Does anyone have any good 223 bolt gun loads for more compact barrels?
I’ve checked the tacked thread, but I didn’t find much for shorties.
TIA
I’ve checked the tacked thread, but I didn’t find much for shorties.
TIA
- Thread starter AR-180
- Start date
24 grains of tac and 68 or 69 grain bullet has always worked for me
Accurate 2200 would work pretty well.
Tac does well, w748, cfe22e, blc2 and varget does very well.
My 16inch barrel likes pretty much the same stuff my 28inch does fwiw. The 16 just does it slower and blastier lol.
Do you have a standard 223 chamber?
69, 75, 77 and 80 grain bullets all do well depending on your barrel twist. What charge i/we use wont necessarily help you much... BUT I will say most all the powders I use in 223 or 5.56 seem to do well at the upper end of the pressure limit.
Varget tends to win out with the heavy bullets, but case fill tends to become a problem if seated short. Drop tube will help. The bal powders give much more room in that case, but sacrifice temp stability.
My 16inch barrel likes pretty much the same stuff my 28inch does fwiw. The 16 just does it slower and blastier lol.
Do you have a standard 223 chamber?
69, 75, 77 and 80 grain bullets all do well depending on your barrel twist. What charge i/we use wont necessarily help you much... BUT I will say most all the powders I use in 223 or 5.56 seem to do well at the upper end of the pressure limit.
Varget tends to win out with the heavy bullets, but case fill tends to become a problem if seated short. Drop tube will help. The bal powders give much more room in that case, but sacrifice temp stability.
This tends to be true.
Ever notice that when we went to heavier bullets and shorter barrels with tighter twists... that same Pet Load ammo tends to be at least decent in 16", 18" as well as ones over 20"?
Most of the heavy work gets done down near the chamber, then the remaining pressure just integrates to result in more speed with the longer ones. With the shorter ones, you get a little higher pressure at exit ("blastier" as redbullitt called it).
The bullet length (weight) dictates the twist, and the powders that do well with those weights do that regardless of the barrel length in the shorter direction.
Trying to take advantage of a "faster" powder isn't impossible, but due to the pressure limits of the barrels and brass, you don't get the same benefits as the opposite situation where a longer barrel might exploit a slower powder. Even then, most of the regular Pet Loads powders are at least decent in very long barrels.
When you start discussing barrels from say 10" to 14", then your loads can benefit from some tailoring that might mean a different cast of powders.
Try the usual cast of characters depending on your twist and bullet weight preference. If we are talking 69 - 77 grain range, then stuff like your Varget, RE-15, H4895, 8208, TAC, and so forth will be worth a look.
If you want better advice, maybe narrow down the twist and bullet that you are thinking about to keep the thread on focus. YMMV
I was able to test out various powders and bullet lengths.
It’s a 9 twist. It shoots well with XBR, TAC, and Re15 using 75 and 77 BTHPs.
It’s not a long enough barrel or fast enough to twist to stabilize 75 ELDs.
It hammers though and feeds perfectly from an MDT magazine. I’m happy.
I am still curious about trying a faster powder.
Thanks for the input.
It’s a 9 twist. It shoots well with XBR, TAC, and Re15 using 75 and 77 BTHPs.
It’s not a long enough barrel or fast enough to twist to stabilize 75 ELDs.
It hammers though and feeds perfectly from an MDT magazine. I’m happy.
I am still curious about trying a faster powder.
Thanks for the input.
FYI I have a CLE chamber 18in with 1-7.7 twist . A NATO or Wylde chamber will probably like a higher charge.
LC brass and cci 41 primers on all loads
23 Tac with the SMK 69 has been a good load through my 18in SPR 2707 fps average. Accurate and I’ve been able to stock up on that powder and projectiles
I use this load for ringing steel
24.6 Varget gets me 2692 fps with the 69 SMK and is more accurate , but I’m lower on Varget.
My best load is the 77 SMK with 22.3 N135. 2637 average fps and little bug holes.
I don’t have my seating depth data with me but most are 2.25-2.26 mag length
LC brass and cci 41 primers on all loads
23 Tac with the SMK 69 has been a good load through my 18in SPR 2707 fps average. Accurate and I’ve been able to stock up on that powder and projectiles
I use this load for ringing steel
24.6 Varget gets me 2692 fps with the 69 SMK and is more accurate , but I’m lower on Varget.
My best load is the 77 SMK with 22.3 N135. 2637 average fps and little bug holes.
I don’t have my seating depth data with me but most are 2.25-2.26 mag length
Since I just started reloading, I've found surprisingly that I get better accuracy loading at the lower end of the powder scale. Since I don't care a bit about velocity, just accuracy at 100 yards, I'm finding it comfortable to do these tight sub MOA groups in my factory bolt gun with low or average loads than all these high power loads where you need to watch for signs of overpressure.
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