Home Forums Hunting & Shooting AR and Tactical Rifles Anybody ever loaded any subsonic .223?

I've been wondering about this for awhile. I loaded some .223 years ago with some very slow WC860 but, I shot it out of a Savage 110. No problems at all. Just a 55 gr. FMJ and a CCI 450 Magnum primer. I've been thinking about trying it in my AR.

Performance will suck.

It’s called 22 long rifle…

Loading a 223 subsonic just makes no sense.

I see what you're saying and I mostly agree but, when I was loading the WC860, I knew it wasn't gonna be efficient at all. I just did it for something to do. A friend has a suppressor and we were gonna try to make some quiet loads in .223 to shoot.

Not subsonic, but about 2000fps.

Young daughters wanted to shoot,
the Chipmunk was too long. (They were little)

Was messing with the AR one day, looked at it with the stock
completely collapsed. Eureka!

Loaded 'em up and too them shooting.

Straight pull bolt!
Only enough energy to move the bolt about 3/4 inch.

The closest I came to that was with the 22LR adaptor, and shooting some Aguila 60gr 22LR subsonic.

That round was the best shooting of the few 22 LR ammo I tried with the adaptor. I'm thinking the lower velocity, longer bullet, and longer bearing surface helped it in the slightly oversize bore and 1/7 twist.


60gr Aguila group on the bottom target, if I recall, it was 50 yards.


The launcher consisted of a PSA upper with a 14.7" FN barrel, chrome-lined, 1/7 twist.

Why? Its 5-6 bucks a box from cci, comes in 22lr.

Just seems like a waste of good components/powder

I have just to see if it would work. I followed Hornady’s load data for a 55 grain bullet. Shoots pretty good out to 50 yards, but thats probably it. It is supper quiet, but will not cycle the bolt. Is a royal pain to load since the charge is so small.

Not something I am going to load again, as I also have a 22 can which is just easier and cheaper to shoot 22 subs.

Well, the powder was free and bullets almost. Primers weren't exactly cheap though.

Many will recall the article Mule Deer did back during the last dearth of .22 ammo. He cobbled together a bunch of RF-equivalent loads for CFs. Good stuff, but now good .22s are widely available for $.08-.09 a pop, less than the delivered price of primers. End of story.

There are some good uses for reduced loads in .22CFs, but under current conditions, not for fun or cheap practice. One of those adapters looks like the hot setup for an AR.

Yeah, I need to look into a .22 LR conversion kit.

FYI - Hodgdon's online Reloading Data Center has .223 subsonic loads listed for Hornady 55gr FMJ using Clays, Titegroup, and Trail Boss powders.

I loaded some 55gr with 3.1gr titegroup.

Pretty hard to find 80gr VLDs in 22 Long Rifle.


As Shane posted the larger bore and tighter twist of most modern ARs can be hard on 22 LR bullets when using a conversion kit. It might work just fine for your application but subsonic loads using long .224 bullets might shoot better and offer better performance as the distance increases.