working on load development on .223

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amosfella

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Well, I bought a CZ 527 varmint with a 1:9 twist barrel, and decided to use some of the norinco brass I had for doing some load development. I didn't like the consistancy of the norinco ball ammo on it's own. Mostly it was good stuff, but then I'd be 2" off at 100 yards for no good reason. So, today, I took some stuff I loaded up the other day as it's relatively calm wind wise here as compared to the last few days when it was hard to stand up in the wind at times... It was gusting around 10-20 km/h today. Here's the results at 100 yards:



Untitled by wolverine00089, on Flickr


Top left winchester 40 pack ammo
top right Sierra 52 gr bthp match 22 gr powder
center Sierra 60 gr hp 21.5 gr powder
bottom left sierra 63gr sp 20 grain powder
bottom right barnes 50 gr varmint grenade 22.5 gr powder

All powder was IMR 3031. target was a standard sheet of 8.5x11. All shots fired at the center of the bullseye, or as close as possible...

I was not impressed with the winchester ammo... at all... But to be fair, it was the first ammo set and fired from a cold barrel.

I think what will happen is that I'll take each one of these and work up loads for each of these by doing the .5 grain increment from min to max load, selecting the smallest groups 0.5 apart, and working up 0.1 grain at a time to see what I"ll get... Might be buying more bullets soon... Or varget powder...

Here is the shooting 'bench':


Untitled by wolverine00089, on Flickr
 
Try out the cfe223 powder as well, I was getting excellent results from 26 grains of powder with the nosler varmageddon 55 gain bullets in my savage with a 1:9 twist barrel. Haven't tried out the varget I have yet, I have 60 grain bullets I want to try out with it.
 
3031, good choice. If you like it, try Benchmark, same burn range, tad slower.

Benchmark and been owning it in both me and my buddies rifle.
He's shooting 60g bullets out of a CZ rifle, not sure which model.
I'm shooting 55g V-Max, 24g, 2.25"out my AR, 20", 1/8. (This is a 5.56 chamber load! Not 223.)

I've shot a lot of CFE, not bad, I like it, great for cycling a semi, hasn't touched Benchmark for accuracy in any of my rifles.

And yeah, you're not likely to ever be impressed by cheap factory ammo. If it shoots 3 inches, it's doing what it's designed for.
 
I use H335 myself, but that's not important. If I may make a suggestion, try loading your initial rounds with .2 or .3 grain difference in powder charge. The .223 case is quite small, and in doing my load testing for my .223, a gap of .5 grains could completely miss an accuratacy node.
 
Well it looks like the 52 grn Sierra's show promise. My 223 1:9 likes the 50-55 grn range too. Not too familiar with 3031 & don't have access to my reloading manual right now but 20 to 22 grns sounds like a bit of a light charge? I use Varget and usually 25.6 grn if memory serves me. Sometimes a little more velocity can do wonders for the grouping ..... sometimes not! Do you notice significant powder burns on the outside of the brass neck after firing? If so might not be making a perfect seal when expanding and a little heavier charge will help with that too. Like I say I'm going from memory based on Varget (or was it WC735???), not 3031 so it's quite possible 3031 is one of those powders you need less of to begin with.
Also ..... the load development may reveal some surprises to you. What started out as a questionable projectile may very well prove to be excellent in your rifle once you fine tune a load for it. As others have said ..... work up in 0.2 grain increments so you don't miss finding the sweet spot! Obviously allot depends on the projectile too .......... I note the best results above were with a match bullet.
 
In my opinion ( which is only an opinion ) based on experience and without swapping powder you will never know the potential

But fill it up with varget and set a 69 gr pill and have atter lad and see what it will do !

Varget is a pretty go to Powder. Other notables Blc-2 , benchmark , 4895 , 322, 380.

But all 223 I played with love varget
 
The loads I started with were starting loads in my lyman book rounded to the nearest 0.5 grain. My current scale is a real PITA... A new one is on order from nachess, but it's not here yet... I also wonder if the difference in hit points is that the bullets weren't seated perfectly consistently... Tip variations were about 0.015 out...
Anyways, might try IMR4064 for giggles... hehe
The groups when measured from furthest apart are within 5mm of each other...
 
Id suggest try loads about 0.3 apart, unless you have a very very accurate scale to the 0.01 then each tenth might not be so, plus makes it easier then shooting 15 different loads in sets of 3 or 5
 
got my collett neck dies today, so I reformed some brass. and got a digital scale and powder trickler as well. I was weighing the sierra bullets, and got about a .5 grain difference from high to low in them in a test group of 10. These are Sierra bullets, not some no name... But for now, what I have is within minute of gopher... Will probably load some rounds in the next day or so, and do increases in powder, and see what I get...
 
amosfella said:
Sounds like a good suggestion. And I'll have to see if I can find some small quantities of some different powders locally to try...
Click to expand...

Are you using a rear bag in your shooting set up? I had the same rifle as you and one of my better loads was with the 60gr Vmax with 23gr of Benchmark Powder. Was a real winner in my CZ. Where abouts are you? FS
 
JasonYuke said:
In my opinion ( which is only an opinion ) based on experience and without swapping powder you will never know the potential

But fill it up with varget and set a 69 gr pill and have atter lad and see what it will do !

Varget is a pretty go to Powder. Other notables Blc-2 , benchmark , 4895 , 322, 380.

But all 223 I played with love varget
Click to expand...

This^^^^. Also the Hornady 75 HPBT over Varget. The 1-9 twist will thank you.
 
Fassteel said:
Are you using a rear bag in your shooting set up? I had the same rifle as you and one of my better loads was with the 60gr Vmax with 23gr of Benchmark Powder. Was a real winner in my CZ. Where abouts are you? FS
Click to expand...

I'm down by Vulcan. I used the tension from clenching and unclenching my fist as a rear support. I don't have a sandbag...
 
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