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My first .223 Remington Handloads. #166843 11/29/2015 11:48 PM
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Zee Offline OP
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A friend has been after me to load for the .223 Remington for the better part of a year after sending me some 80gr A-Max bullets. Seems I had a fast twist barrel he wanted me to try them in. I've been shooting .223 Remington forever but never needed to handload for it. Well..........I finally decided to get him off my back.





Prepped some brass last night and tried to figure out the correct seating depth as I didn't have a fired case handy for my Contender barrel. I removed the barrel, seated long, and kept seating the bullet deeper until it fit in the chamber easily. Hornady had data for the 80gr A-Max, obviously, but it was for a deeper seat depth. Hodgdon had data for the 80gr Sierra at a longer seat depth, so I went with the Hodgdon data and loaded 4 batches from 22.5gr H4895 to 24.0gr H4895 in .5gr increments.



Suckers don't even look like .223 Remington rounds! Those bullets are HUGE!!

Hit the range this afternoon with my 13" MGM barreled Contender.



At home, I had taken the loaded rounds out of the tray and placed them in an ammo box to take to the range. Like I always do. I also wrote the powder charge on the case......like I always do. What I didn't do.........that I always do......is put them in the box with lowest charge on the left and highest on the right. Like I always do.......except this time.

At the range, I set up the chronograph. Set up the gun. Grabbed the ammo box. Sat down and fired the first round. No issue. Opened the action and it was a tad sticky. Fired the next and it was the same. Looked at the primer and it was flat. On a starting load?!? Looked at the side of the case.............24.0gr written on the side.

Oops.

Because they were on the left side of the box, I went into system normal and started with them. Not knowing that I had but them in backwards. Oh well. No harm done. But, lesson learned..........check the charge on the side of the case first.

They weren't the most accurate load anyway........though the fastest.........duh.

Accurate was a tie between the starting load and .5gr under Max.



The load I'm going with is 23.5gr H4895 @ 2,475 fps and a SD of 8 fps for 3 rounds @ 100 yards = .358"



That'll work. Not an amazingly accurate load. But, good enough to hunt with and the velocity ain't bad.

Guess I gotta load the rest of them and shoot a deer or pig now. See what happens.

Science!


"To Hell with efficiency, it's performance we want!" - Elmer Keith
Re: My first .223 Remington Handloads. [Re: Zee] #166845 11/30/2015 12:10 AM
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KYODE Offline
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I dont like to rely on flat primers in the break action for an indicator. If cases are sized to minimum headspace, ive blown a primer before it flattens. Theres just no room for the case to stretch and slam the breechface to flatten the primer.

Beautiful gun! 👍


Kentucky….no place like home.
Re: My first .223 Remington Handloads. [Re: KYODE] #166853 11/30/2015 3:03 AM
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Ernie Offline
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WOW...Is this true???
Zee is reloading for the 223 Rem?
Miracles never cease!!!
Soon he will be reloading for the 308 Winchester...Ha!


Ernie the Un-Tactical
Re: My first .223 Remington Handloads. [Re: Ernie] #166854 11/30/2015 3:57 AM
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Zee Offline OP
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 Originally Posted By: Ernie
Miracles never cease!!!
Soon he will be reloading for the 308 Winchester...Ha!


That, I actually do. But, only with 125gr bullets because I don't have that ammo.
;-)


"To Hell with efficiency, it's performance we want!" - Elmer Keith
Re: My first .223 Remington Handloads. [Re: Zee] #166865 11/30/2015 1:31 PM
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Chance Weldon Offline
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How fast of a twist rate do you need to stabilize those bullets?


Formerly TN Lone Wolf

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Re: My first .223 Remington Handloads. [Re: Chance Weldon] #166867 11/30/2015 2:20 PM
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Zee Offline OP
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My barrel is a 1-7" twist.


"To Hell with efficiency, it's performance we want!" - Elmer Keith
Re: My first .223 Remington Handloads. [Re: Zee] #166871 11/30/2015 2:28 PM
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SChunter Offline
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Nice Zee! I need to hunt up some 80gr AMax for a long-stick I'm having built. Debating between the running the Bergers, Amax's or 77 gr SMK's.

Looks like that MK4 is wearing the gun as opposed to the other way around!

Re: My first .223 Remington Handloads. [Re: SChunter] #166872 11/30/2015 2:33 PM
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Zee Offline OP
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I run the 77gr SMK in factory version as well and they seem to be effectively accurate.

Have not tried the Berger flavor.


"To Hell with efficiency, it's performance we want!" - Elmer Keith
Re: My first .223 Remington Handloads. [Re: SChunter] #166895 11/30/2015 10:27 PM
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Chance Weldon Offline
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Could you run lighter bullets with that twist rate? Also:

 Originally Posted By: SChunter
Looks like that MK4 is wearing the gun as opposed to the other way around!

Kind of a hefty scope for a Contender handgun, don't you think? The scope probably weighs as much as the gun itself.


Formerly TN Lone Wolf

"We are only as strong as we are united, as weak as we are divided." - J.K. Rowling
Re: My first .223 Remington Handloads. [Re: Chance Weldon] #166897 11/30/2015 10:40 PM
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Zee Offline OP
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 Originally Posted By: TN Lone Wolf
Could you run lighter bullets with that twist rate? Also:

 Originally Posted By: SChunter
Looks like that MK4 is wearing the gun as opposed to the other way around!

Kind of a hefty scope for a Contender handgun, don't you think? The scope probably weighs as much as the gun itself.


Yes. It shoots 50gr Ballistic Silvertip bullets equally well.

Yeah, the scope is a bit large. But, I had it on hand, and it gives me 14x, so I went with it. The rig ain't light. But, it doesn't move much to speak of in recoil either. Just a little bump.


"To Hell with efficiency, it's performance we want!" - Elmer Keith

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