Fast heavy hunting Load formula for .223?

[Jungleexplorer]

I am looking for advice for a long range heavy hunt load in the .223 caliber. My weapon is a Savage Axis 2 XP with a 22" barrel and 1 in 9 twist.

I want to say here that I have never reloaded my own rifle ammo. I have loaded many thousands of shotgun shells before, but never any rifle ammo. My grandfather was a champion Navy competition shooter and a prolific gun enthusiast reloader his whole life. Hey ran a pawn shop for many years and had all kinds of wierd and antique guns go through his shop that he could not resist trying out and loading ammo for. I think he experimented reloading just about every caliber known to man. I inherited all of his reloading equipment and now have enough reloading equipment to fill a medium size U-Haul, including about 600 pounds of lead and 100 pounds of old type set letters from an antique printing press (I think he called it "linoltype" or something like that). I don't have any idea what most of it is for, but the fun is in the learning right?

I bought the Gun Digest Shooter's Guide To Reloading, to get me started with all the the basics of how to use this equipment, but right now I would like a good formula (if that is the right terminology) to start with for my new 223.

As far as the bullet goes (projectile) I want the heaviest possible grain expansive type bullet my gun can handle with the best accuracy. From my research, I believe my barrel can handle up to a 68 grain projectile. I would like to push this projectile as fast as possible for maximum kill power at long ranges, but not at the cost of accuracy.

I am pretty sure I am not the first person that has desired such a load in a .223 and I bet there are several people on here that have done extensive experimentation on a load such as this. I would very much appreciate it if they would share their result and knowledge with me. Thanks.

 

[g0rd0]

before you reload get and read at least 2 manuals.
The currant Lyman (49th edition) and Modern reloading by Richard Lee are both very good. If you cannot find them localy try
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_n...ch-alias=aps&field-keywords=reloading+manuals
Also Hornady, Speer, & Nosler are also very good choices but, IMHO the Lyman should be your first choice and modern reloading your second.
Another thing that you must remember the light bullets go fast, and the heavy bullets go slow.

 

[FearNoWind]

"... long range heavy hunt load"
I'd need a definition of what that means before making suggestions on what loads to work with.
However, I might suggest you look at the Sierra MK bullets for a wider selection of bullet weights for the .223. Selecting a 69 grain bullet out of hand fairly restricts you to fewer bullet manufacturers.
As an aside, "Linotype" is a machine that functions using a keyboard to create lead type for a printing press (Linotype). It uses (used) a specific lead mixture to cast the type. My dad was a Linotype operator in the 1930's.

 

[Jungleexplorer]

before you reload get and read at least 2 manuals.
The currant Lyman (49th edition) and Modern reloading by Richard Lee are both very good. If you cannot find them localy try
Amazon.com: reloading manuals
Also Hornady, Speer, & Nosler are also very good choices but, IMHO the Lyman should be your first choice and modern reloading your second.
Another thing that you must remember the light bullets go fast, and the heavy bullets go slow.

Thanks. I think my there is a bunch of books in my grandfather's stuff. I know he told me many times that one of them was the end all of reloading books, but I can't remember which one it was. I think it might of been the Lyman. I will have to unpckack the boxes to find it.

 

[Jungleexplorer]

"... long range heavy hunt load"
I'd need a definition of what that means before making suggestions on what loads to work with.
However, I might suggest you look at the Sierra MK bullets for a wider selection of bullet weights for the .223. Selecting a 69 grain bullet out of hand fairly restricts you to fewer bullet manufacturers.
As an aside, "Linotype" is a machine that functions using a keyboard to create lead type for a printing press (Linotype). It uses (used) a specific lead mixture to cast the type. My dad was a Linotype operator in the 1930's.

I meant to say, Heavy hunting load. I live in Texas and the largest things I will ever hunt with it is wild hogs, so let's define heavy hunting load, as load that will kill a 200 lb wild hog at 200 yards (vital chest or head shot).

I have looked at the Sierra bullets. They sell GameKing and MatchKing bullets. I am a little wary of the Match grade bullets, because I was told they were not expansive and would act like a FMJ.

I bought three boxes of Hornady Superperformance Match grade 75 grain .223 ammo off of midway. I finally got to the range a few days ago and the stuff shot like crap out of my gun, not to speak of, that has to be the dirtiest burning powder I have ever seen. I took my Savage .234 along just for fun and shot it twice and put both shots in a dime size ad 100 yards. Yep! No need to shoot that gun anymore. I then spent about three hours wasting 2 boxes of that .223 Hornady ammo trying to get down to an inch pattern. Never could. For my hunting guns, I swab the barrel after every two shots. After two shots with that Harnady ammo, my swab cloth came out pitch black. It took three cloths to get back to where it was before I shot. It reminded me of my days shooting black powder. I have lost all respect for Hornady loaded ammo. I am not blaming hornady for the accuracy though, because I think 75 grains is too much for the 9 twist barrel to stabilize.

I shoot Winchester 100 grain power point ammo in my .234 and the swab cloth comes almost perfectly clean after two shots. It is some really accurate ammo. Winchester does sell a 64 grain power point round for the .223 and I thought about buying that, but I since I have all this reloading equipment, I thought I would try to learn how to load my own.

My grandfather casted all of his own pistol bullets and he said that the Linotype was worth it's weight in gold to anyone who cast their own bullets, because it a unique alloy formula that he used to mix with lead to harden the bullet.

 

[snox801]

For what you are wanting to kill I have had fantastic luck with the 62gr nosler partition. Killed lots of pigs with it. Good luck

 

[Jungleexplorer]

For what you are wanting to kill I have had fantastic luck with the 62gr nosler partition. Killed lots of pigs with it. Good luck

Thanks. What I am looking for though is a complete formula. For example:

Bullet: 62gr Nosler Partition.
Powder: "Brand Name, type and amount.
Primer: Brand Name and type.

