What is your favorite .223 bullet & Load

[bhp9]

What bullet and what powder do you use in the Remington .223?

[RU shooter]

Since you said "bullet " instead of Boolit I assume your meaning jacketed bullet loads? If so for 0-300 yd shooting heres mine 60 gr Serria varmiter HP and 24 grs of Reloader 15 for longer distance the 75 gr Hornady Amax and the same 24 grs of RE15

[Sprue]

Hornady 68 Gr BTHP over 22g H335 for most anything.

55g Tracers over 23g H335

For Groundhogs Hornady 55g Vmax works well

[JeffinNZ]

They are "hares".......[smilie=1:

Lyman 225415 over 7gr of Green Dot on a WSP.

[GabbyM]

For prairie dogs in my 26” barrel bolt gun the Sierra 50 gr. ballistic tips have a very high B.C. and will go past 500 yards to bust a dog in half. No penatration on coyotes and such though. I've used several powders. Varget works good but I've bought some TAC because it's supposed to be cleaner. Not tested it out enough to give an opinion.

On order I've a Saeco mould in 60 gr. It will be the most fun shooting for sure. I wear a barrel out in two years of varminting and bench shooting. Looking forward to shooting my big varmint rifle with low recoil and long barrel life. Will still have to break out the high velocity stuff for Prairie dogs. If I ever go again.
I've a new AR upper with 20” bull barrel. Plan is to shoot the 60gr. Cast through it with iron sights. I figure it will be like having a hot 22 hornet on an AR platform. The mould is on back order and I'm chomping at the bit.

[runfiverun]

hornady 50gr spsx over h-322
or sierra 52 gr.sp over aa2495br

[AZ-Stew]

Hornady 50SX over 26.0 gr H-335, CCI BR primer in Mil. brass.WARNING! MAXIMUM LOAD! MAY BE TOO HOT FOR SOME RIFLES! Start at least 2 grains lower and work up slowly!

Hornady 50SX over 6.0 gr SR- (IMR)-7625, CCI BR primer, Mil. brass. Light, quiet, very accurate load for squirrels.

Both loads were developed for my Rem. 788 bolt gun. I have no idea how well either would work in a semi-auto.

Regards,

Stew

[Uncle R.]

In my Bushmaster Varmint Special I like the 55 gr. Hornady V-Max over a 95% charge of Varget and sparked by WSR primers. Shoots WAY under MOA. (Average of five 5-shot groups @ 100 yards was 9/16 inch - the WORST group went 3/4" and the best two had all holes touching. Terminal results on P-dogs were OK if not exactly "pink mist" spectacular. Never tried 'em on larger game but I suspect they'd be OK for coyotes.
Uncle R.

[imashooter2]

Hornady 60 grain V-MAX over 25.0 of Varget flies very well for me. 5 shot groups from my DPMS based AR stay between an inch to an inch and a half at 200 yards. That's benched, of course.

[bhp9]

sorry I meant a cast bullet load that you can seat within the case neck of the very short necked .223 cartridge.

[bruce drake]

I bought the BATOR 55gr mold from Midsouth Shooters Supply last and just twittered around with a couple of loads for an AR. I've unfortunately haven't had time to develop more than a plinking load with it. 6gr of Red Dot. It didn't cycle the action but it was fun for the boys and I to plink cans with. The boys shot a "large bullet" compared to their 22LR rifles and the recoil wasn't anything to worry about.

The mold takes a while to heat up properly due to the small cavity of the dual mold, but once she's warm enough, I was getting a pile of bullets quickly the two times I've cast with it.

Bruce

[WyrTwister]

For prairie dogs in my 26” barrel bolt gun the Sierra 50 gr. ballistic tips have a very high B.C. and will go past 500 yards to bust a dog in half. No penatration on coyotes and such though. I've used several powders. Varget works good but I've bought some TAC because it's supposed to be cleaner. Not tested it out enough to give an opinion.

On order I've a Saeco mould in 60 gr. It will be the most fun shooting for sure. I wear a barrel out in two years of varminting and bench shooting. Looking forward to shooting my big varmint rifle with low recoil and long barrel life. Will still have to break out the high velocity stuff for Prairie dogs. If I ever go again.
I've a new AR upper with 20” bull barrel. Plan is to shoot the 60gr. Cast through it with iron sights. I figure it will be like having a hot 22 hornet on an AR platform. The mould is on back order and I'm chomping at the bit.



