A somewhat scienfitc assessment of 223 powders
Kludge -
A friend and I recently built a spreadsheet for 233 loading. Now of course, extreme accuracy could not be taken into account in a spreadsheet, but the only powders we considered were ones that had been recommended by other shooters as "good for the AR". That is to say accurate and clean burning.
We looked at burn rate, cost, cost per load, loads per pound, and wear & tear on the gun. We had absolutely no "favorites" going in. We needed a recommendation on a powder that we both understood would be new to us. Alliant Reloader 10X and Reloader 15 could not be included due to the lack of reloading data on Alliant's own website. (They have not returned our email so far. Should they respond, their information certainly will.)
However, at this point, the clear winner among 14 highly recommended 223 powders is (drum roll please).... Ramshot TAC. We were also very pleasantly surprised to find the TAC was also useful with nearly all 223 bullet weights, as well as in several other calibers. And TAC is a ball powder making use with mechanical powder dispensers easier.
I'll let you know how it goes after our order arrives.
Hope this helps!