Hand loaded forever and for everything except the fast AR. I am looking for an accurate load useing Nosler bullets for my AR. I have a boat load of Nosler .224 Bal. Tips in all grain weights. The rifle; DPMS flattop upper 16" (I know its short) H-BAR w/ 1-9 twist in 5.56 on a DPMS lower. So far I've found this rifle to be pretty accurate to great distances but I'd like to push it further. Any help will be greatly appreciated...

You did not mention what weight bullets you have. I use 55gr Ballstic Tips in mine with 26.2gr of Benchmark. Meters well and easy to load.

www.ammoguide.com lists 109 loads for Nosler bullets. There are 754 loads in total for .223Remington. I am a member over there. It's a great site and just loaded with tons of information about firearms-- all for just $18 or so a year. There is a visual and ballistic comparison tool that will graphically show the differences between a .223Rem and a .458Lott if you want to see that comparison. You can show up to eight at one time. A new thing is they have a ballistics calculator that will show you a graph of the bullet's flight when you plug in the required information. There are 20,000-plus loads for about 750 cartridges. Y'otta join. It's cheap for so much info. I've re-upped once already and will do so again next July...

what barrel contour, length and twist? for what application?

Try 25.3 grains of either RL15 or Varget with a 69 Sierra match bullet. It should work with a 1 in 9. One of these powders will work.

hey amamnn, I listed it; 16" H-BAR (heavy barrel) 1 in 9 twist

I heard when you find the right powder combo for your rile it will group all your cases all in the same place.
I found that with my M1carbine. All the cases are grouped with in a few feet or 3 of each other.
If you find that powder for yours let me know. I have a friend who is just starting to load for his AR15. So maybe I can help him get a start on powder to start with.

He just got a new upper in 6.8spc

With those 55gr bullets, you can't beat a case topped off with Varget. Fill it to the brim! (about 27gr)

I'd avoid faster powders as they seem to cause function problems and are generally more persnickety in the AR.

quote:

I'd avoid faster powders as they seem to cause function problems and are generally more persnickety in the AR.

If I m not mistaken the Military uses the H-US869?
Using the 70GR range bullet weight.
Under there list of powder burn rates, US869 is 2nd from last. Now that in mind keeping to the slower powders will really impact the difference in FPS and all ballistics between ignition to impact. Added heavy bullets forced though fast rifling would make for a great combination in theory.
It maybe worth some investigation.
In your tests keep us posted.

quote:

Originally posted by James Kain:
If I m not mistaken the Military uses the H-US869?
....
In your tests keep us posted.

You are NOT mistaken, but US869 is a .50 BMG powder, not a 5.56 powder.

But when I get a .50 BMG AR, I will give it a try and let ya'll know how it works.

quote:

Originally posted by BECoole:

quote:

Originally posted by James Kain:
If I m not mistaken the Military uses the H-US869?
....
In your tests keep us posted.

You are NOT mistaken, but US869 is a .50 BMG powder, not a 5.56 powder.

But when I get a .50 BMG AR, I will give it a try and let ya'll know how it works.

Thank you for the correction.

I've been using 26 grains of Varget under Bulk Winchester 55gr soft points. Bones stock Bushmaster gets .75" If I had the trigger worked I could probably do better.

I'm going to try BL-C(2) and TAC when the weather warms up a bit to see what I can do with 50gr varmint nightmare bullets.

for fur hunting (foxes, coon, yotes) I use barnes 45 gr spitzer solids
24 gr benchmark, win sr primers.

I love VARGET but also found H335 to work well. If you are using a collpas. stock I highly recommend running a H2 or H3 buffer weight. Will make a huge difference in cycling the bolt on a stout load.

If you are serious about the trigger give Bill Springfield in Colorado a call. He does great AR trigger jobs for far less than say a Jewell or comparable.

Sorry guys, been hunting and working. But I will post when I come up w/ something. Anyone know what the theory is on fast twist rate barrels like mine (1-9) and heavy or light weight bullets? I keep hearing conflicting theories... confused to say the least

quote:

Originally posted by Dutchboy:
Sorry guys, been hunting and working. But I will post when I come up w/ something. Anyone know what the theory is on fast twist rate barrels like mine (1-9) and heavy or light weight bullets? I keep hearing conflicting theories... confused to say the least

1-9 use heavier bullets
If you start with something mid range and work to a heavier bullet you will see the difference. No rile is identical regardless of manufacture, you could have 2 production rifles or 2 made for the worlds greatest gun smith, they will react differently to the same load.
But 1-9 would be slightly on the heavy side, I m told if you really want heavy go with the 1-8.
Some time I will get off my ass a custom build myself a AR. (used to maintenance small arms in the army, glorified parts re-placer trained in trouble shooting and just below a gun smith.)

The 223 Rem. has a remarkable ability to digest a plethora of component combination that will shoot accurately.

To answer your question about twist. The 1-9" (and now 1-7") twist are commonly found on military rifles and long range match rifles shooting heavy bullets; roughly 65 grains and up. The 69 to 77 grain VLD (very low drag) bullets are popular for long range match competition, but bullets over 69 grains often have to be fed one at a time in the AR-15 due to the bullet's length.

1-12" to 1-14" twist barrels in the 223 Rem are very popular with the varmint shooting crowd because they handle the 40 to 55 grain bullets with ease.

Can you shoot a 40, 50, or 55 grain bullet in your 1-9" barrel? Yes, no problem. You might have to experiment a little more with the 40 grain range, but the 50 and 55 grain bullets will shoot like a champ.

As I'm sure you've gathered already, there are many great powders for use in the 223 Rem. Some of the most popular and my favorites are:

• Benchmark
• VV N133
• H335
• Win 748
• Varget

There are a couple of things to consider with your AR. First, given you short barrel (16") you will likely benefit from the slightly faster burning powders of the group above. Second, since you have a brass belching gas-fed semi-auto (I have several too), you will tend to get a lot of powder residue and soot into your action with high volume shooting. Given those two things, I think VV N133 and Benchmark will give you the best results. I have been very pleased with both of them in my ARs. The biggest difference I notice is that they clean up very easily and do no leave a lot of crap in the action. The velocity of the N133 was slightly better than the Benchmark, but the Benchmark is still listed as one of the highest velocity powders for the 223 Rem. I really liked H335 for its inherent accuracy with almost any load and is a go-to powder for bolt action .223 rifles, but in the auto-loaders, I think it is too messy for something like prairie dogs or ground squirrels where high volume is the name of the game.

If you haven’t found it already, this is a great resource for comparing powder specs from IMR, Hodgdon, and Winchester:

http://data.hodgdon.com/main_menu.asp

I can’t really comment on bullets, other than weight, because I don’t think you mentioned what you will be using this rifle for. That is important for us to know.

Best of luck. Feel free to ask anything else; I sort of rambled.

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Success with just a sample of one doesn't mean much, but I have had the most success with one of my AR varmiting rigs wearing a 1-12 twist 18" bbl using: VV N133 and 55 gr. Hornady V-Max. You'll have to work up your own charge, but mine happens to be close to max with great accuracy.