hello all. I'm new here and was wondering if anyone had any ideas on reduced loads in 223. I'm looking for 1200-1400 fps. in a 40 gr.HP. Are there any powders out there that I can use safley without a filler material. I'm aware of lite loads and inconsistent powder ignition causing high pressure. Looking for a lite quiet plinking round with less range. It's getting crowded around me and I need something a little more friendly. Rifles a 700 with 1-12" 24" tube. Thanks

Speer #13 had this for a 40gr spire sp #1017

Accurate XMP-5744

12.0 GRAINS 2134FPS MAX
11.0 GRAINS 1990FPS MIN

Thanks Jon. I did some searches under the powder companies and Accurate Arms has a powder#XMP5744 thats supposed to be good for reduced loads. The description said for old black powder cartriges, and good ignition in reduced loads. I've just never tried reducing loads down this much. I'm not sure what primers to use for this lite a load either. I just figured it'd be more fun reloading than using a 22RF. Also I'm not sure if they'd be accurate poking along at this pace.

plinker,
Do a search for "223 reduced loads". The search feature is a wonderful tool.

Chris

Check out http://www.jamescalhoon.com/ and look into the articles section. he has done quite a bit of work with reduced loads.

thanks cisco never thought of a search. I found most of the info I needed with it. JP's link to Calhoons site has loading info I was looking for and accuracy in a 1-12" looks very good. I'll be try'in some of these loads shortly.

I did some goof off experiments to make quiet loads too. I tried as low as 3gr of Bullseye, but that was with a 55gr FMJ and of course you need a ton of pressure to push a jacket out so it still made a lot more noise than I thought it would.
You'll be better off using cast slugs. I tried a .22rimfire/.223 halfbreed that worked great. Using the powder of the rimfire dumped into the 223 and the 40gr rimfire slug hand stuffed into the neck it worked like a champ! I tried the "CB" loads with the 30gr slugs and what little powder they had, they worked great too. Also tried adding extra powder to the standard .22 loads to make home brew "22 magnums", but without gas-checked bullets my fun was basically limited to 22 velocity. It was fun anyway. I made and shot them one at a time from the back of my truck using empty primed 223 shells, and pliers to take the 22's apart.
Oh, also used primer only to shoot 22 airgun pellets, very cool!
Have fun!

plinker:
If you don't mind, could you post or send me ones that worked good for you? Especially if you get a jacketed one to work well.
I would like to try a few real ones instead of the jerry-rig ones I made.
Thanks, Corey
"chevota@hotmail.com"