Any opinions out there on the best powder choice for this combination ?

H-335 and nothing else(my opinion,of course)...........

Well , I DID ask for opinions ......

Hodgdon Benchmark,,,good ,,good,,good,,,,

Roger , have you chronoed any Benchmark loads ? I do like the idea of the Hodgdon Extreme powders . In this country , we can see any thing from +110 to -45 .

I use 40gr Sierra BK with 25gr Varget and get great accurracy and few penetrations on fur. LC brass, WSR, OAL 2.26. Good shooting! This is the load in the Nossler guide.

I have been using more and more of western powders. I have had better luck with xterminator for performace and groups than H335, benchmark and varget. Give it a try. All powderslisted Ihave had either great groups or velocity, groups wise western and the H335 where best for grouping. Good luck

You might try AA2460. I use it with 40 V-maxs in my 14" Contender and get 3250 fps with max loads (which is well above what I get from the other powders mentioned) and about 0.5 MOA accuracy.

I'm with the Stick Man. ~lokey

28 grs of BLC2 and the 40 gr. Blitzking..wow!

H-335. It works so well I bought two 8lb containers!

I am using IMR 4198 for my 40 gr. pills in either nosler or hornady....the load works the same with both, I forget the # of grs., but I am getting 3600 fps from a 26" barrel. ...less than 1/2" groups @ 100 yds.

I have loaded a lot of 40gr. Nosler Ballistic Tips over the years. I started with W-748 & H-322. Shot those two powders quite a bit. Then I tried IMR-4198 H-4198SC. I have obtained the best velocity and accuracy with H-4198SC in the last couple of .223's I have loaded for (a couple 22" Ruger MKII's & a couple Super 14 Contenders).

Another powder I use quite a lot of with the 40gr. Nosler Ballistic Tip is Alliant Blue Dot. This makes a great .22 K-Hornet / .218 Bee duplication load. Velocities with Blue Dot in the .223 with the 40gr. Nosler Ballistic Tips average 3079 FPS, with almost no recoil, and super low noise. Great fun load to shoot, and quite accurate too.

One thing about the .223 is that almost any medium burning weight powder works quite well.

Good luck.

Larry

H-335 provides good loads. BL-C2 might run a bit higher velocities. Both are ball powder that meter well.

I tried Varget and didn't like the metering. I've heard others remark that Varget is useful at everything, but excells at nothing.

Varmint Al likes H-322. But I think maybe the H-335 or BL-C2 are tops.

I'm working on a .223 Ackley for this bullet. Hoping to get in the 4,000 fps range.

I have had very good results using
VihtaVuori N135 .

muck