Today I spent an hour testing my first reloads, and was very successful! It's even more to shoot when you've made your own rounds! I only shot a few batches of .223 out of my AR, using the Hodgdon data as a starting point. I didn't want to make too many before finding out if my initial loads were going to be successful. Had no issues with feeding or extracting and accuracy seemed pretty good. I'm going to work up some more to see what my gun likes best, but I'm having fun already. Unfortunately I can only go to public indoor ranges, so I don't have a whole lot of room to determine accuracy, but I'm very happy with how the first round went. Just wanted to share my first day's results.

 

Data was:

 

.223 rem brass, resized and trimmed

55 gr Winchester FMJ

CCI small rifle primers

H335 powder (23.0, 23.5, and 24.0 gr)

overall length 2.20"

 

looking forward to much more experimenting!

that is good shit isn't it...

It is very satisfying to shoot your own loads and have them work. Just wait till you make it outdoors and play.

Nice Job. My standard .223 load with H335 and a 55 grain FMJ boat tail with cannalure bullet has been 25.0 for the last 20 years.

Thanks. Looks like I'm going to end up right around that area also. I shot a few .223 and 5.56 factory rounds after I was done with my reloads and the pressure increase was noticeable.