Fav Powder for 223 36-53gr

[Mr. Ten-X]

 

[moorepower]

Throw a dart. I use 3031 for 53's and 133, 2200 or 2230/Xterminator for 40 grain.

 

[redrockranger]

I don't know yet for my gun but have read quite a bit on the forums.
53gr Vmax high BC + good explosive effect + accurate 3300-3400 fps
40gr Vmax lower BC but maybe more explosive drifts more in wind due to lower BC. 3700-3800 fps
36gr Barnes Varmageddon - Very exposive drifts more in wind (3800 fps)
From 24" barrel.

Powders many... I went with X-Terminator (AKA Accurate 2230) faster better for 55 and under and better in shorter barrels than say CFE 223 (slower) And was available and best price of the powders I was looking at.

Not saying the 69 gr are bad but they don't blow up Pdogs like the Vmax do, they are higher BC but slower like 2700-2800fps.

I'm partial to IMR 8208 XBR. Works well in many small case cartridges. Never much of a fan of ball powder. Like the stick forms.

 

[BobbyJ]

I'm partial to IMR 8208 XBR. Works well in many small case cartridges. Never much of a fan of ball powder. Like the stick forms.

Read that 8208 meters better than most stick powders too. Better than say Varget. Not sure how well it does with 40gr Vmax vs faster powers.

 

[Gabe22BR]

Read that 8208 meters better than most stick powders too. Better than say Varget. Not sure how well it does with 40gr Vmax vs faster powers.

It does great !!!!!

 

[mac86951]

If you're wanting 3/4 accuracy from a 24" AR with 50-52gr bullets in today's supply. I've got good news for you. You'll get there no prob with just about any medium rate powder and a little loading care and some basic bench technique.

Load for accuracy first velocity second.

In my experience; most nodes are about 1-2gr wide and your powder selection will really affect your seasonal loading. Temp sensitive powder? Have an above 50 and below 50 load, or as i ask myself; are you really shooting below 50?

Good luck and i think you've got to pick a few parts and make it work. 223 is a challenge as there's not one solution...

-Mac

 

[BobbyJ]

If you're wanting 3/4 accuracy from a 24" AR with 50-52gr bullets in today's supply. I've got good news for you. You'll get there no prob with just about any medium rate powder and a little loading care and some basic bench technique.

Load for accuracy first velocity second.

In my experience; most nodes are about 1-2gr wide and your powder selection will really affect your seasonal loading. Temp sensitive powder? Have an above 50 and below 50 load, or as i ask myself; are you really shooting below 50?

Good luck and i think you've got to pick a few parts and make it work. 223 is a challenge as there's not one solution...

-Mac

I shoot at 20 Degrees F if Deer hunting. PD not sure but around here 100-200 yards nothing too extreme.
Shooting deer at 20 to 60 degree really did not have any issues with temps and that was with H110.

"I read this on Ramshot powders
Ramshot X-Terminator - Loading for two ARs; one a Colt 20" 1/7 twist and a Bushy 16" 1/9 twist. Have loaded with Benchmark and BLC-2 previously; X-Terminator provides higher velocities and excellent accuracy. It is very temperature stable, only 15 fps difference between 70 degrees and 100 degrees."

15 fps is good enough for me which you are talking out of 3400 fps.

On my Colts I did a .5 grain work up with CFE did not notice a node or a load that was much worse, they shoot around 1 to 1.5 MOA. I did not expect much from an AR in the first place so far the 69Mk did not shoot any better at 100 than the 55gr FMJ in my 16" ARs. After looking at many AR videos it seems par for the course, they all shoot 1-2 MOA. But some of that could be the lower power 10x scope vs 24x on my .204 bolt, which is a laser vs them.

On my 450 BM did a work up but again never saw a node where it shot poorly. I did find some bullets shot better than others but I think the 450 is inherently accurate. Hard to make a bad load, higher loads did seal the cases better resulting it far less brass soot/blowby

On my new 223 24" bull barrel I hope it does a little better. I'll do .5 gr increments and will work up to max NATO book loads from Western Powders. I've got a better trigger and better scope for it to take me out of the equation as much as I can. I hope to see one of these nodes that has alluded me. Now on my 22 rimfire I found a HUGE difference in precision and type of ammo. Can no longer use junk box ammo its just too bad. (softball vs dime groups)

For 223 I don't plan on ever hand trickling powder into cases. It will be all done on my Dillon XL 650.
That sort of cuts out many of the stick powders.

I only have two powders for 223 CFE and soon X-terminator and bullets. The two powders seem to cross over at like 55gr or so. CFE is a little slower and probably not the best in 16" guns in terms of amount of powder burned before it exits the barrel.

