Ball Powder for Accuracy 223

[TheOtherZilla]

+4 748

 

[spencerhenry]

748
wc846

 

[Mark W]

+4 748

Make that +5.

 

[Ron IA]

going to try 27 and 27.5 of 748 in a 1 in 9 twist at with 55 gr. bullets in my AR what would be a good starting load with same 55 gr. and H- BLC2

 

[hunter243sgk]

I have been running cci 450s and h-4895 with the 65-69g pills with very good accuracy.

 

[RonS]

Well I tried the IMR4320 with several different bullets and weights from 50gr to 75gr...I stumbled on a load that hit that sweet spot, I hope, that produced a five shot group less than .25 MOA at 200 yards

 

[r bose]

Well I tried the IMR4320 with several different bullets and weights from 50gr to 75gr...I stumbled on a load that hit that sweet spot, I hope, that produced a five shot group less than .25 MOA at 200 yards

View attachment 1001823

That is quite impressive!!!

 

[RonS]

r bose, thanks, I impressed myself. So now I'm gonna go back and try to duplicate that group plus using the same components take my charge to the max in .2gr increments. I'm also going to only neck size my brass to see how much of a difference that makes

 

[Alguapo]

OK. 6 for 748.

 

[cmillard]

aa2520 and 2000MR are great choices for heavy bullets

 

[ben lurkin]

25.0 gr of H335 with a 55gr Varmageddon atop is a wonderful thing!

 

[5spd]

#7 for w748, using that for 30yrs+.

 

[Baer45]

I’m for 748 up to 70 gr bullets. Never found best accuracy with 70 gr and above with 748..that’s just me, otherwise I love it

 

[Ned Ludd]

H4895, H322, Benchmark, and IMR4320 are all single base extruded powders. They may have relatively small kernels, but are extruded powders, nonetheless. Of these 4 powders, H4895 will generally give the highest velocity in .223 Rem with heavy (80-90 gr) bullets and long (28"-30") barrels. With 55 to 77 gr bullets and/or shorter barrels, the slightly faster H322 and Benchmark powders may be equally good. 8208XBR is probably another powder that may be worth looking into.

The downside to some of these other powders is that you may get great velocity with something like PP2000MR or Re17, but they are also far more temperature-sensitive than H4895. Further, the upper limit with regard to exceeding maximum pressure (i.e. the straw that broke the camel's back) can happen very abruptly with these powders when the temperature increases. The real question is whether the extra velocity you might get is actually worth it. Unless you're talking about an extra 75-100 fps (or more), it's probably not enough to justify the drawbacks IMO. I can get 2850 fps and outstanding precision with 90 VLDs from a 30" barrel using H4895. How much more do velocity you really need?

 

[jonbearman]

I like Hodgdon Ball Lot C-2 I think it is and H335 which is so similar. One powder that works real well and is stick powder is H-322 as well. WW 748 is a great choice as well. I have great luck with all of them.

 

[urbanrifleman]

25.0 gr of H335 with a 55gr Varmageddon atop is a wonderful thing!

I use 25.3 at magazine length and it really does hammer.

 

[lb-ft]

Tried CFE223 out of desperation in slow twist 700 SPS 223. Bingo. Perfection w/53 Vmax.

Tried CFE223 out of convenience in 1:7 AR 223 Wylde. Bingo. Most accurate load of 10 tried. 77 Nosler, LC brass, CCI standard. Fantastic combination.

Tried LeverEvolution out of boredom. Shoots 62 HPBT into one hole in 1:9 Remington factory barrel 783 223.

I’d always thought ball powders were junk. These experiences & experiments have forced a re-think.

 

[Zero333]

I worked up loads with w748 and h335 back to back on the same day with 52gr smk.

w748 was the clear winner.

 

[manitou210]

aa2520 and 2000MR are great choices for heavy bullets

2520 was extremely accurate with 90gr vld Bergers but got into trouble on a very warm day shooting F class spiked and blew a primer, don't use anymore

 

[riflewoman]

Look at this guys’ videos on cloning the Mk262 77 grain match load. One of the best was A curate 2520, but there were other powders that also gave good accuracy. His goal was to match the accuracy AND the velocity of Mk262 ammo.

https://m.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLTTrjvDib94ly8_5jqnedzK6bhXWzZyVl