Lightest fastest reliable AR-15 load

they won't make it far out the barrel.

Walkalong said:

Yep, drive them too fast with a 1 in 7 twist and they could come apart on you. Maybe even a 1 in 9, dunno, depends.

If you want to drive 33 Gr bullets at light speed twist is important.

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There is the 35 gmx hornady they drive the to around 4500- fps in the 22-250. They shoot fine to. But that bullet is copper and not the light jacketed 22 hornet bullet.
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There is the 35 gmx hornady they drive the to around 4500- fps in the 22-250. They shoot fine to.

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It not the speed but the RPM that destroys them.

A 1:14 twist 22-250 barrel pushing a bullet at 4,500 FPS = 231,428.6 RPM

A 1:7 Twist .223 barrel pushing a bullet at 3,500 FPS = 360,000 RPM

If the bullet cannot withstand the centrifugal force, it comes apart upon exit. Solids would be a lot less likely to come apart. Back before everyone owned at least 1 AR and bolt guns far outnumbered them, the 1:12 twist .223 was common and some of the even heavier bullets (50gn) had such thin jackets even they would come apart in fast twist barrels.

If you want to go fast with delicate bullets you just need to get a slower twist barrel.

You can get 1:12 and even 1:14 AR barrels.

http://www.gmriflebarrel.com/gm-m14-20-m16-a1-5-56mm-1-14-twist-barrel/

Sierra once told me of testing a 36gr thin skinned HP (of undisclosed brand) at 4500fps in a 1:8 .22-250, (=405,000 rpm) and seeing them magically disappear. A different bullet may have made it further, but the threshold is somewhere near there.

Ur 1:12 twist gun will shoot it. get like what was suggested, GMX solid. Best possible bullet you can use that is super light. Trying accurate 2200, or 2230. 2200 I am sure it will take up in the around 28.0 grains using 35 grain bullet, and that is going to net you in the ~4,100 FPS range I would estimate. That load will do good to 200 yards.

I shot 35 VMAX in an 1-8 twist AR with good accuracy.

I struggled to get high velocity with any of the normal 223 powders. Even Benchmark was too slow.
I axed it before trying handgun powders.
2400 or IMR4227 would get you there, but you would be way out in no man's land.

I have loaded a lot of 40 gr bullets in the .223, both in AR's with 1 in 8" twists and bolt guns with 1 in 12" twist. Barrel lengths varied from 16" AR carbine to 26" Remington 700 SPS Varmint. Factory Fiocchi Extrema with 40 gr V-Max bullets clocked 3,160 fps out of the 1 in 8" 16" AR up to 3,650 fps from the 1 in 12" 26" bolt gun. Handloads with Accurate 2015 from the Lyman No.49 manual pushed the 40 gr V-Max or Nosler Ballistic Tips up to 3,800 fps out of the Remington. I was concerned that the factory 40 gr loads might not function in the AR's, but they ran fine (around 3,400 fps from a Stag Model 6 24" 1in 8" twist barrel.)
Not sure if the 50 gr thin jacketed bullets (Hornady SX, Speer TNT) would hold up in a 1 in 7" twist, but the 40 gr V-Max and Nosler Ballistic Tips have been fine. Accuracy in the 1 in 8" Stag has been MOA or under for 5 shot groups at 100 yards from the bench.

castingdonkey wrote:
Was online looking at 33 grain 224 projectiles intended for the 22 Hornet and was wondering if anyone had tried loading them in an AR-15. It seems like it would be fun to load of some warm loads and get those bad boys down range at high velocity.

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22 Hornet was never intended for extreme velocities.

As several posters have already noted, you will see "gray puffs of smoke" about half-way down-range as the bullet comes apart in mid-air. I tried it in the early 1980's with some Hornady SX bullets loaded to around 3,000 fps. I once fired 30 downrange and only three even struck the target; the rest vaporized along the way. It was a singularly futile and unsatisfyingly waste of money.