My daughter will be heading afield in two weeks with a single shot 223 loaded with 60 grain partitions over 23.3 grains of tac. 1:12 twist. Best group was .8". Shots should be fairly close.
I couldn't get the partitions to stabilize worth a crap in a 1:12. Glad somebody can!
As to the original question: Varget isn't the perfect powder, but it should get you where you need to get speed-wise. If in the market for another powder, my recommendation would be CFE. It gives me top speed and best accuracy out of all the 223's tried. The Partitions do stabilize well, and shoot into about 3/4" at 100 in my RAR. I'd feel completely comfortable packing that setup for game up to deer, but I haven't done it yet.
My RAR in 223 likes Hornady 68 bthp, and shoots them really well. I've taken two bucks with them. One was a neck shot, through the spine and gone, with the buck dropping in the scope. The second was a smaller meat buck, drilled through the shoulders. Busted the on-side humerus, through the ribs making soup of the forward lungs, and stopped just past the busted off-side humerus in the shoulder. Deer dropped, but took a minute or so to be dead. Shots were both just shy of 100 yards. I should have taken more time to get set for the second deer. Pulled the shot a bit. Didn't mean to peg the shoulders, but in retrospect, I'm glad to know what that bullet does in that case. Have also watched another deer get shot with that same bullet, at about 50 yds, through the ribs. Exited, leaving soup, deer dropped at shot. I'm quite happy with this load. I bought a bunch of the Federal Fusion bullets from Rocky Mountain Reloading, and they shoot great out of the RAR, but I've not hunted them yet.
