What other powders can I try .223 bolt, 1-7 twist

[Mark611]

I understand, here again I have not loaded any rifle with a 1&7 twist, The 26'' HB Savage I loaded for had a 1&9 twist, the best bullets for that barrel were the 69gn Nosler CC under 22.3gn of H322 @2900fps and were sub MOA @200m from that rifle, like 1 1/4'' groups, the only other 223/5.56 I load for are the 223Wylde 1&8 twist, with 55gn Hornady FMJ's out of my 18'' AR's, TAC seems to be a decent powder for this combo, @50yds there basically are very small groups, almost 1 hole with iron sights, even shooting the Hornady Frontier 55gn FMJ's factory ammo I get about the same results, to answer your question about the 55gn Speers, JMO but I think the twist is to fast in your barrel for a 55gn bullet, the 1&7 is better suited for the 62gn and up, but every barrel is different, Accurate 2520 with a 69gn SMK according to the Western Powders Manual Edition 8.0 is seems to give good velocity, the 2520 is also known as the Camp Perry powder, hope this helps!

 

[Pawnee Bill]

Doing load development on a new Howa 1500 .223 20" 1-7 twist bedded in a laminate stock. 77gr SMK's. Only powders I had on hand. Fairly windy day.
Varget best group
.639 at 24gr
Precision
.52 at 23.2

I know I have some inconstant brass as it's new Starline 5.56 brass and boy did they make it small (Slight pressure signs at 24.3 Varget). The stuff hardly touched the FL sizing die. the 24gr load was compressed so once I get it all fire formed the results may change (In my fire formed Lapaua 24gr was not compressed)

Yea I Know, long winded way of asking what other powders should I bee looking at. I would LOVE to get away from Hodgdon so I was looking at N140

Try AR-Comp. If your gun will shoot, it will shoot the 77 SMKs very well.

 

[Mark611]

Well, he's talking about money here as far as powder, I love AR Comp, it's the best powder for my AR 6.5Grendels, but current pricing is ridicules! 460ish for an 8lb keg!

 

[NZ_Fclass]

Anyone tried Staball Match? Seems to go quite well in my BR with 107's, I suspect heavy 223s will work

 

[DLT]

Here you go

https://imgur.com/xupofee

Thank you much !

 

[William Vogel]

Doing load development on a new Howa 1500 .223 20" 1-7 twist bedded in a laminate stock. 77gr SMK's. Only powders I had on hand. Fairly windy day.
Varget best group
.639 at 24gr
Precision
.52 at 23.2

I know I have some inconstant brass as it's new Starline 5.56 brass and boy did they make it small (Slight pressure signs at 24.3 Varget). The stuff hardly touched the FL sizing die. the 24gr load was compressed so once I get it all fire formed the results may change (In my fire formed Lapaua 24gr was not compressed)

Yea I Know, long winded way of asking what other powders should I bee looking at. I would LOVE to get away from Hodgdon so I was looking at N140

What COL are you using? The reason I ask is that the free bore of 223 Remington is rather short for heavier bullets like 68 grain and above. You’ve given yourself the ability to shoot these heavy long bullets with the 7 twist but without a longer free bore, there’s a lot of case capacity that’s eaten up by the bullet. I throat the barrel out and shoot 80 and 88 grain bullets but my COL is 2.6+ and I can get great velocity within standard pressure. I can load 25 grains of Varget and not see any pressure signs. I use TAC because I can get better velocity than Varget.

 

[JackWagon]

Good Morning William

It's a factory Howa barrel so the freebore is unknown. With my Sinclair comparator jam is 1.959. Totally off the lands is 1.936 so that was my starting point. Right now I am fighting not only powder choice but what I would consider under size brass with the Starline 5.56. After a single firing the internal capacity changes greatly. One more trip to the range and I will have 100 fire formed.

Last night I started trimming and doing a skim neck turn on those that are fire formed and I'm pretty darn impressed with the consistency of the necks. Even a light skim most are a clean cut with very few voids. My brother was able to pick up some N135 and N140 for me so I will give that a whirl this weekend.

Also going to try some SW Match Rife and Tac Rifle he has as again, I am really making a hard push to get away from anything Hodg controlled.

 

[otnot]

2520 with 90gr Sierras looks promising.
8 shots, 100yds, 1" squares.
Should I be looking for more from a Savage?

I'm pushing the 90 gr. SMK at 2750 with 25 gr. of CFE223. With 25.9 grs of CFE I'm at 2825 fps. OAL 2.595

 

[otnot]

Anyone tried Staball Match? Seems to go quite well in my BR with 107's, I suspect heavy 223s will work

I did a run up with 90 gr. SMKs. Started at 24 gr.2550 went all the way to 25.8 grs. at 2870 fps. The best group was at 24.2 at 2600 fps.

 

[Rsadams]

Rsadams, have you ever loaded those Speers 55’s that I posted in the components page this morning? I was wondering how they would work in the ar.

I think I have loaded speer 55gr fmjs awhile back.... Out of a 16inch chrome lined it's hard to tell anything with iron sights.... I recently switched everything over to red dot or scopes.... Simply because of 55 year old eyes....If I remember correctly they shot fine to me , a little better than the Hornady but in the last couple of years even before COVID I just been shooting either Hornady 55 fmjs because of price or 69gr SMKs...

 

[Kracken McGraw]

I think I have loaded speer 55gr fmjs awhile back.... Out of a 16inch chrome lined it's hard to tell anything with iron sights.... I recently switched everything over to red dot or scopes.... Simply because of 55 year old eyes....If I remember correctly they shot fine to me , a little better than the Hornady but in the last couple of years even before COVID I just been shooting either Hornady 55 fmjs because of price or 69gr SMKs...

Those were 13 cents, seems like a good price

 

[cmysix]

1-7 is VERY fast! 77 is probably the very bottom of the range, get yourself in the 80's or 90's

 

[Maximus1840]

I've shot a few test groups with 55 grain SBK's and 60 grain Vmax's from my 26" 1:7 proof with no negative issues. I plan on revisiting both.