Looking forward to trying my latest recipie (.223 subsonic plinker/woodchuck blaster)

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I finally got the necessary supplies and components to load my own .223 rounds, I tend to favour lightweight plinking loads in all my reloads, just more fun to shoot and keeps the noise down....

Remington SR Benchrest primer, Federal .223 case, 8.9 grains of Trailboss, and a 36 GN HBFB Barnes Varmint Grenade bullet

I'm hoping this round will have enough energy to work the action, but if not, no big deal, I'll just rack the charging handle for the next round

I'm hoping for a bit more power than .22 Mag and a lot less muzzle report than full power .223/5.56
 
Neat.

Ever thought of using lead ballets with trail boss?

I use 130g lead bullets on my 3006 with trail boss. My 8 year old son is deadly on clay pigeons at 50 yards with my Ruger Hawkeye. Virtually no recoil, and really inexpensive bullets.

You can usually buy a sample pack from a bulletin company and have them in your hands in a week or so, mailed right to your house.
 
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DC Plumber said:
Just thought, can you use lead based bullets in a gas operated auto?

May not be the bet idea.
Click to expand...
It's never a good idea. There are warnings about that on some of the bullet/ammo vendors web sites.
 
Backyard range report time;

Distance; 25y
Wind; none
Target; old 3.5" SCSI hard drive
Sights; stock irons co witnessed with RDS

Did the cartridge work the action? No
Did the bullet exit the barrel? Yes, 100% reliable! all five test rounds
Did the bullet stabilize? Yes, it appeared to
Report; about .22 Mag levels
Recoil? Bwahahahaha! That's a good one, there *was* no recoil at all
Over pressure indicators? None

Accuracy; disappointing, once sighted in the two rounds that hit the drive were about 1.5" apart
Penetration; one shot fully penetrated on the edge of the drive, but deflected off the voice coil magnet and out the top of the drive, one shot partially penetrated, I see fragments under the top plate, and will autopsy the drive

Overall, a disappointment, will probably not load more of this, it'd be a waste of good bullets and powder

Edit...
Just pulled the drive apart, both shots struck the voice coil magnet frame, there was sufficient energy to completely disintegrate the upper magnet, it turned to dust, and fracture the lower magnet, the voice coil is one of the most durable portions of the drive, each magnet is bonded to a steel plate, and the Varmint Grenade was able to deliver sufficient energy to pulverize the upper magnet and shatter the lower one, the only tougher part of a hard drive is the platter motor...

No fragments were recovered from the drive, just a copper colored dust coating the interior

Perhaps more evaluation is in order, on soft targets, like what the VG is meant for....

Still, the fact that a VG driven by a lightweight powder like Trail Boss has enough energy to destroy the hardest part of a hard drive IS impressive
 
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In general, the performance of 22 caliber subsonic ammo loaded with any conventional bullets has been dismal in my experience. CCI or Remington 22LR subsonic HP's outperform them by far.
I shot a few different varmint bullets into milk jugs full of water at 1050fps and you could probably re-use the bullets, no terminal performance at all.
The 22LR subsonic HP's fired into the same medium produced classic textbook mushrooms and penetrated into the 4th jug.
I now only load 223 subs for demonstrating my suppressor to curious onlookers.

My 308 subs, on the other hand, may be useful someday with heavier bullets. But I still can't get any mushroom performance out of any conventional bullets and accuracy so far has been less than optimal. Someday I'll get around to casting some flat-nose bullets for it.
 
The data connected to Trail Boss states you should only use Trail boss with lead bullets. I think it's a very poor choice for use in the 223/5.56mm.

Hodgdon has reduced load load data on their site using H4895. Their 60% rule puts the charge weight of H4895 w/36gr bullet @ 16.4gr. I highly recommend trying that load and if it's still not light enough Hodgdon says you can reduce the load a maximum of not more than an additional 10%.
http://hodgdon.com/PDF/H4895 Reduced Rifle Loads.pdf

Another option, for longer than I can remember reloaders have been making light rifle loads using IMR SR4759 and those are very good and accurate loads.
 
Just thought, can you use lead based bullets in a gas operated auto?
Click to expand...
Can you turn the gas port closed on an AR-15? I have never owned one, before. I thought you could, at least on an the military version, for launching grenades.

I have put lot's o cast lead downrange with my MSAR. When shooting semiauto, the tube needs frequent cleaning. When I don't want to deal with that, I close off the gas port. I've shot it to where the bolt carrier seized up plenty of times. Not much fun to clean, but not a huge deal, either. I've always been able to get it back to operational in the field with minimal tools and some Hoppes.

With the load I worked up, there's no problem with fouling in the chamber or the bore. It's just the gas tube that gums up. I can shoot 100+ trouble-free rounds between cleaning. Maybe 200, if I'm lucky.
 
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I'd have to agree with ArchAngel on the H4895.

Makes a great reduced recoil load in the .223. This is what I got my oldest daughter started on when she first started shooting.
 
Trail Boss, when used in a bottle necked cartridge with jacketed bullets is best at 100/1% load density and gets erratic when using less powder.

I used to have a bolt gun in .22 Hornet and I used 700X with 40, 45, & 46 Gr jacketed bullets. Made quiet & accurate .22 Mag like squirrel loads. It will also work in .222 or .223, but you are on your own if you try it, as I was.
 
If you wish to play around with the .223, try using Blue Dot instead with jacketed bullets. With Blue Dot you can tailor your velocities from about 1500 f/s on up to 2500 f/s and it makes for a low report. I have used 52 gr. hollow points up to 62 gr. fmj's.

I have not tried it in an AR, but with a bolt gun, it does pretty well.

Recipes are on the web.
 
GLOOB said:
Can you turn the gas port closed on an AR-15? I have never owned one, before. I thought you could, at least on an the military version, for launching grenades.

I have put lot's o cast lead downrange with my MSAR. When shooting semiauto, the tube needs frequent cleaning. When I don't want to deal with that, I close off the gas port. I've shot it to where the bolt carrier seized up plenty of times. Not much fun to clean, but not a huge deal, either. I've always been able to get it back to operational in the field with minimal tools and some Hoppes.

With the load I worked up, there's no problem with fouling in the chamber or the bore. It's just the gas tube that gums up. I can shoot 100+ trouble-free rounds between cleaning. Maybe 200, if I'm lucky.
Click to expand...

No you can not adjust or shut off standard gas blocks, and AR-15 gas tubes should not be cleaned internally (there's no need to, unless you just want to get a pipe cleaner stuck).


Sent from my phone with my giant, uncoordinated sausage thumbs.
 
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