What powder for 40 gr vmax .223?

crp223

Member
Looking for a fast load for my .223 shooting vmax 40 grain bullets. What powder would be best? Fast and accurate and temp stable would be good.
 
Originally Posted By: crp223Looking for a fast load for my .223 shooting vmax 40 grain bullets. What powder would be best? Fast and accurate and temp stable would be good.

I've always had good luck using Benchmark in bullets 40-55gr in 223's. May not get you the fastest velocity with the 40's but it meters well, is temp stable, and has always produced good accurate loads with minimal load development. There's lots of good powders that work well so finding one that suits your needs won't be very difficult.
 
Benchmark has been a great powder for me in many .223 loads. With a 40gr v max and 26.5gr of benchmark I was getting 3,321 avg. fps. From a 16" barrel. Killed many groundhogs and coyotes with that load.
 
I've consistently had good results with Ramshot's X-Terminator, TAC, and Hodgdon's Winchester 748..The X-Terminator seems to work slightly better with the lighter weight bullets than the TAC..


 
That was with a 1/14 twist AR barrel/upper that DTech put together for me...After 400 yards, the lack of bullet weight began to destabilize the grouping...I tried some 35gr V-Max, but couldn't tell a nickel's worth of difference in accuracy at 100 yards....That barrel would shoot up to 55gr super accurately with the right loads...
 
H335 and Benchmark have been good for me. Since Benchmark has also worked well for me under 50 grainers in my prairie dog rifle, that's what I keep around and typically load. I like that it flows through the powder measure very smoothly too.
 
Code:

Code:
Cartridge          : .223 Rem
Bullet             : .224, 40, Hornady V-MAX BT 22241
Useable Case Capaci: 28.389 grain H2O = 1.843 cm³
Cartridge O.A.L. L6: 2.260 inch = 57.40 mm
Barrel Length      : 24.0 inch = 609.6 mm

Predicted Data for Indicated Charges of the Following Powders.
Matching Maximum Pressure: 54000 psi, or 372 MPa
or a maximum loading ratio or filling of 103 %
These calculations refer to your specified settings in QuickLOAD 'Cartridge Dimensions' window.
C A U T I O N : any load listed can result in a powder charge that falls below minimum suggested
loads or exceeds maximum suggested loads as presented in current handloading manuals. Understand
that all of the listed powders can be unsuitable for the given combination of cartridge, bullet
and gun. Actual load order can vary, depending upon lot-to-lot powder and component variations.
USE ONLY FOR COMPARISON !

5 loads produced a Loading Ratio below user-defined minimum of 85%. These powders have been skipped.
Powder type          Filling/Loading Ratio  Charge    Charge   Vel. Prop.Burnt P max  P muzz  B_Time
                                      %     Grains    Gramm   fps     %       psi     psi    ms
---------------------------------  -----------------------------------------------------------------
Hodgdon H335                       100.0     28.6     1.85    3728    95.8    54000    7033   0.880  ! Near Maximum !
Alliant RL10x                      103.0     25.4     1.65    3719    99.0    52363    6809   0.897  ! Near Maximum !
IMR 4198                           102.5     24.1     1.56    3715    99.7    54000    6397   0.868  ! Near Maximum !
Alliant RL7                         96.8     24.5     1.59    3684    99.4    54000    6424   0.889  ! Near Maximum !
AA 1680                             88.9     24.3     1.57    3669    97.6    54000    6476   0.881  ! Near Maximum !
Winchester 748                     103.0     29.0     1.88    3660    92.4    49961    7083   0.907  ! Near Maximum !
IMR 4227                            91.8     22.0     1.43    3651   100.0    54000    5983   0.872  ! Near Maximum !
Hodgdon H4198                       98.0     24.1     1.56    3637    96.4    54000    6312   0.878  ! Near Maximum !
Hodgdon H322                       103.0     26.2     1.70    3634    95.5    48453    6828   0.913  ! Near Maximum !
Ramshot X-Terminator               103.0     28.8     1.86    3599    89.9    52788    6636   0.904  ! Near Maximum !
Alliant AR-Comp                    103.0     26.1     1.69    3569    98.6    42573    6792   0.960
Hodgdon CFE223                     103.0     30.0     1.95    3566    88.2    47458    6964   0.932  ! Near Maximum !
Hodgdon Benchmark                  103.0     26.5     1.72    3542    92.0    49475    6442   0.925  ! Near Maximum !

 
I had some good results with IMR4198, but next time will be using either AA2230, Benchmark, or IMR3031. In the above post, as seen for IMR4198, I went to 24grs, which was over book max trying to get to book speed of 3700fps. I reached it, it was accurate, and the primer pockets were toast. It was much better at 23.2grs and 3600fps. 100fps wasn't worth ruining the brass considering it had all been neck turned.
 
Varget or H335. I found an extremely accurate load with Varget at 3300 fps that's plenty fast enough for my purposes. Good luck.
 
Originally Posted By: Steve_in_PAI use H335 with 40gr Vmax with excellent results! I shoot 27.5 grains of H335 and it shoots great. I can shoot thumb tacks at 100 yards with this load in my model 700 Remington.
 
with N133, 14T or 12T, thick cup primer, you will be all over 3800 fps with a 26" bbl, mine was a Rem VSSF and I was using cci BR-4 primers, IMI brass, 40g Nosler ballistic tips.

The 223 AI went to 4130 fps with a case full of N133 with a BR-4 primer, 14T, zero freebore, 26" lilja bbl.
 
Back
Top