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Posted: 4/13/2013 7:34:33 AM EDT
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Morning Folks,
I just rebarreled a rifle and have no clue where to start. I m running an AR Stoner 16" 1 in 7 with a tarran comp. I have some sample packs of various bullets, 55grn ballistic tip, 62grn hp flat base, 64grn hp flat base, 69 grn hp boat tail. My queation is, what would be a good powder to run, i will probably have these moving along at 2900ish. I hear 4895 is good, Hornady claims they had their best luck with Vihtavuori N-140, and Accurate 2495 Thanks bunch guys. |
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4895 is not normally used in 223.
Common powders for 223 include Varget, TAC, RL-15, etc. Which you use is probably determined by what's available. Normally, you'd have your choice but in these days of limited supply, you have to use what you can get (or already have). |
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Quoted: Morning Folks, I just rebarreled a rifle and have no clue where to start. I m running an AR Stoner 16" 1 in 7 with a tarran comp. I have some sample packs of various bullets, 55grn ballistic tip, 62grn hp flat base, 64grn hp flat base, 69 grn hp boat tail. My queation is, what would be a good powder to run, i will probably have these moving along at 2900ish. I hear 4895 is good, Hornady claims they had their best luck with Vihtavuori N-140, and Accurate 2495 Thanks bunch guys. Sierra 69 gr MK, Win cases, Rem 7 1/2, CFE 223. Hodgdon lists 23.5 grs as Start, with 25.8 grs as max. I worked up to the max load, shot well. In my AR, 10 shot 100 yd groups right at .75. I have had good experiences with the 69 gr MK with other powders also.
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| So many good powders to choose from! Dryflash, I do love the CFE in my AR's and bolt guns. H4895 works well, but like Varget it's a pain in the ass to meter.. The ball powders of today are so much more stable and consistent. Tac, CFE, 2230, H335, just for starters. Tac, if you can find it is very clean and accurate...but CFE is pretty cool :) Right now, burn what you can lay your hands on in the appropriate burn rate for .223, with the bonus of many working in .308 and others. |
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Quoted:
Morning Folks, I just rebarreled a rifle and have no clue where to start. I m running an AR Stoner 16" 1 in 7 with a tarran comp. I have some sample packs of various bullets, 55grn ballistic tip, 62grn hp flat base, 64grn hp flat base, 69 grn hp boat tail. My queation is, what would be a good powder to run, i will probably have these moving along at 2900ish. I hear 4895 is good, Hornady claims they had their best luck with Vihtavuori N-140, and Accurate 2495 Thanks bunch guys. i'm getting great groups running CFE223 with 55 grain Hornady V-Max or 55 grain Nosler Ballistic Tips. on my 16" 1 in 7. I've also had good success with Varget. But the new CFE223 rocks!! |
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Benchmark is hard to beat, it's meters great, is temp stable, produces great velocity, and is one of if not the most accurate powder I've ever used in 223.
IMR 8208 XBR is just another variation of Benchmark, they are almost identical in shape, size, burn rate, and performance, but I still think Benchmark is the better powder, 8208 is being mainly used in XM193 ball ammo. I use 25 gr's of BM behind a 55gr V-Max or NBT and get sub 1/2" groups with a velocity of 3033 fps from a 16" barrel. EWP |
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Different rifles "like" different loads.
Lots of factors. Barrel twist. Barrel stiffness/how it vibrates. And quite a lot about how you "build" your reloads. I seat my bullets out as far as possible with the cartridge fitting in/feeding from the magazine but not touching the lands of the rifling in the barrel. I resized and trimmed my brass to the same length and tried to keep the brass from the same box together. I weighed every powder charge. I wanted the smallest possible groups, not the highest velocity as I was head shooting groundhogs. I tried bullets from Sierra (52 grain match hollowpoints), Speer (55 and 45 grain spritzers with a flat base), Hornady (45 and 55 grain spritzers with a flat base). The 45 grain bullets gave me my best groups at 25 and 100 yds. so I used them. My barrel had a 1 turn in 12" twist rate. I tried Win748, IMR4198, BLC(2), H322, H335, and maybe a couple others. IMR4198 worked best for me. I got dime sized 5 shot groups at 100 yds. and head shot ground hogs out to 225 yds. while walking the fields of farms around home. Notice I say walking as there were no benches or bipods. I shot prone when I could or used a fence rail for a rest at times, and sometimes I was sitting. Point is - rifles are not identical, even the same brands/same models/same calibers, so experiment and find out what your rifle really "likes". Oh, my rifle in those days was a Remington M700 varmint special. These days, with AR15''s I've found one rifle realliy likes the 45 grain Hornady spritzer flag base bullet with H335 powder. Another really likes Hornady 55 grain FMJ boat tails with IMR 4198. I'm going to have to find another powder that meters better than IMR4198 as I'm getting tired of fighting that powder measure to get consistent loads. I don't know what ball powder I'll eventually end up with but I know it'll meter consistently and speed up my reloading. Hopefully I won't have to settle for a load that meters well but is below my expectations accuracy wise in the carbine. |
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I still think varget is the ultimate powder for 223 but it takes some dedication and you have to trickle it to get the consistency. Ill use it for matches but it takes too much time for blasting ammo. N140 is a close second.
