Anyone with a hornady load book...

[slowyellow]

Do you have a recommended OAL for 55 grain bullets? And I concur that 2-3 moa is terrible, it's actually embarassing to even post that up here. But like I said, I don't think it's me, lol.

[dee]

Set OAL out as far as you can without touching the lands, in your case that most likely will be mag length limited with the 55's.

[dee]

Another thing to remember when loading for a semi auto if you are crimping and the crimp is not consistent your accuracy will suffer.

[slowyellow]

I'm new to the standard rifle loads, but I thought that bullet seating with a cannelure was a set thing. Can you just seat with those out of the case and crimp like normal? Do you not have to worry about bullet setback?

[dee]

Yea a crimp is fine either way, and for what its worth a lot of AR target shooters don't crimp.

[slowyellow]

So, just for comparison. Here is what some of the groups looked like. Also, in the middle of measuring I zeroed the calipers at .224 so that I could just measure from outside to outside, so that's why the calipers are centered on some and not on others.

Control, standard XM193 55 grain stuff.



First group with my 55 grain loads (lots of horizontal play, that might have been me lol)



Second group with my 55 grain loads (again, looks like I pulled a shot, but still the other 4 are 2-3 moa)



Now to the 69 grain sierra's just different grain amounts.

[slowyellow]

Yea a crimp is fine either way, and for what its worth a lot of AR target shooters don't crimp.

AR target shooting as in single load or magazine? Also, I don't have a neck sizing die, so I'd worry about the bullet pulling out, lol.

[dee]

I mean in like service rifle and stuff of the sorts that require multiple timed shots. I also never crimped loads for my Garand that were only FL sized and never had a problem.

[slowyellow]

Cool, I might try that. I don't crimp my loads for my 308, but that gun is a totally different animal.

[dee]

A simple test is to load several up then color the bullet with a sharpie and cycle a few and drop the mag and look for a gap in between the bullet and case mouth.

[slowyellow]

Just for continuity, here is the question and reply that I got from Hornady:

Question:

Hi, my name is XXXX XXXX. I don't see any data for the HPBT 75 Grain .224 bullets with H335 powder in your manual. Lots of people speculate about it online, and I just wanted to see if I am able to get it straight from "the horses mouth" If you could provide me with this I'd greatly appreciate it. Thank you in advance.

Answer:

Thanks for the inquiry. I am assuming you are reloading for the 223 Remington cartridge. With that said, no we don't have any reloading data for that particular powder because it didn't test well with that bullet or we simply didn't test with it.
Thanks again

So, it looks like we are truly on our own here, lol. I'll post results as I develop a load with it.

[motoman]

Just for continuity, here is the question and reply that I got from Hornady:

Question:

Hi, my name is XXXX XXXX. I don't see any data for the HPBT 75 Grain .224 bullets with H335 powder in your manual. Lots of people speculate about it online, and I just wanted to see if I am able to get it straight from "the horses mouth" If you could provide me with this I'd greatly appreciate it. Thank you in advance.

Answer:

Thanks for the inquiry. I am assuming you are reloading for the 223 Remington cartridge. With that said, no we don't have any reloading data for that particular powder because it didn't test well with that bullet or we simply didn't test with it.
Thanks again

So, it looks like we are truly on our own here, lol. I'll post results as I develop a load with it.

I've got some links open on my computer at home from some different tests. If you're interested in the results and load data I'll post it up.

[CJ]

A good resource to check is handloads.com simply as a reference. I also google the cartridge, bullet, and powder as well until I find a consistent load everyone seems to agree on and I start there. I loaded 75gr .223 loads many times, usually start around 20gr of varget and go up from there.

[slowyellow]

A good resource to check is handloads.com simply as a reference. I also google the cartridge, bullet, and powder as well until I find a consistent load everyone seems to agree on and I start there. I loaded 75gr .223 loads many times, usually start around 20gr of varget and go up from there.

Have you used anything that meters well in a dillon powder measure with the 75 grain loads??

[CJ]

Have you used anything that meters well in a dillon powder measure with the 75 grain loads??

sure, varget and imr-4895 both work fine in a dillon. But, my powder die is polished thoroughly to avoid bridging.