Please let me best this dead horse, once more...

[T. O'Heir]

"...to examine and weigh the powder charge..." Tell you the colour and shape of the granules and nothing more. You cannot buy the powders used by the manufacturers anyway.
"...concerned with is making my hand load shoot as good as..." Hi. Working up the load will do that. Your velocities will run less than the Hodgdon speeds due to the shorter barrel, but speed does not equal accuracy.

 

[Kimber84]

I don't know why but locally they are charging $5-$6 more per pound for RL powders vs Hogdon/IMR. Used to be cheaper.

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Same here. $10/lb cheaper in next town over too. Makes no sense.

 

[FiveInADime]

Working up the load will do that. Your velocities will run less than the Hodgdon speeds due to the shorter barrel, but speed does not equal accuracy.

I've been hand-loading several years and I understand this. First time I tried loading with my .243Win the first 3 light-loads I tried all shot .5-.75" groups. They were 250-300 fps under factory loads which is not acceptable to me.

I do not want my .223Rem to perform with less velocity than factory loads that shoot .5" or better groups. I know a lot of gun-store Fudds that say to never go near max loads but they generally do nothing but sit in the gun-store.

If I can't find an accurate load near max I try another powder. Or if I get an ok load near max I change seating depth to see if it will come in. There's no sense in turning a .223 into a .22Mag, ya know?

I was just trying to get some powder suggestions and real-world experience from others on trying to match .223 FGMM since it is such a popular off-the-shelf match ammo.

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[1100 tac]

24.8 RL-15 under 69 SMK, Rem 7-1/2 has been my most accurate load in my stock AR 15 1-7 for a long time, sub moa.

 

[FiveInADime]

I just ordered Forster BR dies from Midway, finally they're in stock. Should be up and running on handloads soon. I have 200 cases, 1000 primers, Varget, H4895, and RL-15 to try out.

Haven't ordered bullets yet. I'm waiting to shoot some factory Black Hills Red-Box 68gr Hornady HPBT to see if they also shoot well with their drastically different profile.

If they do 500 of those is a Harriet Tubbman cheaper than the SMKs.

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[Unclenick]

The dies may help. Use a concentricity gauge to see the effect on bullet straightness. Read Dan Newberry's stuff. Read this article. That should give you some starting points.

 

[FiveInADime]

The dies may help. Use a concentricity gauge to see the effect on bullet straightness. Read Dan Newberry's stuff. Read this article. That should give you some starting points.

Thank you Uncle Nick. I've worked on the OCW method before and had good results. But I have to say that I've had good luck with ladder tests as well.

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[FiveInADime]

Read this article. That should give you some starting points.

Just read that second article. Seems like a lot of his advice about reloading is similar to what someone else around these parts used to give.

Custom FL sizing die for concentric necks and consistent neck tension and no mention of neck turning. Loading on a Rock-Chucker.




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