Advice for my first .223 Remington loads

[Adam5]

I need a little guidance on load data. On normally go a friend to helps and teaches me to load with a load in mind, then we discuss it prior starting. Sometimes he agrees with my load, others he says that after 30 years experience he finds that load XYZ works better, and explains why.

Since November I have loaded 9mm, 10mm, .38spl, .357mag, and .45acp under his guidance and mentorship. When loading a cartridge for the first time I normally start at a midrange load and work up to his pet load, or until I get the feel and accuracy I want.

Tomorrow we’re loading my first rifle rounds. I have 100 prepped .223 brass primed with CCI 400 primers. I have settled on Hornady 55gr fmj-bt, and Varget powder. The load data I see in my Hornady, Hodgdon, and Lyman books show a wide range, including compressed loads.

Hornady shows 22.8 - 26.4
Hodgdon shows 25.5 - 27.5 compressed
Lyman shows 25 - 27.8 compressed

I’m thinking of starting at 26gr, which is towards the high end of Hornady, and mid range for Hodgdon and Lyman.

Does anyone else use use a similar load? The rifle is a 16” barrel 1/7 twist AR.

 

[tcward]

25.5 is the bottom I would go with Varget, so I would say 26 would be a good starting point.

 

[Nimrod71]

I would start with 26 gr. of Varget. Varget is a Hodgdon powder and I would trust their load data, unless I had doubts on the quality of the other components.

 

[JeffinPTC]

When you use up the 55 gr, you might find that heavier bullets are more accurate from your 1:7 barrel. There's a nice chart here somewhere comparing twist to bullets.
For me, 21.4 of AR Comp under a 77 gr Nosler Custom Comp is a good target load from my 1:7.

If supply ever catches up, here's a good source:

https://www.shootersproshop.com/loading-reloading-bullets/shopby/f/grain2/77/isAjax/1.html

These were $150/K last time I ordered 3 years ago. So hopefully price will come down. 10% disc vets, responders.

They also have loaded 77 CC for $200/200 this AM. The brass is 50C each, so maybe this is not an unreasonable price today.

 

[Jester896]

I wouldn't expect top accuracy with anything 55gr with a 1:7 twist rate either.

is this the chart you were talking about?


when that little slidy thing gets puhsed through that other heavy thingy it will still go BANG tho