Looking for .223 load advice.

wasteoid

Active Member
Hi All,

I am the proud owner of an SGC speedmaster, which came with a whole load of Federal .223 American Eagle once and twice fired brass, as well as a bag of 62Gr heads, CCI small rifle primers, and 4 complete tubs of Lovex D073.4

I was wondering if anyone on the site has any experience they could share using these components to produce rounds?

We have made up a bunch on the low side of the book recommendation for the head weight, and powder, but I would still like to cross reference with anyone's real world experience.

Regards,

Chris
 
Chris, you have bullets, ;) not heads, sorry to be pedantic but, accuracy begins with description ... that said you are in the right place to get info.:tiphat:
 
Thanks JTO,

I found the PDF on their site when I got the powder.

Thanks Finnbear for the correction - I will remember my words for future posts, do you have any real world experience of reloading .223 with the components listed? I would be grateful for any input you have to give...

Chris
 
Real world is what works in your rifle, does not matter any others experience with the components.
 
Have used Lovex D073.4 with lighter bullets (50grn and 55grn) in both .222rem and .223rem and obtained excellent results. Can't see why you shouldn't get good results with this powder in your rifle.
 
Did the rifle come with all that kit and no load data? The quickest way to get an answer if you can reach them is to speak to the previous owner and ask if they have any load data recorded. Failing that the best option is to load test yourself which will be a little more time consuming but as every rifle is different will be your best bet rather than getting info from others based on their rifle.
 
Difficult to find a burn rate index for the powder but most are based on DuPont's.My load has always been IMR 4895 and start at 44 gr for 62 gr bullet
 
Thanks all for the feedback. I did call the guy I bought it off, and hes ditched everything from his .223 days to focus on black powder rifles.

I did look through the Explosia PDF, and used a mates reloading books, which gave us a place to start. The ammo we made - worked really well at the club, and I am going to make the next batch up to the same recipe, and give it a go at much longer range down at Bisley, and seeif I can refine from there.

I think we ended up with a midway figure (24.5gr I think) I will fill in the figure when I get the sodding box out of the garage.

Again,

Thanks all.
 
From what I can make out it's the same burn rate as AA2230.
I've used AA2230 in a .223 with good results under a 69gr bullet but switched to N140 simply because that works in my .308 as well.

I did try reloading the Eagle brass but found it to not be terribly uniform, main gripe was the primer pockets were not concentric to the flash holes which made for primer seating issues...:-|

If it's working for you, great.

Longer term, what's the rifle for and what's the twist rate?

Being an SGC I'll assume the original owner went for a fast twist like 1:7, in which case I'd go for a heavier bullet from 69gr to 77gr (or even 85gr if they fit and work for you).
.223 is a pretty unfussy caliber so any suitable mainstream powder and bullets should produce.
 
What twist rate is it as it could make a big difference on what bullet weight it will shoot.

D
 
HI There,

Thanks for the question, I should have put this in the OP.

The gun has a 1 in 8 Twist rate and - Bob from Southern told me this about it.....

"The rifle was chambered with a Modified Wylde chamber for 223 and 5.56 rounds up to 80 grn"

Hope this helps!!

Chris
 
I use 77grn match kings and nosler custom comp ontop of GGG brass and 24.5grns of either N140, RS52 or reloader 15. This is a standard civilian service rifle AR15 round. And is good out to 600 yards possible further.
 
From what I can make out it's the same burn rate as AA2230.
I've used AA2230 in a .223 with good results under a 69gr bullet but switched to N140 simply because that works in my .308 as well.

I did try reloading the Eagle brass but found it to not be terribly uniform, main gripe was the primer pockets were not concentric to the flash holes which made for primer seating issues...:-|

If it's working for you, great.

Longer term, what's the rifle for and what's the twist rate?

Being an SGC I'll assume the original owner went for a fast twist like 1:7, in which case I'd go for a heavier bullet from 69gr to 77gr (or even 85gr if they fit and work for you).
.223 is a pretty unfussy caliber so any suitable mainstream powder and bullets should produce.
What this guy said... wait a minute!
N140 will do what you want, pick a good bullet and off you go. It'll shoot well.
 
Difficult to find a burn rate index for the powder but most are based on DuPont's.My load has always been IMR 4895 and start at 44 gr for 62 gr bullet

44gns in a .223 case :eek: I do hope it's a typo as that's a LOT of powder in a tiny wittle case....

When I had a speedmaster with a 1-9 twist I used 73gn Bergers and 60gn Vmax both if front of 25gn of Varget. The Bergers were one hole awesome and the Vmax were sub 1/2 minute. both loaded to 2.250" OAL.
 
My 223 was 1:12 and it loved 40gr blitzkings with 26.0gr x-terminator under. 5 shots sinle hole at 100 yards
 
My side charging AR15 with 1:8 barrel likes 69gr SMKs over 24.4 gr of n140 with an O.A.L of 2.250.
 
Thanks for all the feedback.

Just done my first solo reload, made a few mistakes, like seating a primer upside down and three in cockeyed. Had to uniform a few tight pockets,but made 96 reasonable looking rounds.

From a reloading manual :

Federal american eagle cases
23gr of lovex (formerly accurate 2230?)
62gr ppu bullet
Cci small rifle primers
Col 2.260
Rifle is an sgc speedmaster - 1 in 8 barrel

Noticed a few things for observation and have a coule of questions

COL is variable plus or minus .010 - where possible over long have been adjusted down. I cant get my head around what the issue is to make these COL be so variable.

On shooting these groups at 100yds are quite wide, I would have expected better - I am getting up to 2" groups. Any ideas how I can tighten the these up? My thoughts after reading others articles are up the powder load, and or pish up bullet weight.

Other thoughts are better bullets and or better cases??

Your thoughts would be gratefully recieved.

Chris
 
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