A good .223 Round??

[rdsii64]

I am on a quest for a general purpose .223 round. this round must work with a right hand 12 twist 24" barrel and both serve plinking duty and varmint killer duty. When performing varmint killer duty, shots will be no more than 300 yards.

So far my choices are as follows:

Hornaday 55 grain softpoint = 3240 fps
Black hills 55 grain softpoint = 3240 fps
ultramax 50 grain spear point =3100 fps
ultramax 52 grain hollowpoint =3000 fps
Fiocchi 55 grain softpoint = 3240 fps
Fiocchi 40 grain vmax= 3650 fps

Opinions please.
If you think that a choice not listed is a better one please chime in

[Stormrider]

All will get both jobs done. Pick the one that gives the best accuracy in your rifle and be happy.

[Ring]

40 or 50gr Vamx, nothing beats it

[Fitch]

My favorite .223 varmint load for my CZ527 American is the 40g Nosler BT seated 0.020" off the lands, FL sized Win brass, 28.0g AA2460, CCI400 primer. Bullet leaves the barrel at 3685 fps average, shoots into dime sized groups at 100 yards, and has a point blank range +/- 3/4" from line of sight from 27 to 208 yards. Terminal performance on ground hogs is truly outstanding. It turns their insides to jello.

Fitch

[laportecharlie]

My favorite varmint load is not that different than what Fitch uses: Any good brass, Rem 7 1/2 primer, 28 grs of TAC or a little less of Benchmark and a 40 gr V-Max. This load works in at least a half dozen different rifles and has taken many thousands of Prairie Dogs as well as Fox and Coyote.
Nice thing about the 223 Rem is that it's not in the least fussy. Lots of different loads work very well and barrels seem to last forever.
Charlie

[cpttango30]

I run a 50gr V-max and either H335 or VV N133 both loads are sub 1/2" at 100 yards. I have hits out to 450 on ground hogs in a Remmy 700VLS.

[Fitch]

Originally Posted by laportecharlie

Nice thing about the 223 Rem is that it's not in the least fussy. Lots of different loads work very well and barrels seem to last forever.
Charlie

Well said.

I've also found BenchMark to shoot well with both the 40g Nosler BT and the 40g V-MAX. In fact BenchMark was the other really good candidate powder. If I had to contend with bigger temperature swings, I might have gone with BenchMark.

That said, you might try AA2460 with those 40g pills some time when you are in the mood to experiment. One of the things I like about it is that it meters so well in about any measure - it's never a line width off when I set the thrown charge from my Redding BR or the Lyman 55 on the scale. It looks like tiny shiny ball bearings and doesn't require any shearing by the the measure so it meters like a dream. 28.0g of AA2460 will "just" go in the .223 case with a normal funnel, but it goes in better with a 6" drop tube. It's a slightly compressed load which may be part of why it shoots with a low ES.

Fitch