223 reloading supplies

[Cory porter]

I am getting more in depth with 223. I will be shooting a f/tr style rifle in matches 90g Berger and 80g hornady. Also a kampfeld 1/8 twist for steel and just a fun range gun.

Both have extremely tight chambers which require me to use a small base body die on once fired brass to get them to chamber. I will be using new lapua brass with my match gun and processed LC brass in the other.

I currently have a Dillion 223 die set and a Redding comp seater. I will be ordering the body die to bump the shoulder back once formed to the chamber. Also a Redding comp neck bushing die. My question is what are the required bushing sizes for 223

Also I will be getting a new trimmer for 223 specific, some type of tri way to put in a drill. Any other advice or recommendation I may be missing or any info from experienced 223 shooters is appreciated.

 

[watercam]

For the 90s a loooonnng throat is the key. The ISSF reamer is a start. I throated out even more so that the Sierra 90 SMK boat-tail/shank joint is just at the neck/shoulder joint of the case. 24.8 gr. of Varget is giving me safe pressures and velocity of about 2840+ fps. At 1K retained velocity is, in theory, about 1450+ fps. Others are using the Berger 90 VLDs with success but I think the Sierras are better stabilized as they are shorter. One gent I met at the Deep Creek LR Tournament last week is pushing his harder with upper 25 gr. loads and 3100 fps. I do not want to push my brass that hard.
Have fun!

 

[Cory porter]

For the 90s a loooonnng throat is the key. The ISSF reamer is a start. I throated out even more so that the Sierra 90 SMK boat-tail/shank joint is just at the neck/shoulder joint of the case. 24.8 gr. of Varget is giving me safe pressures and velocity of about 2840+ fps. At 1K retained velocity is, in theory, about 1450+ fps. Others are using the Berger 90 VLDs with success but I think the Sierras are better stabilized as they are shorter. One gent I met at the Deep Creek LR Tournament last week is pushing his harder with upper 25 gr. loads and 3100 fps. I do not want to push my brass that hard.
Have fun!

I purchased the 223 pre owner and all of the load devolpment was already done on the 90s. Right now the load is 24.4 of varget coal it 3.090 with not pressure signs with LC brass

 

[jepp2]

My question is what are the required bushing sizes for 223

FWIW, I have lots of unused neck bushings that I bought before I could measure loaded rounds and find out what I needed. I normally size for about 0.001" neck tension. On my sized brass LC neck OD's run around .245" and Lapua run about .248".

But I don't know your annealing practices, desired neck tension, etc. These can change bushing sizes.

I also get less than half the case neck runout using Whidden bushings vs. what I get with Redding bushings. So sorry I'm not much help.

 

[Ned Ludd]

I purchased the 223 pre owner and all of the load devolpment was already done on the 90s. Right now the load is 24.4 of varget coal it 3.090 with not pressure signs with LC brass

Cory - did you say COAL = 3.090"? I don't think so. The bullet shank wouldn't even be in the neck at that COAL. A COAL of about 2.675" is about the longest you can get and still have sufficient shank in the neck.

With Lapua brass, a .248" bushing will give you about .0020"-.0025" neck tension, which is right where you want to be. If you do a search in the "Small Stuff - 22s, 20s, 17s" Section using "90 VLD" as the query, you will find more information than you'll probably ever want to know about loading the 90s. There are many good threads with tons of info about loading the 90s for F-TR.