- 69gr SMK
- 69gr RMR BTHP
- 55 gr Hornady FMJ
- 55 gr Hornady spire point
- 50 gr Varmint plastic tips
- 40 gr Vmax
- 36 gr Barnes Varmint Grenade

 

[redrockranger]

It does great !!!!!

Works well in my 22 B R also.53 gr. V- Max

 

[mac86951]

I shoot at 20 Degrees F if Deer hunting. PD not sure but around here 100-200 yards nothing too extreme.
Shooting deer at 20 to 60 degree really did not have any issues with temps and that was with H110.

"I read this on Ramshot powders
Ramshot X-Terminator - Loading for two ARs; one a Colt 20" 1/7 twist and a Bushy 16" 1/9 twist. Have loaded with Benchmark and BLC-2 previously; X-Terminator provides higher velocities and excellent accuracy. It is very temperature stable, only 15 fps difference between 70 degrees and 100 degrees."

15 fps is good enough for me which you are talking out of 3400 fps.

On my Colts I did a .5 grain work up with CFE did not notice a node or a load that was much worse, they shoot around 1 to 1.5 MOA. I did not expect much from an AR in the first place so far the 69Mk did not shoot any better at 100 than the 55gr FMJ in my 16" ARs. After looking at many AR videos it seems par for the course, they all shoot 1-2 MOA. But some of that could be the lower power 10x scope vs 24x on my .204 bolt, which is a laser vs them.

On my 450 BM did a work up but again never saw a node where it shot poorly. I did find some bullets shot better than others but I think the 450 is inherently accurate. Hard to make a bad load, higher loads did seal the cases better resulting it far less brass soot/blowby

On my new 223 24" bull barrel I hope it does a little better. I'll do .5 gr increments and will work up to max NATO book loads from Western Powders. I've got a better trigger and better scope for it to take me out of the equation as much as I can. I hope to see one of these nodes that has alluded me. Now on my 22 rimfire I found a HUGE difference in precision and type of ammo. Can no longer use junk box ammo its just too bad. (softball vs dime groups)

For 223 I don't plan on ever hand trickling powder into cases. It will be all done on my Dillon XL 650.
That sort of cuts out many of the stick powders.

I only have two powders for 223 CFE and soon X-terminator and bullets. The two powders seem to cross over at like 55gr or so. CFE is a little slower and probably not the best in 16" guns in terms of amount of powder burned before it exits the barrel.

- 69gr SMK
- 69gr RMR BTHP
- 55 gr Hornady FMJ
- 55 gr Hornady spire point
- 50 gr Varmint plastic tips
- 40 gr Vmax
- 36 gr Barnes Varmint Grenade

Interesting.

15fps between 70 and 100 is actually typical of most double based mid-burn rate powders. You needn't worry there. Where temp stability really comes in are those cold days. I don't know what the main driver is, but all the dimensional changes; natural gas law, dew points /condensation, or what nots; velocity seems to really drop off as those temps creep up to and pass freezing. It's not really that big of a deal, again in my experience; we'd have a cold weather load and a fair weather load. Rarely we'd need a hot weather load; though test the fair weather load in hot temps for pressure safety! When I had time to shoot prone mid-range (600y); our local range could vary in temperature by ~60degrees in a match. More if you left your ammo in the sun!

CFE-223 under the 77gr performed well; but not quite as well as a single based powder over those ranges of temperatures. "Good vs. poor" for powder at the 600 line is all about how consistent, or how many fliers, or blah blah, it's all subjective and good reloading practices make better ammo of course. I'll say between the morning string and the mid-day string; more sight adjustments were needed attributed to the change in temperature. Once CFE was over ~48F, then it seemed to be predictable.

As for which powders to use on those bullets; you're right on the money, cfe will be a fireball out of the 16", and both powders will work with all those bullets; I'd suggest X-terminator for the sub 45gr bullets and anything going thru the 16" and CFE for the 24".

As for metering powder; 223 is such a small case; I'd recommend you do your work-ups in 0.2gr increments, you'll most likely find a node that's flat.for ~0.4gr range, and practice /prep your Dillon to stay that accurate. I'm a LnL-AP guy, Hornady thrower will do that no prob, or the Lee perfect powder measure will easily stay in that range.

Should you come across Benchmark, H322, IMR 8208, there short stick powders and will meter well too, but no need to rush out to the store and buy something. Use what you got.

Im now loading most of my 223 using BLC(2) or WC846 or WC844. After a few years of counting Varget kernels (0.1gr is 3 kernels) i decided less accurate is ok, and having fun is ok too.

-Mac

 

[Dgd6mm]

Interesting.

