Good .223/5.56 62 grain loads for M4

[DeadEye9]

Hey guys, looking to share and possibly also receive some good loads for .223/5.56 target shooting. Specifically 25-50-75 yard "iron sight" shooting because that's what these loads are for me. The 2 ARs I use for this purpose both seem to like 55-62gr loads with 62s providing the tightest group.
(16" 1/9 M&P15 with 5R rifling, DDM4 16" 1/8 with standard 6pt rifling)

Currently my loads are as follows:
Federal case- Rem 7.5 primers-Hornady 62gr FMJ-BT w/ cannelure
Varget-24gr-2789fps-tightest group
Varget- 24.5gr-2840fps
Varget-25gr-2915fps

H335-24gr-2975fps
H335-25gr-3045fps-tightest group
H335-25.5gr-3110fps-flat primers

Benchmark-22.5gr-2915fps
Benchmark-23.5gr-3025fps-tightest
Benchmark-24gr-3095fps

Also a great Benchmark load- basically a duplicate of M193-
Hornady or Berger 55 FMJ-BT
Rem 7 1/2 primers- Federal case/IMI .223 case

25gr Benchmark-3104fps avg from 16" 1/9 barrel. Groups 1.25" with irons at 75.

Anyone care to share some of their tried and true loads with these powders or some others I should consider? I have a bit of WC844 on hand as well, about 8# left. I use my H335 load Data for this stuff, but haven't loaded much with it lately.

 

[DeadEye9]

Also one more fun Varget load. Take some 40gr Nosler ballistic tip or Hornady 40gr Vmax (I got some 5.7 40gr pull downs super cheap)
Load them on .223 brass with 27gr Varget. Nets around 3259fps avg from a 16" AR with no pressure signs, groups very nice at close range. (Inside 100yds) and absolutely EXPLODES inside an organic or watery target. Ballistic gel gets a devastating cavity around 3-4" diameter and 6-8" length with 10-12" total penetration. Water jugs explode on contact with this load as do most fruits, melons, sofas, etc. Also fast enough to set off any high velocity binary exploding target mix. Fun stuff!

 

[Swampman]

It's a little outside the parameters of your question, but have you tried the Sierra 52 grain flat base MatchKing?

I like them loaded with 27 grains of Reloder 15 in Winchester cases sparked by CCI BR primers.

I use this load for testing rifles, if it won't shoot well with this combination, the weapon probably has issues.

 

[JO JO]

I have a good 69gr load with ramshot tac will look at my notes and share it

 

[DeadEye9]

Interesting. I haven't ever shot the 52gr Sierra. In fact I don't shoot much flat base anything these days, almost entirely boat tails with the exception of those 40gr Vmax I was playing with. How is the accuracy on the 52gr in your experience? Also with that 69gr I could see that being a good load for my bolt gun in .223. It loves heavier .224 bullets and 69/75/77 all tend to do very well In that rig. Never tried the 80 or 90 VLDs though. They are some HUGE bullets!

 

[kingmt]

Can you really see well enough that bullet or anything makes that much difference? I need 14x magnification to be able to see a 223 hole at 100 yards. With iron sights anything that would cycle would probably shoot as good as I can see.

 

[Kaldor]

Hey guys, looking to share and possibly also receive some good loads for .223/5.56 target shooting. Specifically 25-50-75 yard "iron sight" shooting because that's what these loads are for me. The 2 ARs I use for this purpose both seem to like 55-62gr loads with 62s providing the tightest group.
(16" 1/9 M&P15 with 5R rifling, DDM4 16" 1/8 with standard 6pt rifling)

Currently my loads are as follows:
Federal case- Rem 7.5 primers-Hornady 62gr FMJ-BT w/ cannelure
Varget-24gr-2789fps-tightest group
Varget- 24.5gr-2840fps
Varget-25gr-2915fps

H335-24gr-2975fps
H335-25gr-3045fps-tightest group
H335-25.5gr-3110fps-flat primers

Benchmark-22.5gr-2915fps
Benchmark-23.5gr-3025fps-tightest
Benchmark-24gr-3095fps

Also a great Benchmark load- basically a duplicate of M193-
Hornady or Berger 55 FMJ-BT
Rem 7 1/2 primers- Federal case/IMI .223 case

25gr Benchmark-3104fps avg from 16" 1/9 barrel. Groups 1.25" with irons at 75.

Anyone care to share some of their tried and true loads with these powders or some others I should consider? I have a bit of WC844 on hand as well, about 8# left. I use my H335 load Data for this stuff, but haven't loaded much with it lately.

I run 25.2gr of H335 with 55gr FMJBTs. Shoots right around an inch at 100. Is that accurate enough?

If not try the 53 or 55gr Vmax. Any of the 3 powders you have will work, but Id bet Varget is best for straight up accuracy, with Benchmark close behind, but I actually prefer CFE 223 for these Another worth trying is a 68 or 69gr BTHP Hornady or Sierra, with Varget or some IMR 8208 XBR. All 4 of these bullets shoot sub 1/2" in my rifle which has a Green Mtn 18" 8 twist barrel.

