Home Forums Reloading Varmint Rifles New to the .223 Rem

New to the world of the .223 Rem, and from what I can read it is pretty hard to be unsuccesful, but I've spent a lot of time behind the action of other guns that were supposed to be simple...

I just purchased a used Browning Composite Stalker and looking forward to loading it. Looking to put 50 grain NBT's down the barrel.

I don't currently have any suitable powders on hand, so looking for opinions on where to start powder wise. For those that want to contribute, please list in order of preference the first three powders you would try.

Thanks in advance.

H4895 or TAC.

I’ve had great luck with H322. It’s my go to in 223 and 204.

My 3 favorite powders for 50grainers #1 VihtaVuori N133 has always done the best in my bolt action rifles with 50's #2 Benchmark #3 IMR8208XBR

Benchmark powder for lighter weight bullets up to 50 grains and Varget for 69 grain and heavier bullets worked best in my rifles.

Varget does dime size groups @ 100 with 55 grainers for me with 1 in 9 twist.

Same here.

Nobody likes CFE223? I bought 8lbs of it.......

You read right.

For me it's CFE223 for heavier bullets (64 -73 gr), Benchmark for 40 gr & TAC for the in-betweens. Or TAC for all of them.

Lots of good powders for .223, if it works in .308 it will probably work in .223

A lot of powders will work very well in a 223. I have used a lot of powders.......H335, W748, H322, Varget, TAC, Benchmark, and the surplus WC846 and 844, to name what I usually keep on hand. Varget is supposed to be better in the heavier bullets, but I've had it work with lighter ones also. If I had to pick one powder that I've had consistent results with, it would be W748.

For any weight bullet in 223 I have always found a powder that works better than CFE223, does show some promise in 22 Nosler though.

Win 748 is pretty hard to beat.

223 is not fussy

H4895......W748...Benchmark........H322.......Varget......H335,,,,CFE223.....VVN 133

I look to Nosler data when looking for new info.........

https://load-data.nosler.com/load-data/223-remington/

I started and stopped with Benchmark with a 53g bullet. That would probably be the first thing I try with a 50g bullet. But as has been said before there are a lot of powders that work well with the .223. It's hard to go wrong.

As you probably saw from reading the posts of others above....

as I've always said.. its harder to pick a powder that doesn't do a good job in a 223, than it is to find one that
is better than every one else...

a 223 and what powder to use, is like trying to pick the best gas to run in an old VW bug...
which would run on about anything you could buy at a gas pump anywhere.. except maybe diesel..
and then I wouldn't be surprised if the VW would run on 50/50 gas& diesel mix...

heck, I've even played with pwders like H1000, RL 23, RL 25, and RL 26, 4831 in a 223 to just see the results..
at least in a bolt gun.. they still went bang, and also turned in minute of sage rat at 100 yds...

all I can recommend to a newbie on the 223, don't try to overthink it all...

H-4895 or Varget, I like the 62 Barnes in my 223 for my pig slaying.

RL 10x, Benchmark and AA2230 are my favorite powders for 55 grain bullets.

kwg

my ar 15 liked benchmark powder behind the 50 grain ballistic tips. Remington cases with cci primers

18 inch pipe runs between 3114 and 3180 fps. will shoot half inch groups if I'm on my game. H335 shoots about as tight however benchmark didn't seem to care which plastic tipped 50 grainer I was using.

data came from the nosler site. just finished a few beers so I forget how much powder.

26.5 grains of Benchmark under a 50 BT with a CCI400 primer gets me 3400 fps at the muzzle and embarrassingly small groups.

It's a max load so work up to it.




P

AA2230, which is the same as XTerminator, if you're not shooting in extreme temperatures.

I have a bunch of 55 grain Bear Claws, they work well too.

Ramshot TAC
Accurate 2015
Accurate 2230/Ramshot Exterminator
The first 3 powders I would try with a 50 gr bullet in a .223.

