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I have been unable to find and load data to indicate that Hodgdon's H380 can be used in a .223. That is, not until tonight. I was looking at a load data sheet that came with my Lee .223 dies and low and behold it plainly lists H380 with a 55 grain bullet using a powder charge of 28.5 grains. OK, this sounds good as I have a quantity of H380 on hand. I carefully measured 28.5 grains weighed on a Frankford electronic scale. Problem is, it completely filled the primed case. My first thought was that my scale was out of calibration, so I re-zeroed the scale and tried again with same results. I then zeroed the scale using a 50 gram weight after resetting from grains to grams. Scale checked out perfectly. Changed back to grains and reweighed another powder charge and it also maximum filled the case. I am going to call Lee customer service tomorrow about this, but thought I would ask here if anyone has had any experience loading .223 with H380 powder? I usually use CFE223. Maybe I had better stay with it. Thanks for the response!
"...why, land is the only thing in the world worth working for, worth fighting for, worth dying for,... because it is the only thing that lasts."
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Talked to Lee customer service this morning and explained in detail the situation. He found in some older Lee documents load data matching what I have, but no mention of H380 for any .223 load in anything in the last couple of years. He said all of their load data comes directly from the various powder manufacturers. Both he and I speculate that this data was supplied to them in error and has since been omitted as it was incorrect.
"...why, land is the only thing in the world worth working for, worth fighting for, worth dying for,... because it is the only thing that lasts."
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Modern Reloading 2nd edition by Richard Lee 2003-2004. List 2 loads for 223 with H380 one a 53 grain and the other a 63 grain interestingly with the start and max loads being equal 28.5 and 28.0 respectively. This data is from manufacturers and not tested by Lee.
Ed
A person who asks a question is a fool for 5 minutes the person who never asks is a fool forever.
The worst slaves are those that put the chains on themselves.
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Talked to Lee customer service this morning and explained in detail the situation. He found in some older Lee documents load data matching what I have, but no mention of H380 for any .223 load in anything in the last couple of years. He said all of their load data comes directly from the various powder manufacturers. Both he and I speculate that this data was supplied to them in error and has since been omitted as it was incorrect. Actually in the 90’s Hodgdon published a lot of loads for the 223 using H380. I have tried a bunch and most were unimpressive to say the least. Maybe a magnum primer would help but I never went any farther. Use at your own risk. From Hodgdon #26
Swifty
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I used to use H380 in a 1-12" twist .223 with the Speer 70 grain semi-spitzer. Shot pretty well. No idea about actual velocity.
Not that you asked, of course, but in that particular gun, H335 was magic with 50s though with loads that are too hot by today's standards, and for 40s and 45s it liked AA2230.
Tom
Anyone who thinks there's two sides to everything hasn't met a M�bius strip.
Here be dragons ...
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