Since I have a good upper now, what powders should I use for 52 grain, 69 grain and 77 grain match bullets? 20” shilen 1:8” twist.

I have plenty of the following:
Varget
H/I 4895
4064
RL15
H335

I have one pound of CFE223 and 8208.

I have plenty of brass and primers.

I shot this the other day with Black Hills Match...


Tony.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: benny6,

With the exception of 8208, I have and use all of those powders, but not necessarily in .223. I highly recommend you go to Youtube and search for "Johnny's Reloading Bench". He has a lot of videos that show different powder/bullet tests. The best part is the on-target video that shows groups and velocities/SD, as well as comments on pressure signs.

You'll find most, if not all, of the powders you listed with different bullet weights. He spent a lot of time trying to duplicate his results with the BH M262. Good stuff!

I have had great success with Varget for 69 and then 77 and 80g. I haven't loaded a 52gr in maybe 35 years and Varget did not exist in those days. I seem to remember H322 as a great powder for the 52-55gr. H335 is pretty close to H322, IIRC.

^^^^^^^^^^^
What he said. That's been pretty much exactly my experience too. You can't go wrong with Varget or H335 in .223. If you're still local and can't find any Varget, ping me. I've got extra.

When I still had some on hand and actually shot .223 bolt guns, I used Varget.

I will say that CFE 223 doesn't meter well enough in my experience to go for precision loads.

Works great in my guns, but makes a real mess on my Dillon with spillage and it's not unusual to get .3-.4 gr fluctuations (by comparison, another ball powder like WSF usually has no more than .1 gr variance per throw). Not sure what's up with that.

FYI, I have the same experience with bad metering in the Dillon with CFE 223 and CFE BLK.

Maybe a different powder measure will give different results.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Oat_Action_Man,