.223 reloading for multiple guns

M

mtbadger

New member
Does anybody have any insight on reloading for multiple guns in .223??? I am only looking for ranges up to 300yds.

I have a Tikka T-3 Lite, Handi-Rifle, Bushmaster. I am planning on getting another AR style in a carbine barrel.

Thanks before hand gents...
 
The only way to get the most out of every rifle is to work up a specific load for each one, treat them as individuals.

Just make sure that you full length resize the brass for the Bushy everytime.

The Tikka and NEF should be alright just pushing back the shoulder a little bit. Chamber some empty cases to check for feeding/action problems before loading bullets in them. The place to find this out is at home, not in the field.
I have found that bolt rifles as well as single shots do better without always full length sizing.
Especially the single shots, they typicaly like a nice big fire formed case. Just double check them before loading a bunch of them up.
 
Wow, great minds think alike. I just finished sorting 4000 pieces of new Guatemalan brass. In our prairie dog squad we have several .223 rifles. The bulk of that ammo is interchangeable among those rifles. I tend to pick a good quality generic weight bullet. For the .223 that is the 55gr. Sierra SBT #1365. The brass is FL sized (ok, I can cheat just a bit, I still have a roll sizer). I load Varget, simply because its pressure curve is quite forgiving in the .223. This lets me load pretty close to max and still be safe in multiple rifles. The only other trick is to seat the bullet to Max COAL rather than matching to a particular rifle. Test for functionality and accuracy in each rifle and you are good to go. If a particular rifle don't like the load then I make minor modifications to the powder charge first. If this don't work then I try barrel dampening or weighting.
John
 
I have a Tikka T-3 Lite and a RRA Predator Pursuit in 223 Rem. I want my ammo to work in both rifles so I full length size and seat the bullets so they are shorter than the maximum recommended OAL. Both rifles are 1-8" twist and they both shoot the same loads better than I can shoot them.
 
Quote:I just finished sorting 4000 pieces of new Guatemalan brass.

Hey, question:

That and Lapuaare the two brands of brass that I've seen reports of actually being heavier than commercial / LC etc.
Any truth in that, or is that ancient history?
What's the headstamp on that?
IMG?

Thanks
 
This lot of IMG is running about a grain heavier than LC 09. It also has the small flash hole, just like the new lot of Lapua. My only regret it that I did not buy more.
John
 
Thanks again for the info Gents...

I am NEW to reloading and don't know anybody local that reloads that I can "watch and learn". I am taking baby steps to figure this out so there isn't any problems...

Where do you get Guatemalen brass???
 
I reload ammo that could end up in any of 6 223's. One has a tight chamber the rest are O.K. with all ammo. You really have to watch the semi-autos. You can get yourself in a bind with a case stuck in the chamber. I relearned this the hard way when I got one of my usual loads stuck in a tighter custom chambered AR. I now have 500 nickle plated cases that are dedicated to this rifle.
 
I have this lot sorted into quarter grain groups, the extreme spread was almost four grains. Out of 4K pcs, about 25 were outside of this range. The nice thing about this brass is the small, drilled flash hole.
John
 
Originally Posted By: reno92How about small base dies for the auto loaders, is that needed?

That is a very good question. I once talked a gun shop owner into letting me open several boxes of dies so I could measure them. The small base dies were a bit smaller than the regular RCBS dies when measured .50" from the the bottom of the die. The interesting thing was that most other brands of FL dies were pretty close the the small base dies. These were .308 Win. dies. I suspect this is why most folks don't see much of a difference.
John
 


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