The Ultimate Collection of 223 Reloading Data - 7 Brands of Bullets - 1 Year of Work!

Haagen_Dazs

Haagen_Dazs

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Today is a big day for Haagen_Dazs! My 1000th post and I'm making it a good one! I've been loading for my 223 for the last year and a bit now and (excluding the Berger 90gners I've got in the basement) I'm DONE!!!!


This is going to be a post of my findings and final recipes for you reference. Feel free to add your own and comment! Bear with me cause there's LOADS of data *pun intended*.


*****Fixed the problem with the invisible pictures. Had to break up this one post into 4 different posts******​


I first bought the rifle after getting my RPAL in 2010. I decided on a Savage 12 VLP DBM in 223 with a 1:7" twist. An official shout out goes to Elwood Epps for hooking me up. The wait was antagonizing (2 months..?) But once it landed at the store, it was literally at my door with 24 hours! And the price was the best by far.

http://i1237.photobucket.com/albums/ff476/s25075/223 Load development/019.jpg
019.jpg

Ok, so anyway, I first outfitted it with a cheap bipod and a Sightron SIII 8-32x56mm FCH. I later sold that for a Vortex PST 6-24x50mm FFP MRAD, but after learning the turrets were not up to the task, I sold it and bought an SWFA SS HD 5-20x50mm FFP MRAD and will never own any other scope. Dealers: bring these into Canada!!!. The rings were and have always been Burris Signature ZEE rings with inserts and the base is a Farrel 20MOA. Shout out to Mystic Precision for supplying ALL of the reloading equipment, tools, gauges, and components you see in this thread! Also, I added a Horus ASLI at some point; a great tool!




So....
 
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Part 2/4

So after building my workbench and loading some 223 for the Norc M4, I started loading some precision stuff and (after days of f******ing around in the woods) found a place with ~300 yards to shoot in. This place was later shut down due to douchbags who can't clean up their shells, but I digress...


My Reloading area as it stands today:
PortageGuns137.jpg


My favorite place to shoot until it was shut down.
http://i1237.photobucket.com/albums/ff476/s25075/223 Load development/guns005.jpg
guns005.jpg


http://i1237.photobucket.com/albums/ff476/s25075/223 Load development/guns006.jpg
guns006.jpg


Not everything went as planned.....
guns007.jpg

The components I used in all of the development are as follows:


Lapua 223 Cases
CCI BR4 Small rifle benchrest primers
Hodgdon Varget
Dies: Lee Neck only - Redding Body only - Forester Benchrest Seater (w/o micrometer) - RCBS Universal Decapping die

Brass was universally deprimed and cleaned in my Stainless Steel tumbler before each firing. Most of the time, I'd just neck size only.



Bullets:

Sierra 65gn Game King
Sierra 69gn Match King
Hornady 75gn A-MAX
Nosler 77gn Custom Competition
Lapua 77gn HPBT
Hornady 80gn A-MAX
Berger 80gn VLD
Berger 90gn VLD (Not part of this thread.... yet)


Half way through the load development, I bedded my Savage 12. That was alot of fun and worth it in the end. No dramatic increases to the inherent precision of the rifle was noted, but looking at the unbedded stock, I could see a few hot spots. I made a thread dedicated to that if you're interested.




Bored already? Here's a pic of a friend shooting my 12ga, totally applicable to this thread!!





***All final recipes are summarized at the bottom of this 'report'***​
 
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Part 3/4

...

***All final recipes are summarized at the bottom of this 'report'***​


Ok, so getting on with the data. The first bullets tested were the Hornady 75gn A-Max and the Sierra 69gn MatchKing. Unfortunately, I lost alot of the pics and targets so there is little info. The spreadsheets have most of the important stuff anyway!



As you can see, the groups shot from my stock, unbedded Savage 12 are not too shabby. I realized that 3 shot groups were relatively inconclusive and switched to 5 shot groups for the last half of the brands of bullets.





No pics of the Sierra stuff, but as you can see, it's too light for the 1:7" twist.




I also wanted to develop a bit of a small game 'hunting' round. The results are kinda laughable as the 65gn bullet was too light for the fast twist rate.


Sierra 65gn GameKing Table:
http://i1237.photobucket.com/albums/ff476/s25075/223 Load development/LoadData-Sierra65GK.png
LoadData-Sierra65GK.png





Bored again? I found a video to go with that other pic!
​




Moving on, after finishing that load data, I thought I'd give the Ladder Test method a try. All of the next 4 brands of projectiles went through a Ladder test of 3 stings of 8 (24 rounds). I used the chrony to give a velocity node and the elevation of the 'groups' to determine a precision node. I colored each projectile of a similar charge weight in order to see where it printed on the target.

After the Ladder test, Each brand of bullet went through 3 more rounds of testing, each with 5 groups of 5 rounds each. The final round was used to determine seating depth and the 2nd and 3rd were used to find a good charge weight.


