[hsiddall]

I finished my first 50 of .223 reloads today. I have bee loading for a year or so now but this is the first attempt ant rifle cases. Any how...23.5 Gr of 3031 seemed to really fill the case...Is that too much. Igot the load out of a book; The Complete Reloading Manual for The .223 Remington butvolume wise it seems to be really full. I will wait for input before shooting. I also double checked the total weight as well as the weight of the charge several times sparaticly. As always Thanx in advance...
Harley

[Canuck-IL]

"Too much" - for what? Kinda depends upon the bullet weight and the cartridge OAL...some powders are 'fluffier' than others and tend to fill more.
/Bryan

[ftierson]

What Bryan says...

Forrest

[WNTFW]

You probably are used to pistol loads.

If you have any doubts look on the powder mfgrs website to double check the load.
http://data.hodgdon.com/cartridge_load.asp
21.6 & 24.6C 41,100 PSI & 52,500 PSI
is the min max on one particular set of parameters with that power.
18.5 & 21.3C 42,200 PSI & 53,700 PSI
is the new min max by changing 1 thing

Checking 2 manuals is not a bad thing either.

Advice the "Old Timers" are always giving.
You want to use a powder that you can't double charge when starting out -Two powder charges will overflow case.
Just about every manual also recommends start with the minimum load.

Does that manual have a symbol to signify compressed loads?

It is also good to look for signs of pressure on your brass after firing.

Good Luck,
WNTFW