best powder for 223

I shoot Tac and Varget, with 69 and 77 SMK's respectively and H335 with 62 M855's. It might sound like I'm touting the line, though it works. I have a 1-7 twist FN barrel.

I use Varget with SMK 69's and H335 with 55 gr FMJBT's for blasting.

Sometimes I use IMR 4895 with 55 gr FMJ's as well. I want to try TAC, Benchrest and RE10.

LGB

I place an 'old fashioned' vote for 4895, H or I either one.

I love H335 for 50 and 55 grain varmint loads

I think that 8208 may be my new favorite. We will see tomorrow hopefully.

For ranges out to 100 yards, 50 & 52gr bullets always shoot well, and it's hard to beat WW748.

For ranges out to 300 yards I like 69gr bullets and either 4895. These will only work for 1:9 and faster twist barrels. I'm going to try 77gr bullets this year, and probably match them with RL15, and these will be for 1:8 or faster barrels.

H335 for me! Puts them 60gr Sierra Varminter bullets into nice little groups

There was an article in Handloader a few months ago about the .223. Basically, it's about the easiest round to load for and there are a lot of powders that typically work well.

I use Varget, but 322, 748, AA 2230, 4895, etc. will most all typically work. Look at a burn rate chart, get anything in that range, and somebody here will have had success with it.

I like IMR 4064. Very clean burning.
Will

Tac, and both the H and I 4895 get my vote.

Another vote for IMR-4895 with 55, 62, and 69 grain bullets. It doesn't deliver top velocities, but it will group 2" at 100 yards in my Mini-14. This is far better than any factory fodder I've used. Plus, with 4895, you can load anything from .223-30-06, very versatile.

Anything in the IMR 4895 burn rate will shoot outstanding groups with perfect function in an AR.

Lot of match shooters have been using Varget.

I am using N140 in my NM AR15's. Buds of mine were using N540.

If you like a ball powder AA2520 works well. Bit dirty but shoots fine.

I prefer stick, but I got a lot of AA2520 cheap, you know the rest....

i use varget for heavy, and h335 for 55 fmj's. go here http://www.6mmbr.com/223Rem.html

Did a lot of load development with various powders in the late 1960s. All of my .223 reloads use IMR 3031. The heaviest bullet I reload in the .223 is 55 grain.

I like H-335.

H4895 for 55 grain blasting rounds....used to load 60 grain Vmaxes with Varget and then all the varget was gone for a wile!

H335 was developed by Olin-Winchester for the 5.56, M193 ball. It's the only powder I use.

For progressive, I like easy metering ball powders.

For single stage, extruded.

from the Technical Manual, published by the United States Army :

"No later than the evening on which it was fired."

I am going to start loading .223/5.56 using Ramshot X-Terminator,
under a 50 grain Nosler ballistic tip [#39552] projectile.

Depends on the bullets you want to drive.

Under 60gr, I like Winchester 748. It seems less temperature sensitive when used with the lighter bullets than with slugs in the 65-70gr range. By this I mean, my moderate loads using 748 with 69gr Sierras were piercing primers in July, though they were safe in May and September. This episode led me to....


HODGDON VARGET. For the 69-80gr pills, this is my go-to powder loading .223 for my AR. Just finished burning an 8-lb keg and thinking about trying to acquire another once some things settle down again. You might squeeze more speed out of RL-15 or V-V 140, but I can get 1-lbs of Varget reliably in my area, not so much the other two (never tried them, it was THAT hard to find them locally! ).

As to clean, I normally just pop the hood and CLP my Service Rifle between practices and matches. I'll clean it every couple of hundred rounds, but rarely before a match. And I don't really scrub the bore hard anymore. The barrel shoots better with a little fouling in it...

Another vote for H-335 in the AR. Meters great and is accurate with 55-62gr bullets.