.223/5.56 load development

[Scout_honor]

I am getting into reloading for my AR and trying to figure out where to begin with load development. I'm aiming for accuracy over speed, maybe some 69-77 grain pills, is there any tip for a newbie trying not to blow himself up or waste components?

 

[Laser eyes]

Don't blow up your rifle, that’s bad for recoil management, stick to the middle of the load data, and ladder test in 0.2-grain increments, your AR's throat depth will dictate your OAL/CBTO

 

[xunit13]

Why so heavy of a bullet. What you gonna shoot.

 

[wapakfred]

I'd check one (or more) of the current reloading manuals. The current Sierra, Speer, and Hornady manuals all have separate (from .223) loading data for that caliber in AR style rifles. Others may have as well, I only looked at those three.

 

[Longwalk]

What is your barrels rate of twist to shoot that heavy of bullet? And what kind of distance are you going to shoot 100, 200 300 yds. Scoped or open sights?

 

[Dstegjas]

My suggestion would be to invest in reloading manuals. I enjoy not just reading the data but the history of the different rounds. The new and especially the older ones are a wealth of information. The information you are looking for is in there. Here are the ones I have picked up over the years.

 

[forrestr]

The 223rem/5.56 is extremely easy to reload.

Myself, I'd start with blasting blammo ammo. That's cheap bullets and a cheap powder like h335 or bl-c2. Do ladder tests to get an idea of what your rifle likes. Once you've established a baseline with the blammo ammo, you can fine tune better bullets/loads.

 

[Scout_honor]

Don't blow up your rifle, that’s bad for recoil management, stick to the middle of the load data, and ladder test in 0.2-grain increments, your AR's throat depth will dictate your OAL/CBTO

Good tips, thanks!

 

[Scout_honor]

Why so heavy of a bullet. What you gonna shoot.

Heavier 69–77gr bullets give better ballistic coefficient and stability at longer ranges and I'm shooting steel and paper targets out to 600 yards, aiming for precision, not high cyclic rates

 

[Scout_honor]

What is your barrels rate of twist to shoot that heavy of bullet? And what kind of distance are you going to shoot 100, 200 300 yds. Scoped or open sights?

I’ll be shooting 100–600 yards and using a scope for precision

 

[nksmfamjp]

Start low and work up. Max pressure can be sneaky on an AR, especially loading with mixed brass. Get a chrono and trust it. Look at your brass.

Start your Oal at mag length -0.005” as the max oal. You may have to set the die 0.01” short to control that

I start with a ladder to find max pressure by either exceeding max velocity of load data or seeing pressure signs.

Start ~0.5-1.0gr below max and try a couple 0.5-1.0 increments below that.

I load 10 shot groups for this second round.

After that, you can try shortening OAL, but 223 bullets are pretty tuned to shoot mag length.

Good luck.

CFE223 and TAC and H4895 are your friends!