 

[DeadEye9]

Can you really see well enough that bullet or anything makes that much difference? I need 14x magnification to be able to see a 223 hole at 100 yards. With iron sights anything that would cycle would probably shoot as good as I can see.

Well I can't really see the impact at that distance, but if I pick a single point of aim, send 3-5rounds at that point and then look through magnification I can still see how well the load is grouping at that distance. The better the group the more accurate the load, so long as I do my part.
But realistically I shoot out to 250-300 with irons on steel. Not for groups just combat accuracy of "can I hit" and don't do that bad with .223/5.56.
.300BLK/7.62x39 is another story. The drop on these, especially the .300BLk, is enough to make me not care for the cartridge. As a niche round it serves well in an SBR for close quarters work with a can, but that's about it. Shooting .300BLK out to 300yds without DOPE is a guessing game, your just lobbing .30 cal rocks almost.

 

[z7]

8208 xbr and a 55g hornady fjm worled veryy well for me, it was not a max load, i dont have my notes on me but during load development i got two different 5 shot sub moa groups,

 

[kingmt]

I have a SKS that will do better then 3" at 100 with what ever brand I stocked up with 20+ years ago but i don't think I can any more.

When I was in the army long ago I could put them in an inch at 20 meters but 300 meters I was likely just got enough to hit the target.

My bolt actions shoot under 3/4 at 100 but iron I probably could hit 3". So about anything should group that well.

 

[JO JO]

this is a good one for me , 1/9 twist 16in barrel

 

[Swampman]

Hey guys, looking to share and possibly also receive some good loads for .223/5.56 target shooting. Specifically 25-50-75 yard "iron sight" shooting because that's what these loads are for me.

But realistically I shoot out to 250-300 with irons on steel.

The reason I recommended the 52 grain Sierra HPFB was that you specified:

"25-50-75 yard "iron sight" shooting because that's what these loads are for me."

The 52 grain Sierra's are the most accurate 100 yard bullet I've tried, shooting very well in multiple rifles with twist rates ranging from 1/7" to 1/12"

The only advantage offered by a boat tail for sub 100 yard shooting is easier loading of the bullet into the case.

300 yards is a different story, wind will start to push a light flat base bullet around a lot more as distances get longer.

Neither 7.62x39 nor 300 Blackout were designed with long range shooting in mind, but 300 yards is certainly within their capabilities.

If your results with them are like throwing rocks, you probably just need more practice with the rifles or less practice throwing rocks.

 

[DeadEye9]

I was being a little sarcastic and maybe overly critical on the .300 BLK cartridge. My biggest issue with it is the severe drop, around 45" at 300yds is not at all uncommon with many loads, so I just don't see it as being any different than like a pistol caliber carbine. I spend a significant amount of money on my shooting hobby all around, but I try to be practical in what I spend and .300 BLK falls more under niche in my opinion than any sort of practicality. Anyway back to the 5.56/.223 topic, that 69 gr load looks very promising, and I will likely be trying the 52s as well because I want to try a variety and see what results I get. My long range loads for my 5.56 ARs are pretty much entirely based around 75-77grain OTMs. I've ran 77gr Sierras in the past with great results, Hornadys 75gr match was great, ran out of them and currently have some 77gr match Noslers on hand and they perform equally as well. Now I'm just looking for more good short range loads. I mentioned the 62gr variety specifically because thus far that seems to be very accurate from my particular guns. But I hadn't tried too much in the way of sub 55 gr options so I'm sure there are many good ones out there. I also eventually want to try and downsize my powder cabinet some, so that's another reason I'm trying to sort through the most useable load Data for myself. Currently I have numerous pounds of 11 different pistol powders, 13 rifle powders, and 5 different types of BP and BP substitute. I'd like to get down to no more than half a dozen or so of each pistol/rifle powders especially considering I only reload 7 calibers total.

 

[farmerboy78]

On my 62gr loads! Lc brass, 24.6gr tac, cci

 

[JO JO]

A fellow TAC fan !!
Good stuff

 

[Shawn Dodson]

Hornady 55gr FMJ, 26.0gr H322, Winchester Small Rifle primer and mixed brass yields nominal 3100 fps from my 16" carbines.

 

[Average Joe]

.26.0 grains of W748 under a 55 grain Hornady FMJ. Haven't done 62 grain bullets yet.

 

[farmerboy78]

A fellow TAC fan !!
Good stuff

Oh yeah, I love tac for my ar. Especially since I've bought a Dillon 650 (haven't unboxed yet). I use 24.6gr for 62gr and 23.6gr for 75-77gr. And it's ACCURATE! I plan to try it out with some grendel reloads!

 

[Blue68f100]

Sierra make a 52gr HPBT-Match bullet. Its the 69gr HPBT-Match little brother. It shoots just as well as the 69gr in my gun. They also make a 53gr HP Flat base too. I've tried both and did better with the 52gr HPBT-M using TAC.

 

[hdwhit]

I haven't loaded for 62 grain bullets, but for many years my go-to bullet for .223 was the Hornady 60 grain (either soft point or hollow point) and for those I had very good luck with IMR-3031 and WW748.