New Favorite .223 Recipe

[Gashira]

I've settled on my new favorite recipe for the AR-15 after spending a few hours at the rifle range. The EBR has a 16" Sabre Defence with a 1:7 twist. At 100 yards I was consistently getting 1" groups right on the mark.


LC .223 brass trimmed to 1.740".
25.2 gr of Hodgdon Benchmark.
Hornady V-Max 55 gr bullets.
CCI Small Rifle Magnum primers.

The best part is how friggin' clean the Benchmark burns: hardly anything was left in the barrel after 120 rounds. It also measures great on the Dillon 550.

Anyone else have some .223 recipes they'd like to share?

[cohutt]

Until i run through another 24 lbs of it, WC844 will be my favorite powder.
For plinkers, I use 26.5g with any 55g fmj.

Clean? Clean enough.

For "accurate" rounds, i use 25+g of Varget and 69g smk's, sub moa accuracy through my bull barrel varmint rig:

http://i107.photobucket.com/albums/m284/cohutt/misc052.jpg

[Gashira]

I've got 2.5 lbs of Varget sitting downstairs that I've been using to reload 30-06 on an M1 Garand. I'll have to give it a try in the .223 too. The only problem I've found with Varget is that it tends to throw a few loose grains with each trip to the powder die. With the Benchmark everything seems to stay right in the cartridge.

Unrelated question: with a 1:7 barrel, should I be using something heavier then 55 gr bullets?

[cohutt]

1x7?

you could go heavier no problem, bump up an see how you like it

should you?

Expirement, use what works in your gun, suits shooting needs and budget.

[kidcop]

I have a 7 -1 twist Kreiger and a 6 1/2 - 1 twist Pac Nor on my service rifle uppers. I have shot 52 to 80 gr. SMK's and they all shot very well. Both uppers loves the 77 gr SMK's The 80's are loaded .015 off the lands and can not be mag loaded. I use the 80's for slow fire, loaded one at a time at 600 yards. One of these days I'll let you know how the Kreiger shoots 90 gr. Bergers when I work up a load for a 1000.