[Babalouie]

I'm not new to reloading but I have never loaded 223, for my ar-15, 16" H-bar. I have some H335 and some Win748, loading 55 grn fmj. Are there any special considerations I need to be aware of? For instance, how critical is COL and crimp to pressure? Where is the danger zone so to speak and how easy is it to get there with this cartridge? I load 40S&W and that's a pretty sensitive cartridge that gets you in the danger zone pretty quickly if you're not paying attention. I'm loading for plinking and fun 3 gun matches so I don't need a lot of power. Any pointers would be appreciated. Thanks!

[landon74]

The first thing I'd check is if your resizing die will size the case enough to allow it to chamber in your rifle. As for overall length, if you're going to run them through a magazine, you'll need to seat the bullet deeply enough to allow that, which shouldn't be a problem with 55 gr bullets. Do a search on the topic of reloading for the AR and you should get a ton of info.

[Matthew748]

A Wilson cartridge gage (or similar tool) is very handy when it comes to setting your dies up correctly. They cost maybe $ 10.00 - 15.00 at Midway and can save a lot of frustration.

[Rockstar]

Ditto on the Wilson case gage. The gage is used for setting up the sizing die so the shoulder is bumped sufficiently for proper headspace. I love H335 for .223 reloading. I'd suggest that you load o.a.l. as long as you can that will still fit in your mags. For my mags, that's around 2.260"

[CB900F]

Babalouie;

You and I are, if not in the same boat, at least on the same pond. I'm doing the same sort of thing for my new .223 bolt gun.

With the advice & discussion of several others I trust, I'm starting my load development with W748 and BLC-2. I've got 40, 50, 55, and 60 gr bullets to fool around with, all Hornady. All brass is Federal & since both powders are ball, the primers will be CCI magnums.

I expect to find what I want with either the 40 or 50 grain bullets. Since I've got a Swift and a 6mm, there's no need to try to either fling 'em to the last fps, or fling the heaviest bullets I can find. However, the load's gonna have to be accurate to make it on my bench.

900F

[greg531mi]

If you have RCBS or Lyman dies, buy the small base dies. There are 5 or 6 good powders to try. BLC-2 and 748 are great powders for the 223. I used AA2230, and liked that one. With a self loader, you have to aim for accuracy and function. I start at 10% less than max, and work up .5 grains at a time. Self loaders are fickle with their function, most of the time, the happy compromise is near max.

[Bullet]

You might want one of these –

http://www.sinclairintl.com/cgi-bin/category.cgi?category=REMTHT&item=883X&type=store

If you use a mic on your brass you can set your sizing die so that you don’t overwork your brass. You only need to size your fired brass .003 to get reliable feeding. On my AR if I set my sizing die as per manufactures instructions I’m sizing it .012. Nice to know your chamber size.

Sinclair has lots of good things.

[Roadkill]

I used 4198 with a 55g bullet until I switched to 4895, be very sure you seat the primers as deep as possible. I've had two slam fires with Ars, one was while in the Army, I jumped out of a Huey in a unfriendly LZ and fell, the butt of the M16 hit a rock real hard and went off, the second was 35 years later with my AR in chambering my reload. I checked over 1,000 rounds, seven had extruded primers. When I shoot my reloads I always shoot steady careful fire so I can notice the feel and recoil. Read the Fulton Armory site

http://www.fulton-armory.com/

Scroll all the way down to "Fulton Army FAQ" and read what they say about it. Then be very careful.

Rk

[Lennyjoe]

I'm currently working up a load with 26-27.5 gr of Varget and 55 gr FMJ for a Bushie.

[g56]

It's pretty easy to reload for the AR, small base dies are not needed at all, standard 223 dies work fine. A case gauge is always a good idea to make sure you're sizing correctly, and the 55 gr bullet is probably the most common one used.

Here's a sample of what a good handload can do at 100 yds with the right AR:
http://www.pbase.com/wingman26/image/41810168.jpg

[Steve Smith]

Ball powder is popular amongst light bullet shooters for the caliber, but just be warned that with heavy loads and heavy bullets, the powder is not to be trusted when the ambient temp goes aboe that at which the ammo was tested originally. THE reason HP shooters don't use ball is because of the temp sensitivity. I would expect some velocity variance due to temp even with light bullets and reasonable loads, but you shouldn't see a significant difference in accuracy within 100-200 yards. In regards to long stick powders such as IMR 4895, it is cheap and runs well in the rifle, but it doesn't meter worth a damn in a Dillon or really any other measure. However, there is significant data that suggests that powder volume is of greater importance than powder weight and I have found that you can still get adequately consistent velocity for short range ammo (100-200 yards) with the small amount of variance that comes from the long stick in the measure. YMMV.

You have probably already figured out that the AR isn't as finicky as you'd be lead to believe, but you still have some things to watch for. With light bullets, you really have nearly nothing special to watch for, as you will certainly be below the 2.260" COL for mag use, and under my personally recommended 2.250" as well. Since you are using a Dillon you SHOULDN'T have a problem with primer depth unless you use some sort of substandard brass or you short stroke the primer stroke on the press. Make sure you feel the primer go in and you press it into the case fully. Once you get in the habit, you'll know if you have a shallow primer or an obstruction just by feel.

On Small Base dies, we did some informal measuring here on THR a few years ago (or was it TFL?) and found that the RCBS STANDARD .223 dies were loose compared to other brands' standards. I use a Redding S Type standard dimension and it turns out the brass to the same dimensions as an RCBS Small Base, but the RCBS standard turns it out too big to be reliable in an AR based on other's findings.

[cookiemonster]

For 223 you should follow the above mentioned advice and try to steer clear of most of your ball powders...even though thats what the military likes to use. BL-C2 is a good powder...but you will get just as good of results from Varget and VV N-130. The Vihtavouri powders actually burn "cooler" if your worried about that kinda stuff. I shoot 223 out of a single shot and have used everything from Unique to AA 5744 and have only found that 4198 is the most finicky powder so far...I haven't tried the TAC or other powders they make...

Now the Vihtavouri is expensive, but the Varget is reasonable...the varget meters nicely being a short extruded powders and leaves little fouling...

Somthing else to look for...some of the newer reloading manuals actually have data specific for the autoloaders...I believe sierra has this type of loading data available...I don't have my manual in front of me.

Hope this helps a little.
Darrell

[Darkside]

Another vote for Varget for use in the .223 with 55 grain bullets for my ARF's. I load 26 grains of Varget in every case I can find, except Federal brass that seams to have less case capacity. 26 grains of Varget will fill most case up to the neck, which makes it easy to check for short loads due to powder bridging in the measure. I have an old lyman powder measure that is set for this load and only check/adjust it when switching between cans of powder. Other than that it throws every load to within 1/10 of a grain. I still weigh every 10th load.

Darkside