Getting ready to load 5,000 rounds of 223 Remington for Wyoming prairie dogs.

Ranges will be less than 300 yards.

Ammo will be used interchangeably in about a dozen Savage and Remington bolt action rifles.

Ammo will be loaded with a Dillon 650 press.

Brass is new, deburred and chamfered.

Assume ball powder.

Recommendations for bullet and powder, please.


Hammer

Thats like about asking for favorite pie receipes....

What kind of performance do you want on your bullets? Cheap, explosive, cross between both of those....

It is hard to find a bad powder for the 223..

Some of the good ones which are ball are anyone of the following...

H 335, BLC2, W 748, all are GREAT choices....

IMR 4895, 4230, 3031 are also great powders...

Varget, Benchmark and H 322 get a lot of votes for Hodgdon powders...

Reloader 7, 10 and 15 are also great 223 powders....

Cheap bulk bullets are the 55 grain SP from Winchester or Remington that are available thru all the mail order houses...

a cheap and very accurate and also very explosive bullet is the Winchester 46 grain HP...Last time I bought 2000 for $122.00 on the doorstep, from Cabelas....

Speer 50 grain TNT is a very good bullet for accuracy, explosiveness and cheap price....

As are the Hornady SPSXs... in both 50 and 55 grain guises.... However they are too fragile for a Savage that has a one in 9 twist... they will vaporize right out of the barrel.. on slower twists they are both accurate and explosive....

The Ballistic Tips, V Maxs and Blitz Kings are all excellent bullets if you have a champagne taste and Budget....

My favorite powder choices are Reloader 7 and 10, BLC2, IMR 4895 , Varget, and Benchmark,, with honorable mention to 3031 and 4320.....

You really have to go out of your way to screw up a 223 project....

There are few wrong choices....

cheers and good luck.. while having a great shoot!

seafire

All rifles seem to react differently but in my savage 223 I use H-335 26gr. with nosler BT or v-max 50 gr. bullets seating depth 2.220" oal. with cci BR4 primers, winchester brass. .40" 5 shot groups all day.

27.5 grains BL-C(2) and 50 grain TNT...or 50 grain BT or V-Max.....but I sure like the TNTs

I assume that you understand that several rifles cannot each be expected to provide optimal accuracy with the same load, but are willing to sacrifice some performance in order to have a large supply of ammunition that is usable in any of the rifles.

First I would recommend AGAINST either the Win or Rem bulk bullets. All I have attempted to use were inconsistent in nose shape and placement of the cannelure and none provided very good accuracy.

There are a lot of good bullets you could use, but for economy and accuracy, the Sierra 55 grain conventional lead tipped bullet (in your preference of flat or boat tail) is fairly economical and usually accurate in most guns (it is the best performer in three of my centerfire .22's). I like H335 (WC-844), the powder specifically designed for the 5.56 in most of my .222-family of cartridges. Both of my .223 Sakos digest 27.5 grains under a 55 Sierra, but this is higher than most book recommendations, so perhaps something more like 26 grains would be a judicious load for multiple rifles.

There of lots of good possibilities; this is just one.

For something that is accurate and ecconomical I would go with the 55gr. Mid South's Varmint Nitemare bullet at less than a nickel apiece and 25 gr. of WCC 844 at over 3200fps. With the primer that's about a dime a shoot not counting shipping. roger

Hammer: I know THE answer to the "bullet" part of your question and the answer is the wonderful and accurate Sierra 50 grain Blitz (not the BlitzKing!) bullets!
These amazing bullets are VERY accurate in about every Rifle I have ever tried them in!
They are impressively explosive and lethal.
They are VERY safe (frangible) in the field with very little ricochet risk.
And they are MUCH cheaper than the ballistic tip and v-max types.
Loading 5,000 bullets I am sure you would SAVE $250.00+ dollars by using these fine Blitz bullets over polymer tipped bullets.
I love these Sierra 50 gr. Blitz bullets for Prairie Doggin!
Good luck in your handloading "marathon"!
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy

VG, where do you find 50 grs Blitz that cheaply?? Midsouth has them for about $.09 a piece in boxes of 100. But that is just about the same as they sell 50 grs VMax for (in boxes of 250). Speer 50 grs TNTs sell for about $.08 in boxes of 1000.

- mike

Mho: I just this week bought several boxes of Nosler 50 gr. Ballistic Tips for a friend of mine. They were $33.00 per 250 not including tax or for some shipping - so that is 13.2 cents each minimum.
Its been a while since I bought any V-Max's, so out of loop temporarily there.
I bought a "ton" of Sierra Blitz 50 gr. bullets some time ago and the boxes were marked $7.99 per 100 or 8 cents apiece. 5+ cents difference times 5,000 is.... uhhh.... duh.... I think $250.00+.
So if our marathon loading man can get a deal on the Sierras I think the savings they would enjoy - would buy a BUNCH of fuel for his Varminting rig - half a Rifle - nice scope - bail money, etc?
How much are 50 gr. V-Max's going for these days - 9 cents apiece - thats a bargain?
Noslers have always been pricey?
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy

5000 Varmint Nitemares cost $242.50.
5000 Blitzes cost $399.50 that's a difference of $157.00. 5000 charges of WCC844 at .0352678/charge = $176.34 . That's just a little over 16#. Often if you buy 4ea. 8# jugs they will pay Hazmat.

If you check the Shotgun News you may find the powder cheaper. We only paid $48.00 for 8# ,but that was a couple years ago.

You may still find some 2230-C at a great price and that loads great in the .223 also. roger

quote:

Originally posted by Hammer:
Getting ready to load 5,000 rounds of 223 Remington for Wyoming prairie dogs.

Ranges will be less than 300 yards.

Ammo will be used interchangeably in about a dozen Savage and Remington bolt action rifles.

Hammer

Well to start with my guess is that 300 yard range is going to get streched out a ways. I like WC846 surplus BL-(C) 2 with 50 Gr. V-Max's. So far they have been good to 480 yards for me. I'm using 26.5 Gr of powder it's my accuracy load and is near 3400 fps. I'm seating the bullets close to the lans something your going to have a problem with considering the multiple guns.

i've used 26.3 gr of H335 and a 55 gr nosler for so longs and in so many 223's that if the rifle won't shoot that load I either sell it or rebarrel it.