26.0 grains of Benchmark, 52gr HPBT Hornady match, Fedral match primers,Winchester or L/C brass,remington classic 24" barrel, 1 in 12 twist, shooting in the .3, Also works good in the AR-15 24" barrel,1 in 9 twist.
Dan Carey thanks for the tip on the Benchmark powder. When We got back from the P-Dog shoot in wyoming, I switched to benchmark and was really pleased with the tight groups in both guns. The 52 grain bullets shot better then the 50 grainers. GENE'O
Coleridge with the 50gr V-MAX Hornady 26.5 grs of benchmark the velocities running 3265 fps (in Classic) . The 52grs hpbtmatch Hornady, I haven't checked velocities yet.
The AR-15, with the 50 gr V-MAX same load 26.5 grs benchmark, is running 3350 fps. The differance is the 1 in 9 twist.
I like my classic a lot, I put a HS stock on it, becouse of coyote hunting and didn't want to mess the stock up , and have shot over 100 coyotes with it. On Rock Chucks I'm shooting out to 500 yards. In a .223 I can't ask for a better off the shelf gun.
On the AR-15 I'm still working on a tighter groups using benchmark powder. The AR is going to work out great this fall on Coyotes. GENE'O
I just got a new AR15 Varmiter and on the first trip to the range I used the 25.5 Benchmark loads w/50gr.Hornady that I had loaded for my Encore and they shoot great although the bullets were seated too long for the clip. My quetion is to Gene'o are you using a small base die and are you crimping the loads for your AR15. I was not planning on doing either of these but maybe I should.
I'm not crimping any on the AR. The OAL is 2.235 and work with the loads and switching primers. The winchister 748, 27.2 gr powder,fed match or winchester primers, 50 V-MAX, winchester or L/C brass, shoot great under 1/2" groups. But benchmark burns a lot cleaner over all for me. Thats why I've gone to benchmark. Also I'm using a 4X12 Leupold on both .223 guns, If I put my 6.5 X 20 leupold on eather one of these .223es I'm sure the group size would emprove. But I've got them set up for Chucks and Coyotes