Recently I tried some TAC and it was pretty unbelievable. Extremely accurate and metered great. Pretty clean burning as well. Even without trickling you can throw within .1-.2 grains, which didnt affect accuracy much at 100 yards. Still sub moa groups. |
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Quoted:
Benchmark is hard to beat, it's meters great, is temp stable, produces great velocity, and is one of if not the most accurate powder I've ever used in 223. IMR 8208 XBR is just another variation of Benchmark, they are almost identical in shape, size, burn rate, and performance, but I still think Benchmark is the better powder, 8208 is being mainly used in XM193 ball ammo. I use 25 gr's of BM behind a 55gr V-Max or NBT and get sub 1/2" groups with a velocity of 3033 fps from a 16" barrel. EWP I haven't seen Benchmark available in forever. It seems to NEVER come in stock online. XBR seems to be in stock more frequently from what I've seen (it's not in stock often though). 24 gr. of XBR behind that 55 VMAX is a NICE load as well. -ZA |
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This load will measure the accuracy of your rifle - Winchester cases (or similar) 27.0 grains of Reloder 15 Remington 7 1/2 primers Sierra 52 grain MatchKings Seat to 2.25 inches COAL. 27.0 grains of Reloder 15 fills the case to the bottom of the neck. 27.2 or 27.4 grains also works great, but it's too easy to spill a little before getting the bullet seated, and the neck tension has to be good to keep the bullet from creeping back out a little due to powder compression. Speed will be a little over 3200 fps. |
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Quoted:
Different rifles "like" different loads. Lots of factors. Barrel twist. Barrel stiffness/how it vibrates. And quite a lot about how you "build" your reloads. I seat my bullets out as far as possible with the cartridge fitting in/feeding from the magazine but not touching the lands of the rifling in the barrel. I resized and trimmed my brass to the same length and tried to keep the brass from the same box together. I weighed every powder charge. I wanted the smallest possible groups, not the highest velocity as I was head shooting groundhogs. I tried bullets from Sierra (52 grain match hollowpoints), Speer (55 and 45 grain spritzers with a flat base), Hornady (45 and 55 grain spritzers with a flat base). The 45 grain bullets gave me my best groups at 25 and 100 yds. so I used them. My barrel had a 1 turn in 12" twist rate. I tried Win748, IMR4198, BLC(2), H322, H335, and maybe a couple others. IMR4198 worked best for me. I got dime sized 5 shot groups at 100 yds. and head shot ground hogs out to 225 yds. while walking the fields of farms around home. Notice I say walking as there were no benches or bipods. I shot prone when I could or used a fence rail for a rest at times, and sometimes I was sitting. Point is - rifles are not identical, even the same brands/same models/same calibers, so experiment and find out what your rifle really "likes". Oh, my rifle in those days was a Remington M700 varmint special. These days, with AR15''s I've found one rifle realliy likes the 45 grain Hornady spritzer flag base bullet with H335 powder. Another really likes Hornady 55 grain FMJ boat tails with IMR 4198. I'm going to have to find another powder that meters better than IMR4198 as I'm getting tired of fighting that powder measure to get consistent loads. I don't know what ball powder I'll eventually end up with but I know it'll meter consistently and speed up my reloading. Hopefully I won't have to settle for a load that meters well but is below my expectations accuracy wise in the carbine. This is the correct answer. What works in other peoples rifle does not correlate into what works in your rifle. The answer to your question is test different powders and bullet weights to see what works best. |
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