Please let us know how it shoots .

Especially if you come up with a load that cycles the action .

I have found , the bigger the bullet , the easier it is for me to cast good bullets .

.45-70 easier than , say , .357 .

I have been reluctant to tre a .223 mold . For that reason .

Please report on that too .

God bless
Wyr

[fatelvis]

24.0 grns RL15 under a Sierra 69 or 77 grns BTHP, loaded to magazine length, sparked by a Rem 7 1/2 primer.

[Larry Gibson]

sorry I meant a cast bullet load that you can seat within the case neck of the very short necked .223 cartridge.

Depends on the intended puropse and the rifle used. I've mostly settled on lymans 225415 and 225438 as they fit the .223 neck without the GC extending below the case neck.

Bolt or single actions with 12 or 14" twists;

HV 22LR duplication/225415/ 4 gr Bullseye/1500+ fps
Subsonic .22LR/225438/2.2 gr Bullseye/1050 fps
.22 WRM ground squirrel load/225415/17 gr H4895/1800 fps

The above are pretty consistantly accurate in a M700V/12", a M788/14", a TC Carbine/12" and a M24V/14". I have tried higher velocity loads in the 12" twist M700V but didn't work that hard at them. I have several 22 Hornets and they work better for that.

For Mini14s with 10" twists and ARs with 12' twists;

225415/18 gr H4895/1900+ fps/minimal for reliable functioning. Accuarcy was 5-6 moa out of the 2 moa capable Mini and 3-4 moa out of the 1.5 moa capable AR. (scopes on both)

I've not really worked with cast in 9" twist other than the .22 WRM ground squirrel load/225415/17 gr H4895/1800 fps shot about 4 moa out of my Savage Competition which is .5 moa capable. The 18 gr load of H4895 shoots about the same out of my Competition Colt AR with 9" twist which is -1 moa capable.

My 7" twist Bushmaster AR shoots that load into much larger groups, basically improved cylinder.

Dare I say RPM in regards to the 7, 9 and 10" twists? One of these days I'm going to spend more work on some high velocity loads in the 12" twist M700V. I'm wanting to get a load that shoots 1-1.5 moa at 2500-2600 fps (150-156,000 RPM) with either bullet. That is standard .22 Hornet range and thus should make for a ground squirrel extrodinaire load.

Larry Gibson

[Bass Ackward]

Dare I say RPM in regards to the 7, 9 and 10" twists? One of these days I'm going to spend more work on some high velocity loads in the 12" twist M700V. I'm wanting to get a load that shoots 1-1.5 moa at 2500-2600 fps (150-156,000 RPM) with either bullet. Larry Gibson


224415, (49 grain)

27 grains of 4831. LBT Blue Soft lube at 24 BHN and up. That's 2650 fps.

25 grains is @2500 but don't do real well. Spin that puppy.

25 grains of RL15 is 2900 fps and that's close enough to MOA to call it.

[Beaverhunter2]

Sorry- don't cast little boolits (yet). However, the best shooting load from my Savage .223 is a RP 50gr SP over 25.5 gr IMR4895 and a CCI-400 in RP or WW brass (both shoot equally well). I can get 10 shot 1" groups at 100yds. Interestingly, "higher dollar" bullets (Nosler BTs, Hornady V-max, Sierra Matchkings, all shoot larger groups (or patterns). And the RP 50gr HP shoots 3" groups with the same powder, etc.

The barrel has some pitting from being caught in a flood. I told SWMBO that I was going to rebarrel it if I couldn't find an accuate load. Took 16 different loads to the range and this is the one the rifle liked. I was so amazed I made the mistake of telling her when I walked in from the range. Now she has the ammunition to keep me from rebarrelling it anyway! LOL

John

BTW This a max or near max load! Download by 10% and work up if you plan to try it.

[Larry Gibson]

Bass

Rifle?

Twist?

Larry Gibson

BTW; I thought FN bullets weren't supposed to shoot that accurately at that high a velocity....something about holding your hand out a car window and feeling how the wind pushes it around?:-)

[Leadforbrains]

I shot the ground hogs witha Berger 55 gr MEF over H322, lapua brass and CCI BR4 primers. Groups were under a half inch at one hundred yards.
Winchester 748 is another good powder.