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greencobra said:
i use this also. was blessed to work with a guy last year whose buddy owned a gun shop in nh. every time he got 2230 in it was earmarked for me. nice to be connected [laugh]
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Blessed you are.

Besides it metering great and often selling for less that the other top propellants, the AA reloading data that Accurate Arms puts out is outstanding
 
My favorite rifle powder is IMR4320. Enjoyed shooting .223 with it so much, I emptied out the can's worth of ~300 rounds in a week.

I'd user it Whenever I can get it. Which is never, lately. [hmmm]

Other than that I use CFE223, scores great in accuracy, but still, not my type of powder. Too Violent and packed recoil to my liking. But still, that's what I'm loading with, you use what you can get.
 
I will say what ever powder you can find in 8# jug for the least amount of money in the safe powder for your cartridge range.
My pet load for the Hornady bulk 55gn fmj is with surplus W844 powder.
It's close to H335.
My 55gn hornady have shown to like higher velocity out of my RRA A2 1/9 twist.
All of these powders have been darn good with most getting right down close to MOA with a scope
CFE223, H335, TAC, H4895, Varget , AR comp , RL15 , BLC2
I have come to like Varget over all and RL15 it seems to cover a wide range of bullet weights and other cals. also.
I don't seem to have any real issues with my powder drop even 4064 meters well enough in my hornady powder drop. Maybe .2 grains here and there.
CFE223 although produced some nice groups I felt it was in consistent?
AR comp showed some good promise from my 1/8 match barrel with the 55s but I ran out before really digging for a best load.

I will say this if your trying to squeeze the best from one of the least expensive but "good" bullet take some time and find a good load for what ever powder you get.
I started off not liking the Optimum Charge Weight system ....mainly in part because I and my rifles where not shooting well enough in the beginning to take advantage of that system.
Now that I have better rifles and equipment and skills are better the OCW has proven to do well.
What I like is you find a range of powder charge that can deliver your shot into the same POI vs POA over a slightly larger powder charge variation.
http://optimalchargeweight.embarqspace.com/ocw-instructions/4529817134

At first I though this was a waste of time but after revisiting it several years later after starting to reload I find it really helps.
 
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I have used H335 and Varget for my last two large runs of .223 reloading. I would say that the H335 is much better in terms of metering (more granular) than Varget (stick powder). I have found that Varget burns a little bit cleaner than H335. Both are great, so much so that I am always on the hunt to replenish with either one of them over trying something new.
 
WanMan99 said:
I have used H335 and Varget for my last two large runs of .223 reloading. I would say that the H335 is much better in terms of metering (more granular) than Varget (stick powder). I have found that Varget burns a little bit cleaner than H335. Both are great, so much so that I am always on the hunt to replenish with either one of them over trying something new.
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I,love how forgiving 223 I have only a few really bad groupings with those 55s and all the powders I tried...
 
1919FAN said:
CFE223 sub moa @200 with 69gr. SMK very clean powder.
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Not nearly as clean with 55s unless you load hot.

CFE works much better with heavy bullets. With a .223 load on 55gr bullets I get excessive soot.

With a max 5.56 charge under a 55gr it will burn decently clean.

It's very clean with 69s and 75s.
 
enbloc said:
Picked some up today. Will tests some loads ASAP.
If Jim says it's good...I can stop lookin'

Thanks everyone for your valuable input. It will be looked at for years via the "search" button.

~Matt
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Looking forward to range report! I won't get out shooting again to 9/3 so anything to read here will be good.
 
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