Precision .223

[NF1E]

Wet and cold out today so it's fun time at the loading bench making up some .223 cartridges. Starline weight sorted cases, 73 gn Berger Boat Tailed Target bullets over 23 gn of Varget with BR4 primers. This load has been working fine for me and keeping 10 rnd groups in the .2 moa range with a couple of my precision bolt rifles. Whatta Hobby!

[PhilC]

Great way to spend a cold, wet day. :thumb:

[Rocketvapor]

Got some rainy days coming this week for a Match on Saturday.
Not expecting .2's though :(

[CFJunkie]

Great results with your .223 and those BR-4 primers. And it looks like you are seeing that your rifle likes 73 grain bullets, just like my Savage 12 FV does.

If you are shooting a bolt action, you might want to try some Rem 7.5 benchrest primers.
I find that my 12 FV .223 seems to give a slight accuracy edge at 100 yards with 5 round groups to REM 7.5 benchmark primers (0.271 for 784 groups) over the BR-4s (0.291 for 365 groups).
That's only 4.7% better but with a very significant statistical sample.
To someone who is as anal about accuracy as I am, that is proof enough for me to load with the Rem 7.5s.

With a semi-auto, I still use BR-4s with my Les Baer Super Varmint .223 AR because, with an AR, CCIs are a bit more protection against slam fires than the the softer Rem 7.5s.
The BR-4s (0.305) result in 8.4% better accuracy than the CCI 400s (0.334) in the Les Baer at 100 yards.

[charlie b]

Forgot to look. Did you ever try CCI 450's?

[CFJunkie]

No, never tried 450s.

Based upon my testing years ago using LR regular versus magnum primers for my hunting rifles in cold weather below 25 deg F, all I could see is that the magnums increased velocity by about 12 to 15 feet per second and didn't change the POI.
Since I was happy with the BR-4 performance versus the CCI 400s, I never thought a change to a non-benchrest magnum primer would have necessarily improved accuracy.

[charlie b]

I've been using them in my cast gun simply because they are 1) cheaper than the BR's and 2) they ignite the smaller charges better (yeah, kinda backwards I know).

Was going to try some in the 6BR just to see if I could tell the difference. I also have a 6.5CM in the works so will try them in it as well.

charlie

[CFJunkie]

Actually, it makes sense that the magnum primers might ignite a light load more consistently.
A light load may easily get more dispersed in the cartridge than a normal load and need a bit more active ignition.