My friends and I use mostly 22 Hornet, K-Hornets and .223 for P-dog shooting.
On the Hornets and K-Hornets we load AA1680 to base of the bullet with 37 gr Calhoon Double HP bullets and use small pistol primers. This gives excellent accuracy and explodes the p-dogs.
On the .223 we use 25 grs of AA 2520 and 50 gr Speer TNT bullets with small rifle primers. Not a hot load but has killed many thousand P-dogs

Ga Bob, Welcome to the forums and a question for you: Have you tried Lil Gun in the Hornet? I use AA1680 in the Hornet and the 7.62 x 39, and love the accuracy and velocity, but Lil Gun is better in the Hornet, just my opinion.

I like the 40 grain Barnes in .222 Mag. 28 grains of 2015 produces 3800 fps from my 24" barrel. I'm not sure if a more ideal dog load exists, but I have an open mind.
One could get nearly the same velocity from a .223.

quote:

Originally posted by Gabob:
My friends and I use mostly 22 Hornet, K-Hornets and .223 for P-dog shooting.
On the Hornets and K-Hornets we load AA1680 to base of the bullet with 37 gr Calhoon Double HP bullets and use small pistol primers. This gives excellent accuracy and explodes the p-dogs.
On the .223 we use 25 grs of AA 2520 and 50 gr Speer TNT bullets with small rifle primers. Not a hot load but has killed many thousand P-dogs

Welcome to the forums first off....

And using the 37 grain Calhoon and the 50 grain TNT in the 223, I'd say you got it covered!

All I can add to this, is to try 14 grains of Blue Dot in your 223 loads, small rifle primers or small pistol primers, either work great...

MV will be about 3000 fps... and accuracy is phenominal.. but the really key feature when the shooting is fast and furious.. because you use so much less powder, you will notice that it takes a lot longer to really heat up your barrel....

I started playing with the idea off of Calhoons web site...14 grains is the max with the 50 grain TNT..... 14.5 grains with a 37 ti 46 grain Calhoon bullet in the 223s...

But if you are shooting a shot every 30 seconds with the blue dot load, you can keep shooting the same rifle all afternoon with out heat problems..

I normally set up with 3 rifles, and switch off every 15 shots...all 223s and all the same load..

With Blue Dot, I can shoot until I run out of ammo, with out having to stop due to barrel heat..

I have shot 500 plus rounds out of one rifle in a day using that load combo.. actually in 5 1/2 hours.. and never stopped due to barrel heat...

Try it and you will find the same thing... and my main bullet for that is the 50 grain TNT...it is one of the most accurate combos out of any of my 223s,

I have Calhoon's web site to thank for getting me started on that!