grn 23.6 varget
70 grn 22.2 varget

The 70 grn ts the largest that I have made. I shoot these in a 1-8 26in ar.

As allways work up

[MIBULLETS]

Brian, I have had better accuracy when I keep the velocity down aroun 3000 - 3100 fps when using bullets made from 22 cases. One load that my Winchester model 70 varmint likes was 25gr of H4895. It is not a hot load and provides around 3100 fps in my gun. It also has a 26" 1 in 9 twist barrel. For me Benchmark works better with loads at the top end and not as well with these bullets but excellent with my bullets made from J4 jackets. Every gun is it's own. Do you have a list of powders on hand or do you plan on buying some?

Dan

[BT Sniper]

I'll have to buy some so this helps me get an idea. All my experience is with the larger magnums so loading for the smaller 223 will be new and a nice change. It will be nice to load less then 70+ grains of powder.

I'll probably check around and buy a few lbs of what I can find then get a keg of what works best but still looking for and appericate the suggestions and info.

Thanks

BT

[DDriller]

Brian I load 24.5 gr Reloader 15 with 69 gr SMKs. Most accurate load I have found. 24.5 gr with the 55 gr bullet should be around 3060 fps. 24.0 should keep you under 3000 fps with a 55 gr bullet in your 26" barrel..

[Utah Shooter]

8208 XBR with 55 gr HP's for me. A bit over the 3200 fps but still hitting under .600 at max loads.

[BT Sniper]

Please help me differ from the data you all post as to which bullets may have been swaged from the 22lr brass vs. factory bullets. Thanks for providing the data for any and all 22 cal bullets and I'm sure it will only help all of us that will soon be shooting a lot more 223.

keep it coming

Good shooting

BT

[Bollocks]

For my 55-60 grainers (22LR jacket) I use moderate loads of Vithavuori N135 and Hodgdon H335. I Use 4 AR15 uppers (10, 16 and 20 inch barrels), a Steyr AUG and a SIG 550. Varget is a bit on the slow burning side for these bullet weights imho.

[Spanners]

4895 is better than Varget I've found and you can get enough in the case.
Light pills - BM works well also

[Rollis]

I, have not done any swaging yet, thats why I, been lerking around here trying to learn, so all my .223 loading has been done with factory bullet's. 2230, at around 25 grn. with the 55 grn. FMJBT has been an all round sweat spot for my two AR's. even with the Junk Remington's. 4895 both H, and IMR, and 3031, are the classic go to powders.

[mstarling]

For match accuracy ammo I find RL-15 does better than anything else. For almost as good bulk blasting stuff I have found AA2200 to be a great choice and have burned many pounds of it.

[BT Sniper]

How about mettering of the powders threw a powder dispenser. For those of use wanting to load thousands of cases. The 4895 and 3031, RL15 too I'm sure, is some larger stick powders aren't they? Not that there is anything wrong with that

I do plan on finding a good load then loading thousands via a powder throwing dispenser so opinons on mettering would help too I suppose.

Thanks for all the replies, this will certainly help me out and I'm sure severial others. Keep them coming

BT

[BT Sniper]

For match accuracy ammo I find RL-15 does better than anything else. For almost as good bulk blasting stuff I have found AA2200 to be a great choice and have burned many pounds of it.

I like the sound of RL-15, simply because it is avialble near me and I have used pounds of the RL-22 in my mags with good results, not that that makes any difference. I'll certainly look into all other options mentioned too.

So match grade? Sounds great. Just curious have you, or others for that matter, got what they consider match grade results from swage 22LR brass jacketed bullets?

BT

[jameslovesjammie]

I am in love with Ramshot X-Terminator for .223 and the 52 grain SMK. I doubt that you will find a better metering powder. It is ball but is so fine it's like metering sand in your powder measurer. With both a Redding 3BR and an OLD Lyman 55, the powder doesn't vary from drop to drop. 25.0 grains has done us well in a Remington 788 and Winchester M70 Featherweight (both 1-12 twist).

Ramshot's load guide lists data for 35-90 grain bullets with X-Terminator.

Try it. I think you'll like it!

[GRUMPA]

BT,
What's your version or for that matter anyones version of MATCH GRADE? Normally if I get 1/2' (rested) at 110yds I consider that doing pretty good.

[shooterg]

It'd be hard to go wrong with RE15 or Varget. Plenty of both pushing bullets downrange at High Power matches everywhere !

[BT Sniper]

Match grade for a .223?? With commercial bullets I would say one ragged hole-1/2". With swaged 22LR made bullets 1/2-1" sounds pretty good.

Your 1/2" groups sounds just fine to me. I'm looking for under 1 moa from the 22LR bullets I suppose.

BT

[sargenv]

If ytou want meterability, the ball powders are hard to beat... H335, BLC-2, or their surplus equivs (WC 844, WC846). Benchmark is a bit faster burning it seems, Accurate 2230 is liked by a lot of people as ar Varget, and several others.. I've used XMR2015 with regular 55 fmj bt's but it might be a tad on the fast side burn rate wise.. it tends to like the bullet 55 gr and less.

[martin]

BT,

When I was testing RF jacketed swaged bullets, I had some acceptable results from H4198 through my bench guns. I also tried some reduced loads with Blue Dot based on a couple of articles and could not get blue dot to shoot for beans...

My opinion is that if you ask 10 different people you will get 9 different answers as loading is a personal thing and there are so many choices available. I have 23 different powders in my powder cabinet

It is also my opinion that there are a lot of different variables in the works here and you won't know what is best until you do some testing.

In terms of primer selection, I would say to stay with Federal 205M's or CCI BR4's Match Grade Primers for stick powder and magnum primers for ball powders but some may disagree on the magnum primers.

My thought would be when you get this Savage 223, do some testing with copper jacketed stuff and prove the capabilities before moving onto RF jackets. If I were in your place, I would also go for the highest power optics that I could afford with a minimum of 24 power and preferrably 36 or 45.

This is my two cents.

Best Regards and good shooting.

Martin

[BT Sniper]

Martin,

YEP! Pretty much right in line with my thinking. Thanks for the info.

I have a New Sightron SIII with the MOA-2 retical in 6-24x50 to mount on the savage. I figure I'll use some 22LR bullets to break in the barrell and after about 50 shots I'll test gun's accuracy potential with some Nosler BT bullets. I have always thought of the nosler BTs as pretty accurate. Maybe the Seirra's for testing accuracy too. I think I have local access to either of those two in 22 cal.

BT