What about fire forming brass? Isn't that wasting barrel life or am I missing something.
Fireforming the .223AI is essentially just shooting a .223. There’s no multiple steps to forming brass like some other AI’s/wildcats. Just load and shoot some standard .223, and you have .223AI brass ready for your second loading.
Must have been wonger
I don't know about half the barrel life, but I'd like to see a comparison of speed with the same barrel. Beginning with vanilla 223, and then reamed out to AI. Seems to me the potential of speed gains are within the speed variations of different barrels. I've done the 223AI. It was a fun cartridge and almost every load seemed to hammer, but never again. Maybe that barrel would shoot equally as well if it'd been a plain 223?People claim that there's no such thing as fire forming 223AI...but you aren't shooting a 223AI unless you are shooting a 223AI.
I don’t see what the issue is. Next time I’m out I’ll chrono factory loaded .223 Berger match 73 grain. It runs like 2690 or so out of my 22” barrel. Once I load the fire formed brass into .223ai I’m looking at loading them to 2900 with 80 eld’s.
I don't want to process brass and then do another load workup. That's an extra step called fire forming.
Sum Ting Wong stole my words
All loads, from my 26” barrel delivered between .6-.7 MoA groupswant with the 3106fps load in the end.
will work in this one. Might as well dream... 
Mine is 0.060" and works good for bullets in that weight range.
If you wanted to try other powders, I was getting around 2770fps from both BM8208 and BM2 in my 18" 223 Tikka with 75gr BTHPs.
Just something to think about. I am running 80’s but everyone I know runs the 75’s as the DOPE matches with the 80 grain Berger’s almost identical.
Thanks for the suggestion. There seems to have been a drop-off in availability for the 2206H/H4895 in and around my area. I did give 8208 some consideration when I was last in the shop.
The 80-90gr bullets seem to be a little bit too heavy in a vanilla 223.
Pretty impressive results, reloads must be pretty cheap too (if you have primers at the old prices...).
I should have clarified we are loading .223 AI as well.
That’s a great SD over a 40 shot string. Great consistency. I’m assuming that is with the 88’s? How much varget are you losing to hit those velocities with 88’s and have had any pressure signs?
Thanks. I’ve forgotten how to read wind well enough to hold my own in F-class.
2880fps is screaming, thats pushing 22BR speeds. I guess 26gr of powder isn't far off a mild BR load.
Yeah it's an amazing little cartridge. There seems to be more and more of them showing up at matches, the performance vs cost to load/barrel life and lack of any recoil make it a no-brainer. These cases have lasted longer than the last barrel and I've only lost a couple with loose pockets, half of them were out of the brass bins at the range, ADI is easy to spot as once fired. I might run some Lapua brass in the future to make me feel better but the gun doesn't seem to care
Yeh it’s picking up I think. Everything @Gtar stated above I would agree with. It gives it tremendous appeal, in my opinion, to anyone that wants to shoot often and competitively. I have shot 223 for years and this was an entirely sensible cartridge to adopt a performance step up.
Hmmm, yeah thats a good point.Yeah it's an amazing little cartridge. There seems to be more and more of them showing up at matches, the performance vs cost to load/barrel life and lack of any recoil make it a no-brainer. These cases have lasted longer than the last barrel and I've only lost a couple with loose pockets, half of them were out of the brass bins at the range, ADI is easy to spot as once fired. I might run some Lapua brass in the future to make me feel better but the gun doesn't seem to care
Dies are still a hassle to get hold of for it though, I could only get a standard Redding set. I've had a Redding body die on back order for almost 2 years and ended up reaming the neck of the Redding FL die so it doesn't touch the neck and using a Lee Collet die which is a lot more consistent. I keep looking at the SAC modular dies, I think I might have to order one in the new year.
So, as far as the dies recommendations go I went a Redding set and that was all I could get hold. I ordered mine from precision reloading in SD, USA. Pretty much whatever I could get. Possibly talk to Wilson about some custom dies.
Please confirm. Has the brass, that you are having issues sizing, been annealed by you since the last firing?
Will check here in a bit.
Yes.
Would the Redding competition shell holders achieve the same thing?
