Home Forums Reloading Big Game Rifles Powder recommendations.......223 with heavy bullets

My son just built his first AR rifle, what powders do best with heavy bullets from 65 gr to 75 gr in a 1/7 twist barrel.

8208 xbr gave me what I wanted .

CFE-223 all the way.

I've found my best for both accuracy and velocity to be H4895, 8208-XBR, and Varget. I haven't found a ball powder yet that matches these stick powders for accuracy, much as I would like to.
8208-XBR meters the best of those three above.

No one suggested Benchmark ?

this

Might be worth a try. I tried it with 69gr. SMKs and had better results with the other powders. Here's the Hodgdon data.
As you can see, you get an extra 100 fps out of H4895 over Benchmark for the same pressure.
H4895 is the one I reach for for 69 grain bullets and above. If that doesn't work I'll try the others.

Aye.

The best powder I've found for the 65 GK and 69 MK in a 1 in 7" & 1 in 9" twist has been H4895, with TAC as a second.

Some say it’s to fast but I use H322 for everything up thru 69 grain bullets.

Its for an AR rifle. Try AR Comp. It is some damn good powder. Its very consistent shooting and drops like water out of my uni-flo powder measure.

Benchmark, H 322, AR Comp, 4320 and IMR 4895

IMR XBR 8208

CFE. Most accurate and highest velocity for me.

I truly don't get the Love for CFE223, I have tried it in multiple AR's and bolt guns and it was never the most accurate powder in any rifle.
For 65gr to 75gr bullets the OP was asking about Varget has been the most consistently accurate powder followed by IMR8208XBR, I have one rifle that just loves VVN133. Some have mentioned Benchmark, it works awesome with 55grainers not so good with heavies.

I forgot to mention another powder that really works well in some rifles with heavies.....RL15

TAC, Varget.

Exactly my experience.

My competition go to load for years is RL15 using 69s, 77s, 75amax. Used the same charge weight regardless of bullet. Varget was pretty much interchangeable with my RL15 loads. Took some loads and put in my Rem 5r bolt gun and the 77mks were real accurate.

So far I've tried:

2520
H4895
Varget
Tac
CFE 223
Leverevolution
MP 475 surplus powder
Benchmark


and none of them match the accuracy I get from RL 15 in my particular gun, with 75 bthp. I have a jug of PowerPro Varmint that will be tried next.

RL15 is oh so nice through a Dillon measure.