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.