Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters .223 General Purpose Load

I've owned a lot of rifles over the last 30+ years but I'm late to the game with the 223. That has been corrected and I just bought my first .223, a CZ 527 American with a 1-9" twist barrel. It is mostly going be a range gun for myself and my 8 year old daughter. It might see use for the odd coyote and it may well get used for my daughter to start deer hunting.

I know that many here love the .223 for a broad range of uses. I'd like to know what others would suggest as a single load for my intended uses. Any favourite load suggestions would be appreciated.

I’d start with a 55 grain bullet but wouldn’t limit myself to just one bullet for all of the above. You should be able to get away with about any cheap bulk bullets for range shooting/plinking with your daughter or try something like a Nosler Ballistic Tip for a better all around range and varmit bullet and Barnes TTSX for deer. Obviously you have a lot of choices but that would be about as good of a start as any.

hornady 60gr sp and a good stiff charge of reloder 15 or tac doesn't suck across a lot of my rifles

Thanks for the suggestions. I have been thinking of something 55-60 grains and I bet the 60 grain Hornady would be good.

If I find a good load for all of my uses I might look for an improved load for deer whether the TTSX, 60 grain Nosler Partitions, the factory Federal Fusion load that I've heard good things about or something else altogether depending on what advice I get.

Kinda hard to beat the Hornady 55 gr SP as a general purpose bullet, but I don’t run heavies in mine.
GreggH

CFE 223 is good powder to start with and Sierra's 55, 62 and 65 grain Game Kings are good all purpose bullets. Oddly, Lapua 223 brass has been readily available lately and reasonably priced. Primers? I hope you have some! The Game King of your choice, whatever primer you can find, Lapua brass and a healthy charge of CFE 223. There's your single load.

55 grain Sierra Gameking.

Any suitable powder and a good SR primer.

Kills deer better than it should.

cfe 223 sucks balls for temp stability

not sure how it's anyone's go to hunting powder..

maybe if ur in the arctic it won't bite ya.

Fraser: I have posted about this many times in the past on this forum and others. I am VERY close to a family of 6 who uses their 223 Remington 700 to harvest many many dozens of Whitetailed Deer here in SW Montana over the last 23 yearss
The limit is 5 or 6 a year per person and they Hunt with the 223 until they fill their freezers with this wonderful meat, each year.
Anyway I myself have seen at least 20 Whitetails taken with their lone 223 Remington Rifle - all one shot kills! And they always use the factory Remington 55 grain PSP (Pointed Soft Point) 223 ammunition.
Best of luck with your young one and the 223.
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy

Varget doesn't. It's pretty temp stable and works well with the .223.

I got a bunch of Fed Fusion 62 gr. from Rocky Mtn Reloading back when they had them. I should have gotten more.

Those kill stuff way above their weight class, and they're accurate.

Those over Varget, about my fav .223 general purpose load.

DF

Didn’t spec that I use 25.0 gr of Benchmark under the 55’s
GreggH

55 grain Hornady SP over 25 grains of H4895

Agreed. They work on everything from prairie dogs to deer.

Take your pick on easy metering ball powders:

Tac, H335, WW748, BLc2, or if you're able to come across some surplus WW844/846

That sounds too easy man.. I'll bet that load would also work very well for 55gr Hornady fmj's...

Rocky Mountain Reloading has 55 gr FMJ's at a good price.

They're now making their own bullets right there in CO, starting with 9mm.

Check'em out.

https://www.rmrbullets.com/shop/bul...ady-lead-core-full-metal-jacket-bullets/

DF

I like the sounds of that since I always keep plenty of H4895 on hand. I know Mule Deer is a big TAC fan but it is hard stuff to find in Canada.

I hunt in the woods.

There are lots of good powders for the 223 and midweight bullets, I use both IMR4895 and H322 with Hornady 55gr FMJs, 55gr SPs or 50gr Vmax. It is not hard to make most 223s shoot well.

A 55 grain bullet with Benchmark is very accurate and stable. You can also use IMR XBR 8208 for the 55s up to the 69s. With Benchmark and a 55, your accuracy node will be somewhere around 25 grains of powder. Work up to it.

My fastest twist .223’s are 7’s, my slowest is a 9 and I have one 8. They all shoot the same two loads extremely well and with excellent terminal results: 60 grain Sierra HP or 65 grain SGK over 27 grains of Varget, CCI 400, COAL .010 short of max that will work through AR mags.