And what ever else information might be pertinent to the formula, like the FPS the formula will yield.

 

[westcliffe01]

Your axis is a 1:9.25. You should try some 75gr HPBT match ammo, something other than PPU like hornady. I used 75gr HPBT Superformance Match from Hornady on coyotes before I switched to my 243. The only negative with the superformance match is that at some point Hornady started crimping the primers and I didn't like that at all.

Honestly, I regard a hog as a dangerous animal and would want to be out with something more powerful than a 223. Perhaps a 308. One can get away with a little gun until you put a bad shot on a bigger one and they come over and slice you up...

 

[RT2506]

First off you will NEVER shoot tight groups cleaning a bore after every 2 shots. A clean cold bore shot most often will be quite a bit off from where the next shot from a fouled bore will hit. It takes some rifles firing 10 or 20 shots from a squeaky clean bore to settle down and start shooting accurately, especially factory production barrels.
Secondly, what load that shoots lights out in my rifle might not shoot at all in your rifle or it might be too hot for your rifle and perfectly fine in mine so you always need to start lower on the powder charge and work up slowly. With a case as small as the 223 you should not raise the powder charge more than .3 grs at a time between lower and heaver loads all the time searching for accuracy. Speed is nice but accuracy kills.

As for a Hog load an acquaintance of mine went on a hog hunt and discovered this load that they were using in AR15s in 223 Rem. Not sure what primer they were using but the powder charge was a max load of 25 grs of Accurate 2520 and the bullet was a Barnes 62 gr TSX HP BT . I am not sure what the cartridge over all length was but Barnes states that you should start with their bullets 50 thousands off the lands and never seat closer than 30 thousands of the lands. This fellow said that this bullet would go through both shoulders of a 150ish pound hog at 300 yards and usually put them down on the spot or they would not go far.

 

[Jungleexplorer]

First off you will NEVER shoot tight groups cleaning a bore after every 2 shots. A clean cold bore shot most often will be quite a bit off from where the next shot from a fouled bore will hit. It takes some rifles firing 10 or 20 shots from a squeaky clean bore to settle down and start shooting accurately, especially factory production barrels.
Secondly, what load that shoots lights out in my rifle might not shoot at all in your rifle or it might be too hot for your rifle and perfectly fine in mine so you always need to start lower on the powder charge and work up slowly. With a case as small as the 223 you should not raise the powder charge more than .3 grs at a time between lower and heaver loads all the time searching for accuracy. Speed is nice but accuracy kills.

As for a Hog load an acquaintance of mine went on a hog hunt and discovered this load that they were using in AR15s in 223 Rem. Not sure what primer they were using but the powder charge was a max load of 25 grs of Accurate 2520 and the bullet was a Barnes 62 gr TSX HP BT . I am not sure what the cartridge over all length was but Barnes states that you should start with their bullets 50 thousands off the lands and never seat closer than 30 thousands of the lands. This fellow said that this bullet would go through both shoulders of a 150ish pound hog at 300 yards and usually put them down on the spot or they would not go far.

Not sure about what you said about not cleaning your barrel out for a hunting rifle. A hunting rifle is different then a target rifle in that a hunting rifle is generally shot cold and clean. So when sighting a hunting rifle in, you want to make sure to let your barrel cool between shots. A target rifle on the other hand, because it will be shot many time in rapid succession needs to be zeroed in while hot so that it will be dead on when warm. When a barrel heats up, it moves a little. This is why it takes several shots before target rifle starts getting accurate. But nobody shoot tens rounds through there hunting rifle before they shoot at an animal, so the gun has to be sighted in while cold and clean. I am not saying this is the only way it can be done, it is just the way I was taught and has worked for me for over 40 years of hunting. I have been cleaning my Savage 243 after every two shots for over 20 years and I can stack bullets with it at 100 yards.

Thanks for the data on the load formula.

 

[Bill Johnson]

As far as the lead and linotype, download and read this:

From Ingot to Target: A Cast Bullet Guide For Handgunners, Table of Contents - Fryxell/Applegate

Bullet casting is another entire area of reloading, an art unto itself. You have enough lead to cast about 80,000 .223 bullets.

 

[Jungleexplorer]

As far as the lead and linotype, download and read this:

From Ingot to Target: A Cast Bullet Guide For Handgunners, Table of Contents - Fryxell/Applegate

Bullet casting is another entire area of reloading, an art unto itself. You have enough lead to cast about 80,000 .223 bullets.

Thanks for the link. It will be some time before I start casting any of my own bullets, and then it will probably be only pistol rounds. I did see on a forum a while back though, where some guys were using spent .22 rimfire casings over their cast 223 bullets so they could push them faster. I thought that was a neat idea.

 

[RT2506]

I think you miss understood my post. I was saying that you need to sight in on a fouled bore. Not a HOT barrel. Shoot a few times before the season starts to make sure that you are zeroed then do not clean until after the season is over. I also have been shooting and hunting for 50 years and have shot competitive high power rifle, pistol, shotgun and am a certified NRA instructor. To each his own but I still stand my statement that shooting two shots and cleaning the bore will not allow you to shoot consistent TIGHT groups. If you have a rifle that will place a clean cold bore shot and the next shot in the same hole at 100 yards or more you had better hold on to that rifle because it is one in a few million or more.

 

[Jungleexplorer]

I also have been shooting and hunting for 50 years and have shot competitive high power rifle, pistol, shotgun and am a certified NRA instructor.

Now you have my ear sir. I will listen to your valuable advice.