Handloading for the .223/5.56

    In response to a comment the other day about the Mini-14, I noted that many years ago I had worked up a load that worked quite well in a Mini-14 I owned, which was a 50-grain Speer soft point over 27 grains of Accurate 2230. That load worked well for me and my particular rifle, but it may not be appropriate for your weapon, so use that recipe at your own risk.

    The reason that I selected 2230 powder over other powders was that it was specifically developed as a 5.56 NATO propellant. (See "Propellant Profiles - Accurate 2230" at Handloader Magazine for more detailed information on the background of the powder). Of course, it being the early 1990s, I didn't have that article available, but found that out from some other source, probably an article in one of my father's gun magazines. It may not be the best powder for the application, but it worked for me and so I continue to use it.

    I've moved on since then and my loadings in recent years have been heavier bullets to use with an AR style rifle, including bulk 62 grain Green Tip pulled bullets that I had purchased from RMR Bullets. Since I like the 2230 powder, I just used the manufacturer's loading data for the Green Tip ammo (you can download a PDF of their reloading data here). For .223, the load for the 62 grain M855 is 21.4 grains of 2230. They have a separate section of loads for the 5.56mm; and when using the M855 bullets, the powder weight is listed as 22.8 grains of 2230, reflecting the higher pressures for 5.56. Of course, you may need to adjust the powder load to get the best performance out of your firearm. 

    And a few articles on the subject:

• "Reloading for the AR-15 (223/5.56)"--Ultimate Reloader. 
• "Handloading The .223 Rem."--Shooting Illustrated. 
• "Reloading the .223 Rem.: Great .223 Handloads for Bolt and Gas Guns"--Shooting Times.

Step-By-Step Reloading By Tom McHale

Tom McHale is a professional gun writer, author of a multitude of articles on all aspects of shooting, as well as several books including The Practical Guide To Reloading Ammunition. I came across a series of detailed articles on reloading at American Handgunner magazine (Part 1) (Part 2) (Part 3) (Part 4) (Part 5) but it only covered collecting the brass, preparing the brass, and the resizing the case and expanding the case mouth. In trying to find additional parts of that series, I came across the series of articles on the steps to reloading that he had written for Guns America. 

Part 1: Want to Reload Your Own Ammo? Basic Questions to Consider

Part 2: The Reloading Process

Part 3: The Gear You’ll Need and What It’ll Cost You

Part 4: Brass Cleaning and Preparation to Load

Part 5: Brass Resizing

Part 6: Trimming Cartridge Cases

Part 7: Repriming the Cartridge Case

Part 8: Powder, Propellants, and Pressure

Part 9: All About Primers

Part 10: Projectiles: Materials, Weights, and Styles

Part 11: Seating and Crimping Bullets

Part 12: To Crimp or not to Crimp

Part 13: Final Inspection and Packaging Tips

A Video Review of Tite-Group Pistol Powder

The author tested loads using Hodgdon's Tite Group pistol powder in .38 Special +P, .357 Magnum, .44 Magnum, .45 ACP, and .45 Colt. The performance in the .38 Special and .357 Magnum loads were "meh", but the extreme spread and standard deviation of the velocities for the larger caliber loads was quite impressive. I haven't used Tite Group before, but after watching this video I may have to give it a try.

VIDEO: "TESTED: Hodgdon Tite Group"

Ultimate Reloader (23 min.)

Oops! "Aftermath Of A kaBoomed Revolver"

 

The photograph is from an article at The Firearm Blog. More photos at the link, so be sure to check it out. The shooter (who was, thankfully, not injured beyond a minor powder burn) had handloaded the .44 Magnum cartridges; the explosion is believed to have been the result of loading a cartridge with a double-charge of powder. The shooter did not remember the type of powder, but recollected that the normal charge was 11 grains. As I and a couple other commenters observe, this is consistent with typical .44 Magnum loads with Unique. In any event, and this is a problem with many revolver cartridges with long cases including .38 Special and the magnums, it is easy to double-charge such cases because a normal powder charge takes up such a small amount of the case and so, if you get distracted at the wrong moment, you will not easily spot a discrepancy. 

    Of course, it is not just home handloaders that can have this problem. One of the comments reported a similar incident using a commercial "hot load". 

    I will note that if you want to fire "hot" loads out of a revolver, you should stick with using the over-engineered Ruger revolvers. I'm not saying that a Ruger Redhawk  or Super-Redhawk would have survived a double-charge, but that they are stronger and less likely to be damaged by a "hot" load than the S&W 629.