Overall, I wasn't crazy impressed with these projectiles, especially compared to the Lapua 77gn HPBT.....
 
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Part 4/4

Overall, I wasn't crazy impressed with these projectiles, especially compared to the Lapua 77gn HPBT.



Next, the Lapua 77gn. I had some really nice groups come out of these and they seem to be more precise than the Hornady 80gn A-MAXs, but less precise than the Berger 80gn VLDs.




Next up, the Hornady 80gn A-MAX. Overall, It underperformed the 75gn A-MAX for some reason. It's hard to compare the 75gn to the 80gn because of the different methods used but if I were to try one of the two again, I'd be tempted to just go for the 75gn A-MAX.


Hornady 80gn Table of Results:
http://i1237.photobucket.com/albums/ff476/s25075/223 Load development/LoadData-Hornady80.png
LoadData-Hornady80.png


Hornady 80gn Ladder Test: (I found it was easier to number the shots and the reverse side of the board because the colors showed up better, sorry. Also, there's a typo in this pic, should say 2011, not 2012.)
http://i1237.photobucket.com/albums/ff476/s25075/223 Load development/PortageGuns166.jpg
PortageGuns166.jpg


Hornady 80gn MV vs Charge Weight Graph:
http://i1237.photobucket.com/albums/ff476/s25075/223 Load development/Graph-Hornady80.png
Graph-Hornady80.png


Hornady 80gn Round 2/4:
http://i1237.photobucket.com/albums/ff476/s25075/223 Load development/PortageGuns167.jpg
PortageGuns167.jpg


Hornady 80gn Round 3/4:
http://i1237.photobucket.com/albums/ff476/s25075/223 Load development/PortageGuns168.jpg
PortageGuns168.jpg


Hornady 80gn Round 4/4:
http://i1237.photobucket.com/albums/ff476/s25075/223 Load development/PortageGuns169.jpg
PortageGuns169.jpg



Finally, the Berger 80gn VLD. I found these to be the most inherently precise projectiles of the lot. They provided me with the most consistently tight groups and love to be jammed. For these projectiles, take note to Round 4 and how I seated the bullets for a wide variety of jumping and jamming. The corresponding velocities are also cool to look at.






Still bored? Here's another video of another friend helping me with some load development for the M1:

http://i1237.photobucket.com/albums/ff476/s25075/223 Load development/th_PortageGuns133.jpg
​




RESULTS:

Finally, the summary of what I found to be the best loads in my rifle.
  • Sierra 65gn Game King - 26.2gn Varget, COAL = 2.310" (Touching the Lands (TTL))
  • Sierra 69gn Match King - 26.1gn Varget, COAL = 2.360" (0.010" Jump)
  • Hornady 75gn A-MAX - 24.1gn Varget, COAL = 2.510" (TTL, doesn't like Jump or Jam)
  • Nosler 77gn Custom Competition - 24.3gn Varget, COAL = 2.359 (1.972" to Ogive, 0.015" jump. Likes jump or TTL. Potential at 24.6gn Varget)
  • Lapua 77gn HPBT - 24.0gn Varget, COAL = 2.360" (1.951" to Ogive (TTL). Doesn't like Jump or Jam)
  • Hornady 80gn A-MAX - 24.6gn Varget, COAL = 2.515" (1.942" to Ogive, 0.015" jump, good ES/SD when Jumped or Jammed)
  • Berger 80gn VLD - 25.0gn Varget, COAL = 2.487" (1.981" to Ogive, 0.010"-0.025" Jam, 24.5gn and TTL shows potential)

Basically, I'll be using the Berger 80gn bullets (unless the 90gn ones work out when I get started again). My second choice would be a toss up between the Lapua 77gn HPBT and the Hornady 75gn A-MAX.


Well, that's all for now, can't believe I just spent 4 hours making this thread! Is it not the best 1000th post ever? :D (Even if it is actually like 4 post rolled into one)



Look forward to hearing your comments and questions, hope all this helps or is useful!


Kevin






Update #1:

What I did to find the lands was disassemble the bolt, load a loaded round with the bullet seated out too far and then seat it in a bit further until the bolt would close without resistance. I have the Hornady OAL gauge but no modified case yet (I just had to have it custom made from my fired brass...). Once I get that case I'll update the values with the couple leftover bullets I've got.


The scale I used was a modified RCBS 5-0-2 Scale but later got a GemPro 250 before loading the Nosler 77, Lapua 77, Hornady 80, and Berger 80. This scale is amazing and I highly recommend buying one. Each charge was weighted to +/-0.01gn (down to the individual kernel).