15fps between 70 and 100 is actually typical of most double based mid-burn rate powders. You needn't worry there. Where temp stability really comes in are those cold days. I don't know what the main driver is, but all the dimensional changes; natural gas law, dew points /condensation, or what nots; velocity seems to really drop off as those temps creep up to and pass freezing. It's not really that big of a deal, again in my experience; we'd have a cold weather load and a fair weather load. Rarely we'd need a hot weather load; though test the fair weather load in hot temps for pressure safety! When I had time to shoot prone mid-range (600y); our local range could vary in temperature by ~60degrees in a match. More if you left your ammo in the sun!

CFE-223 under the 77gr performed well; but not quite as well as a single based powder over those ranges of temperatures. "Good vs. poor" for powder at the 600 line is all about how consistent, or how many fliers, or blah blah, it's all subjective and good reloading practices make better ammo of course. I'll say between the morning string and the mid-day string; more sight adjustments were needed attributed to the change in temperature. Once CFE was over ~48F, then it seemed to be predictable.

As for which powders to use on those bullets; you're right on the money, cfe will be a fireball out of the 16", and both powders will work with all those bullets; I'd suggest X-terminator for the sub 45gr bullets and anything going thru the 16" and CFE for the 24".

As for metering powder; 223 is such a small case; I'd recommend you do your work-ups in 0.2gr increments, you'll most likely find a node that's flat.for ~0.4gr range, and practice /prep your Dillon to stay that accurate. I'm a LnL-AP guy, Hornady thrower will do that no prob, or the Lee perfect powder measure will easily stay in that range.

Should you come across Benchmark, H322, IMR 8208, there short stick powders and will meter well too, but no need to rush out to the store and buy something. Use what you got.

Im now loading most of my 223 using BLC(2) or WC846 or WC844. After a few years of counting Varget kernels (0.1gr is 3 kernels) i decided less accurate is ok, and having fun is ok too.

-Mac

Excellent information Mac.

 

[BobbyJ]

If you're wanting 3/4 accuracy from a 24" AR with 50-52gr bullets in today's supply. I've got good news for you. You'll get there no prob with just about any medium rate powder and a little loading care and some basic bench technique.

Load for accuracy first velocity second.

In my experience; most nodes are about 1-2gr wide and your powder selection will really affect your seasonal loading. Temp sensitive powder? Have an above 50 and below 50 load, or as i ask myself; are you really shooting below 50?

Good luck and i think you've got to pick a few parts and make it work. 223 is a challenge as there's not one solution...

-Mac

I finally found out at the range. With that new 24" 1/9 twist I could find no reload or ammo that shot over 1 MOA.
55gr FMJ CFE 223 reloads mix unsorted brass
53 Factory Vmax
50 gr Factory American Eagle
69 grain RMR
69 Sierra MK

The Cheapest RMR shot the best Sierra with same load not as good at 3x the price. Pretty nice when I can grab any ammo and its sub MOA. I would like to take credit for my reloading skills but its the barrel not me.

 

[Scrumbag]

I’ve not found TAC so good with 55 gr bullets (for me 65 and 69 gr really sing with it). X-terminator works well with lighter bullets

 

[squirrel man]

Over and over XBR-8208 has perduesed great groups in multiple rifles for me with LT-32 right behind it.

 

[mac86951]

Excellent information Mac.

I finally found out at the range. With that new 24" 1/9 twist I could find no reload or ammo that shot over 1 MOA.
55gr FMJ CFE 223 reloads mix unsorted brass
53 Factory Vmax
50 gr Factory American Eagle
69 grain RMR
69 Sierra MK

The Cheapest RMR shot the best Sierra with same load not as good at 3x the price. Pretty nice when I can grab any ammo and its sub MOA. I would like to take credit for my reloading skills but its the barrel not me.

Looks like you found step 1

Step 2 is to see how long you can make it last.

10000+ and after a good cleaning / carbon ring removal, still sub moa.

Don't get the barrel too hot and it should last for quite a while.

 

[BobbyJ]

Looks like you found step 1

Step 2 is to see how long you can make it last.

10000+ and after a good cleaning / carbon ring removal, still sub moa.

Don't get the barrel too hot and it should last for quite a while.

I'm not sure about what is considered hot or too hot. It was pretty cool most of the time. The hottest it got was I could grab the barrel for 6 seconds before I wanted to take my hand off. That was my heat test I let it cool then. No rapid fires just 3 to 5 shot groups. I think We shot 70 rounds in 4 hours. Had 5 other guns to shoot while it cooled.

Cleaning Not sure I do that right either.
- Hoppes 9 bore mop let set a minute or so
- some patches pulled through with nylon line till clean
- One patch with mineral oil and I'm done.

I've never really looked at copper fouling I don't always use a copper brush. Do you use a brush every cleaning?