.223 remington load question

[Texas42]

I just got all stuff together for loading .223 on my single stage. . . . anyway. I loaded up about 100 rounds using my Hornady manual.

Using federal 55 grain bt-fmj's, 21.1 grains of H335, processed LC brass, and a magtec small rifle primer.

The Hornady manual has the BT-fmj's at col of 2.200" with a max powder of 23.2 grains with lowest recorded at 20.8 grains.

When I got home, I looked at my other manual. . .

My Lymann manual only has a 55 grain jacketed spt (off of a sierra bullet to be exact) with a OAl of 2.260", and a max looad of 27.0 grains with a sugg starting at 24.3 grains.. Other rounds (HPBT's, v-maxes ect) are set to 2.250" long.

These numbers don't even overlap. I know that manuals don't agree exactly, but this seems like a very wide margin.

Should I worry?

This is for an AR, if it matters.

 

[Bullseye Shooter]

The Hornady manual is bullet specific and therefore will vary slightly from the Lyman manual which uses a lot of different bullets and comes up with more generic loadings.
The Nosler manual starts their 55 grain bullet at 23.0 grains.
What you have is a relatively light starting load, but nothing to worry about. It should cycle the action. Most of the manuals I have, have the starting loads around 22 to 23 grains for most powders and bullet combinations. You'll probably find that you'll want to load that Hornady bullet around the max load as you work with it.

As far as OAL, I set all the bullets I load for matches (69 and 77 grain) at 2.25 so they will feed in the USGI mags that I use for the rapid fire stages. That's about as long as I can seat them and still have them fit. For the 600 yard line, I load 80 grain Noslers, but those are seated out to around 2.45 since they are single loaded and the Nosler manual specifically mentions they should be seated longer and not at magazine length.

Your OAL with that bullet should work just fine. The Lyman manual is using an OAL that conforms to the magazine length requirement.

 

[Bullseye Shooter]

for the 80 gr do you use a mag that has a single shot follower, or do you just use an empty mag...>?

I just use a regular magazine. Some of the guys use mags with the single shot follower, but I've never had a problem using USGI mags.
My AR has a 1 in 8 twist so it handles the 80 grain bullets really well. The 2.45 OAL has the bullet right at the lands but not touching.

 

[Texas42]

Thank you. I appriciate it.

 

[Bullseye Shooter]

i am going to get some of the 90 gr vld's

Your results with the 90 grain bullet might be somewhat marginal unless you have a 1 in 7" barrel.