My old 5-0-2 Scale with a piece of paper and needle taped into position. Use a webcam and laptop to make reading it easier and less painful on your neck!
BSEREandAMT033.jpg
 
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nice post, im developing a 80 gr amax load for my savage 12 FTR right now, for some reason my COAL is a lot less than yours tho, i think i will recheck my oal

i think i was at 2.473 touching the lands and i loaded my first test load to 2.463

i guess i could have a 50 thou shorter throat but that seems like a lot to me

wont hurt to remeasure

thanks for a good read and some data to compare two savages
 
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Well done. Great post and shooting. Glad all that gear is working out for you.

Is that a digi scale by your powder measure? Measuring under 0.1gr?

Pity the 300yds spot got canned. The results will be come far more obvious the further you test.

Berger 80gr VLD are indeed very nice bullets as are the 75gr VLD's. The 90's should also work nicely for that twist and I would suggest testing both the VLD and the BT's.

Varget is a bit fast for the 90's but working really well for a number of F TR shooters.

Keep launching lead and keeping notes. Things will start to settle down quickly.

I bet you will find a load hovering in the 1/2 min range. That is about all I would expect from that Factory barrel.

Then we can chat about a better match pipe. Be pretty hard to shoot factory barrels again... :)

Enjoy...

Jerry
 
aheppner,

I use one of these for measuring the length to the ogive of the projectile for a more useful number than the COAL: (tool on top)

Hornady-Lock-N-Load-Bullet-Comparator-Small.jpg


I'm still waiting for the modifed cases so I could not use the tool on the bottom yet (the OAL gauge). What I did to find the lands was disassemble the bolt, load a loaded round with the bullet seated out too far and then seat it in a bit further until the bolt would close.

I'll get some better numbers for the length to the lands for each projectile once I get the modified case in the mail. I expect my numbers to be very different.




Jerry,

On your and ryandpahl's recommendation, I bought a GemPro 250, which as you know reads to 0.02gn and has a +/-0.01gn uncertainty. Each loaded round was weighted to the granule of powder. (I can't remember when I actually started using the GemPro 250, but I just remembered that it wasn't until after I was done with the Hornady 75 Amax and the Sierra 69 MK). The scale I used before that was a modified RCBS 5-0-2.

BSEREandAMT032.jpg


BSEREandAMT033.jpg



I'll also keep in mind that Varget is a little hot for the 90's. I've got some IMR4064, wonder if that would be better... And thanks for the reminder about the barrel. I'd prefer to get a whole new rifle, but can always entertain the idea of a drop in for the Savage :)
 
You put my so called "load development" to shame...lol

I'm shooting 52 grain Hornady Match pills out of a stock Marlin XS7 in 223, 1:9 twist barrel...would the heavier 75ish grain bullets work in that twist?
 
Bullet stability is a function of many things, barrel twist rate only one of them. If you are shooting at high altitude in a hot environment, the bullet will stabilize better than at sea level in a cold atmosphere. Generally speaking, no, the 9" twist will not support a 75gn bullet, but you can always try and find out!


Here is a good freeware version of a bullet stability calculator.

If I recall correctly, a stability factor of 1.0 means the bullet is stable, but just barely. Less than 1.0 is unstable. 1.4 is considered desirable. So for a 75gn .224 bullet in a standard atmosphere, the stability factor for a 9" twist is about 0.96 (bullet length of my 75 A-MAX is 1.120) at 2850fps. In my 7" twist barrel, it is 1.57. Also of note, The bullet becomes more and more stable at range as it looses velocity. The 90gn bullets in a 7" barrel and standard atmosphere (at 2750fps) is only 1.3 fyi.

In a standard atmosphere and a 9" twist, assuming about 2900fps, the heaviest bullet you can work with is about the 69gn. If you can hot rod the 75 or 77 big guys than that will stabilize them better. That or shoot them at high altitude on hot days :D
 
Savage 9 twists usually stablize 75gr amax so they are likely just a bit fast but it does work.

There is a movement in some LR shooters to reduce that stability factor to improve accuracy at LR. 1.4 WILL work but is a huge safety margin and for some bullet designs not ideal.

The Hrn 75gr BTHP usually work in 9 twists if the 75gr Amax doesn't. 77gr Sierras usually work well too.

So bullet weight is just an indicator. Shape, length, quirks and true barrel twist need to be factored in.

Only 1 way to find out.

Jerry
 
Thanks for that OP.
Very enjoyable read ... and I don't own a single .22CF cal. rifle ! . ... yet.

That may soon need some fix'n. ;), eh?.

With a quantity of varget, 5 gallons of once-fired .223 brass, and dies ... sitting downstairs .... ??.

A thread drifting question:redface: to the board ... how far out there, yardage wise, will a fast twist/heavy bulleted .223, give decent audio/visual spotting feedback on the gongs?.

That is the reason I've stayed with 6.5mm or larger all these years ... to call with certainty a "hit", way out yonder.
 
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