first time loading .223

slushee

slushee

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So I've been loading for a .308 win autoloader for some time with a lot of success.

I've just bought myself a brand new mini-14 and am going to order in some lee dies on monday for .223 but I need help trying to decide where to begin choosing a bullet.

I want to turn my mini-14 into a red dotted cqb rifle / cyote killer. I believe the rifle twist rate is 1:9 for a mini? If i'm correct, this will in theory do better with the heavier 55 grain to 69 grain bullets?

I'm looking for a very cheap bullet but I only have any experience with sierra matchkings and Spitzers. I think its pretty obvious I don't know where to start here :)

Any suggestions?

EDIT - i'd also like to stick with my tried and true imr 4895 powder wherever possible
 
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You can start practicing with 55gr FMJs, with 25 gr.IMR 3031, that are readily available from on this site. for serious shooting at distant objects, I use the Hornady 75 gr A-Max match bullets, pushed by 23 gr. ( to start) of IMR3031. Go up in 1/2 gr until the gun likes the mix. 25 gr Max. But if your gun is semi auto...you should crimp the bullets.
 
Sierra Varmint 60 gr HP have worked really good in my 1 in 8 twist Tikka Varmint, but really it shoots everything well from 40 gr up to 75 if you can believe it. The Sierras aren't that expensive really. Haven't tried them on coyotes yet, but whacked two badgers and hundreds of gophers with them. Did headshots on the badgers and there was no exit hole, instant kill.
I've also started trying Sierra's 63 gr. soft point Varminters which I will use on Wiley this winter now that deer season is over. These absolutely destroy the gophers I've hit them with, cutting them in two, so I think they'll be great for coyotes. I think I got a box of 100 for around $22. Is that cheap enough?
I use Varget and H335 behind both these bullets with really good success using the H335 and the 60 gr HP. Haven't quite perfected the load with the 63 gr bullets yet.
I did use 4895 at the beginning too and it worked fine, but I only had a little bit of it left over so didn't get to experiment long with it.
 
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Thanks for the info. I think i'll take you up on your idea to start using 55 grain FMJ BT's. I think i'm going to stick with IMR 4895 though only because I have a tonne of it around which I use for my .308 win.

Both sierra's and hornady's fmj's have a cantelever. I normally use a lee factory crimp die on non-cantilever bullets for .308 win. Can I use the lee factory crimp with the cantelever bullets for .223?
 
i use sierra in .308,.303,.223 and .270 i anve had no problems i have seen the soft points jam in auto loaders mostly AR's but the HPBT work well

with a 1:8 i would go for a 60gr to a 69gr PRO but again in AR's its a fast light round and dose not like to be over stablised

the matchking is the best i have found from sierra i weigh my PROs befor using and hav a .5 gr tollarence and out of 100 10 might be out so they are a good PRO to go with in my mind
 
For a mini-14 the 55 FMJ that BDX sells is a good bet.
Not sure what you have in your area, but Hornady seem to be a decent deal in the stores here -max I'd go with is the 68 HPBT or the 69smk, but honestly, those bullets are a waste coming out of a mini-14. (I love minis - they are very reliable -but accuracy is not their strong suit)
Your mini will not stabalize the 75 amax -nor will you be able to load it to mag length!!! -don't bother.
4895 was the original 5.56 powder, and is still an excellent choice for up to about a 70 grain bullet.
If you go with a bullet with a canalure, I'd recommend loading to that OAL, and use the canalure for your crimp. The Lee factory crimp die is good value for the money and does a very good job -I even crimp my match bullets without a canalure.

My take on crimping as a whole:
A) It gives uniform and consistant neck tension
B) If your rounds have little runout after crimping, they are more likely to retain that concentricity after getting slammed into the chamber -especially if they are in an auto.
 
One nice thing is that powders that work well in a .308, usually work well in a .223. So your IMR4895 is just fine for a .223 (about the "worst" thing that can be said about IMR4895 is that its long sticks make for fussier loading into the smal .223 case mouth. Performance-wise though, it is wonderful).

All the Mini-14s I have ever seen shoot have been blessed with _authoritative_ (!!) ejection; this might ding your brass up a bit, or make finding your brass a bit more difficult than with an AR-15 or a bolt rifle. If it were me, I'd get a spare ejector spring, and experiment with cutting it shorter a bit at a time, until ejection is reliable but much more localized.

I have heard good things about Winchester 64 grain Power Point bullets (that they are decently accurately, i.e. about 1 MOA, and that they are a big-game bullet). I've bought a couple of hundred, to see if they are worth using in my AR-15 for a 0-600 metre plinking load, and in my 1-9" twist .22-250 as an all-around plinking/varmint/deer load.

Mini-14s have a reputation for highly variable accuracy; some of them might have a good barrel and shoot an inch or two at 100y, others are barely capable of 6" at 100y. It's the luck of the draw, and unless you want to buy five, test them all, then keep the best one and return the other four, you might as well just accept what you end up drawing. Regardless of whether you get a particularly accurate barrel, Mini-14s are really fun little rifles to shoot.

So don't settle for shooting junk bullets, but be prepared to accept that perhaps you won't be able to get better than "middling" accuracy, even with match bullets (in which case, you can use the cheapest bullet you've found that still shoots as well as a match bullet).
 
In those small cases I like Winchester 748. I never had much luck getting FMJ's to shoot well in a .22 centerfire, not even in my Gaillard .222. Sierra bullets work well, and either a match bullet or a soft point are suitable for use on coyotes. The 1:9 twist makes it possible to shoot heavier bullets, but it doesn't mean that the rifle won't shoot a lighter bullet, but you should stay clear of fragile bullets like the Blitz. My 1:7 twist barrel shot 52 gr match bullets very well. For coyote shooting, a 55 gr bullet is probably right.
 
I have had a total of 4 Mini's. 2 were old series..little more than noise-makers regarding accuracy. I picked up a target Mini when they became available. It's not to hard to make MOA with this rifle using Sierra 55 Gamekings. Either H-335 or Varget works well. The Target Mini is barrel heavy with the damper and is a little unweildy in the feild. Just bought a Ranch series 580 with the new tapered barrel. Using the same loads, the first
groups are running 1.50 to 2 inches. Both are 1 in 9 twists and I am going to go with some 60gr--69gr to try to improve this on the Ranch.

Good luck with your new toy.

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