Clays powder in .223 Remington

[m33p0n3]

I was poking around Hodgdon's website and noticed their load data includes a recipe for Clays with a 55 grain Hornady FMJ bullet. (3.2 grains of Clays at a COL of 2.200" for a Hornady 55 grain fmj)

Anybody have any experience with loading these?

I have most of a pound of Clays to get rid of and this seems like a fun way to do it. I'll probably load a few and try and get out to the range this week to test them.

 

[ants]

Yep, been there done that.

AR15? Nope. Not enough gas to cycle a semi auto. Not even close.


Bolt gun works fine, but it's a very low velocity round.
Not fun to shoot at 100 yards because it kinda gets wild.
But 50 yard plinking is like a 22 long rifle.

 

[m33p0n3]

AR15? Nope. Not enough gas to cycle a semi auto. Not even close.

I figured as much, given the much lower pressures involved. I do plan on firing them in an AR-15; would it be a bad idea if I just single loaded them or racked the charging handle for every round?

 

[Wolfman Bill]

Afternoon m33p0n3

No experience with that particular recipe but I do shoot a lot of 223 subsonic loads. Mostly Trail Boss, Win 231, and TiteGroup. With just lately (as of this week) some Red Dot.

By all means try it. Just be careful that ALL the bullets exit the bore. Personally I won’t shoot a new round until I verify the last bullet in showing in the target. So far all the bullets have come out but I know some I’m shooting must be close to squib territory.

NONE of those type light loads will come anywhere near cycling an AR or M-4 type weapon but manually cycling it works just great.

OK, now for the down side. I have had a very difficult time getting those subsonic loads to group decently. Especially the slower powders in the pistol category. Problem is I will get 3 or 4 to touch bullet holes then will get a flyer out of the group an inch or two. Usually the first round (cold barrel) goes low and sometimes wide. No problem at 30 meters or so but 75-100 meters is starting to show accuracy issues.

Things to try if your grouping isn’t as you would expect. I have found that lubricating the bullets seems to help somewhat as well as playing with the bullet seating depth.

I wish I had some firm answers on this accuracy thing. By looking at the fired cases (I number than all) the worst fliers seem to have a lot of soot back along the case so I’m guessing that those cases are not seeing enough pressure to seal completely therefore allowing some pressure loss.

If you get decent grouping at 75-100 yards please post your results and how you got there.

 

[ants]

In an AR the bolt won't even have enough gas to unlock from the barrel lugs, so you'll be manually racking the charging handle every time anyway.

Accuracy -- We expected none, and we got none. Plinking at 50 yards you can hit a tin can about 1/2 the time. Be aware that the bullet will impact a couple inches lower than regular 5.56/223 rounds, so your scope or iron sights will needs lots of adjustment. About minute-of-tin-can is about all the accuracy you get.

Is it fun? Sure. Like a 22lr. Line up some soda cans and blast away. If you don't adjust your sights, it's kinda fun to guess how high you have to shoot to hit the cans.

I envy those who cast lead 55 grain bullets from wheel weights. They can plink with Clays all day long for a dollar and a half.