223 loading problem

[Stoner]

U ordered a barrel from mgm which is a 20 inch 223 with a 1:14 twist rate.  I cannot. Get it to group at all.  Wanted to shoot a light bullet so started with a 36 grain varmint grenade.  After about 50 rounds rounds and various powders depths etc..best group is barely covers a quarter.  Went to a nosler 40 bt but the throat is cut to deep.  Barely stays in the brass when finding the land.  Getting ready to go to a 50 gr bt and see what happens.
I have used:
aa200
Rl7
And one more that escapes me at the moment.

Any suggestions would be great.

[Land_Owner]

What range did you set your target?
What velocity are your rounds?
What were you looking for in accuracy?
A 25 cent piece group at 200 yards isn't bad at all.

[Stoner]

200 yards I would be happy.  This is at 100.  According to the book, best I remeber, is around 3100 fp
s. I would like same hole or close to it.  As long as I do my part.

[Land_Owner]

My reloading books indicate that Winchester 748 powder was "made" for the 223.  It works well in mine.  Bit dirty though.  The blow back system clogs after three or four hundred rounds, which isn't long at 30-rounds a clip.  I have not reloaded for accuracy, just quantity on my progressive press, and am doing fine for how I shoot.  I am getting your same spread at 100 yards with 10-shots rapid fire and I don't mean steady breathing, slow squeeze, and the stuff of Bench Rest shooting.  I mean squeeze and squeeze and squeeze ten times and go down range and check target.  That is fantastic in my book and I am having fun.  I hunt for meat and when I shoot for groups, one at a time, I use my 270 Winchester and 150 grain Hornady Spire Points.  The M-16 was made for slinging lead.  Yes it is accurate, but one at time?  That's not having fun?  Is it?  Put in a 30-round clip and let her rip!  That's fun, entertaining, and what she was made for.  PLUS, you're getting real good accuracy there right now, depending on what you intend to do with it.

[DANNY-L]

I've recently switched to either  aa2230 or varget and had real good results with 55gr - 69gr,haven't tried anything lighter yet. My oal is 2.260 for my mini & model 7

[stimpylu32]

Just my take on this for what its worth , far too many people put way too much into bullet jump , not ever bullet will shoot well touching the lands , the short-stubby one being the hardest to get to work that way , they were just never designed to do that .

What I have found to work best for Me , is to seat the bullet with to atleast one bullet Dia. into the case neck and work with powder charges till I get the best group , then I switch to seating depth to see if the groups tighten up .

Whats this all mean ? Start with the basic's and work from there , sure it may mean loading and shooting more rounds , but thats the fun part . 

stimpy   

[JRiddle]

I would try switching to one of the more popular powders for the .223, either Win748 (which is what I use) or Varget.  With the 1:14 twist you're probably not going to be shoot anything past a 50grainer, maybe a 55 if you push it really fast, but then accuracy may be hard to achieve.  I'd stick with a 36, 40, or 45 at 'middle of the road' velocities for best results.  Also something to consider,,,a brand new barrel...some need more breaking in than others.  Good luck.
JR

[necchi]

Just my take on this for what its worth , far too many people put way too much into bullet jump , not ever bullet will shoot well touching the lands , the short-stubby one being the hardest to get to work that way , they were just never designed to do that .

What I have found to work best for Me , is to seat the bullet with to atleast one bullet Dia. into the case neck and work with powder charges till I get the best group  

Good advise here ! +1,, and try Varget powder. I'm afraid that when trying to reach the lands with those little pills, the bullet's not being seated straight leading to alot of run-out,,or the bullet being tipped a bit in the case, 

[Larry Gibson]

Assuming a gas gun?  Doesn't matter though.  Load the Speer 52 gr HP if a gas gun over 26 gr of AA2230 or 26.5 gr H335.  If a bolt action or SS then same loads with either the Hornady 50 or 55 gr SPSX bullets. 

Larry Gibson

[Catfish]

Stimpy, I really disagree with you on this one. Every barrel is different. I have some that group best with the bullet jammed into the lands and others that have to have at least a .050 jump. What I have noticed is the the bullets that have to be close or in the lands are the heave for cal. bullets and lite for cal. bullets usually need a jump to the lands. At any rate, I alway play with bullet seating depth when trying to get the best posible accuracy from a gun.

[guntech59]

I have had great results using IMR 8208 XBR in my .223 AR and my 22-250 bolt action.  All of the loads have had acceptable accuracy, but the groups become smaller the closer I got to the max book loads.

Both rifles are shooting under 1/2" at 100 yards.  The .223 with 65gr SGK (1/9 twist).  The 22-250 using 50 and 55gr VMAX (1/14 twist).

I have not shot the AR past 100 yards with this load...further testing is needed.

I have shot the 22-250 out to 400 yards.  Way out there, the groups opened up to 3", but some of that expansion may just be 50 year old eyes behind the scope.

[223fan]

I've had good luck in the 223 with BLC2 ,Varget,& H4198.In my AR I have settled on Varget & the 65gr.gameking,for my encore I use 4198 & a 55gr vmax.I have used 40gr ballistic tips and varget with good results.I don't seat them out to the lands,like you I didn't get good results,I dont think there was enough neck tension to get everything going good.I use c.o.l. published for the bullets I'm using at the time.

[dieselman]

My AR has a 16" bl with a 1-9" twist and likes Horn's 35gr v-max pills over 26.5gr of bl-c2 (close to win 748) it is a 5.56 chamber thats cut deep, I use the Lee fac crimp die and it don't matter where the lands are cause it'll never reach with the FCD it will shoot dang near one hole groups @ 100yds. It will smack down tree rats (head shots) at 75 plus yds all day. I have started to play with RL-15 in the .223 and it is bad a$$ so far started with it in .204 ruger and loved it just have not done light bullets in .223 yet.  

[Stoner]

Loaded some test loads with 748 and varget.  Hopefully will have enough time to test this week.