I use H335 behind 40 gr Nosler BTs, 55gr Nosler BTs, and Nosler 60 gr Partitions. It’s probably just my rifle, but it shoots the Partition and the 40 grainer extremely well and into the same POI.

2230 worked good behind Sierra 65 gr GKs. Varget worked well with heavier bullets.

H335 & Benchmark are what I run with 40 to 52 grain pills in a 223.

26 grains of 3031 and a 53 grain Varmaggedon Nosler are turning in some impressive 100 yd one big hole group at 100 yds..
out of a Rem VLS in 223...

I have had the best results in velocity and accuracy using CFE223, but there are lots of great powders in burn rate from Blue Dot to Lever that have done very well for me with jacketed bullets from 40 to 75 gr in a 1:8, and bullets 40-63 in a 1:12. In the slower twists, I like the 53 Vmax. It has a very high BC for its weight. In faster twists, I like the Hornady 68 bthp the best. There are many excellent bullets though.

Second the motion on CFE223...just started using it last year and get best velocities out of it, plus its accurate where some other ball powders haven't been.

ingwe, did you try it in a .222??? I am about due to resupply for my ,222 and ,223.. H4198 has been good in both, but I would like something that meters better!!!!

I'll second the suggestion of CFE-223. I've used it now in several rifles and am liking its performance, metering ability, and definitely better ease of cleaning copper bore fouling afterwards.

In all my .223's, for 50gr bullets, they prefer, in descending order of accuracy;

H-4895
Varget
TAC
CFE-223

For my rifles (all 1:8" twist) CFE223 is the most accurate for anything over 55gr with TAC coming in a close second

Welcome the wide, wide world of .223's.

I'll second the motion of "don't overthink it".

Ed

RE 10x for 55 and lighter and RE 15 for heavier than 55 has worked great

any powder works well in the 223.. but for those that like to keep things simple...

this is a pretty good game plan right here...

only modification I'd add is to substitute RL 7 for 15.... but then again
RL 7 has always worked so well for decades.. I didn't see the need to play with
RL 10....

other than that.. if you want velocity with 40 and 35 grainers ( Lead free)... then
RL 7 and old load data will give you the most velocity and best accuracy...

4000 fps all day long...

CFE 223 isn't listed as one of Hodgdon's extreme (temp. resistant) powders. Those of you who have used it extensively, how has it performed in that regard? Does it still do pretty good with wide fluctuations in temperature?

Yes, but my standards may not be as high as yours. I never measured velocities at bitter cold temps because, well, I have better things to do than freeze my nuts off just to conduct that experiment. I honestly don't notice any change in elevation POI between hot days and (relatively) cold days of 40º or so, at least not enough to cause a miss on a coyote out to around 2-250 yards with a rifle (AR) sighted in during the summer.

Just got done at the bench loading .223 so here's my thoughts,

Benchmark meters through powder funnels like water, as consistent thrown charges as I've ever seen,

Today was load development with each round thrown and then verified on the balance beam set at 24.6 grains,

Never touched the trickler once.

24 grains of BM for 50 grainers and 24.6 for 60 grainers.

Using the RCBS competition die (loading window) and things are golden.

50 gr NBT - Tac works great in Rem ADL and RAR

For 50-grain bullets, the best I've used were Benchmark and TAC. If I wasn't so loaded up with powder already I'd try CFE223.

Started with 748 years ago, used RL10 and 4895. Currently it's AA 2200 with 40 grainers at 3700 FPS.

Gives the range rats flying lessons.

HM

With 55gr in a 12-twist I've looked no further than W748. Meters well and the case will hold enough to get good velocity. Accuracy has also been excellent in several rifles. Today's data on w748 is conservative....search for some older data and you can make 748 sing! I've tried Varget with both 50 and 55 with no complaints but it is a pain to load vs 748.
Good Luck,
Rick

you can't get enough W 748 in a 223 case and seat a bullet, regardless of how compressed
to exceed 223 SAAMI specs...

30 grains of W 748.. with any bullet weight from 63 on down has never been an issue in any 223
I have owned or played with....

and its ALWAYS accurate as hell...