Ive decided to go with IMR4064 for my rifle rounds. Mostly .223 to start with. Its plentiful around here and seems pretty versatile all my books have load data for it in .223,6mm and 30.06. This seem ok to you guys?
Pistol is harder to get i got some WIN231 to load my 9mm and eventually.45…trying to get some unique,not having any luck.
Imr 4064 can work for 223 but it’s not the best choice, and it really doesn’t meter well. What bullet do you plan to use?
I prefer Win 231 to unique, so don’t feel bad about that.
55gr fmj hornadys in .223, good win231 i can get sometimes,i bought a couple pounds the other day.
Powder sucks to find. I will be hand weighing each charge till i get used to it,but i do have a powder dropper.
I have to buy what is available. Sucks, thats the reason i went with the imr4064 it will work in all the stuff i wana eventually wana load, and its out there and i have data for it… Thanks for any suggestions i have plenty of 4064 but i can start looking for something else when iam out searching.
Benchmark is my go to for 55 gr bullets. H335 is fine, too, and meters really well being ball powder. I completely get having to use what you can get your hands on, though. If you have some good load data, rock on. Just be sure to check your throws because I’ve never been able to get 4064 to meter well for 223.
Powder valley has Vihtavouri N133 and N140 in stock right now, you may give that a try if you want. It’s pretty pricey, though. About $200 for an 8 pound container. I doubt I’d do that myself to be honest.
Ok, thanks ill be on the look out for some h335, just trying to find out what ppl are useing. The 4064 will work good in my 6mm. Will also pick up some more win231 when i see it. It came highly recommended by ppl.
Winchester 231 is great powder for .38Spl and .45 ACP target loads. It also works well for 9mm. I have fired tens of thousands of rounds loaded with W231 and I wish we had it available in my area.
Unique tends to burn a little dirty compared to W231. Unique is excellent powder for loading lead .38Spl lever action loads and light 45-70 loads, but it would not be my first choice for 9mm. If you can locate Winchester WSF, it would be a good powder for 9mm FMJ loads.
Some powders that have been easier to find for 9 and 45 these days have been IMR PB, CFE Pistol, Green Dot, and Autocomp. I use PB a lot because it’s really soft shooting and economical. .223 these days I run with H335, CFE 223, and BLC(2)–you’ll find at least one of them all the time. All of the Hodgdon, IMR, and Winchester powders you can get the data online so if you find one of them you’re good to go.
I have had a nice experience with AR Comp and the 77gr bullets. TAC runs pretty nice with the 55gr @ 24.5gr and I have some loaded up to try with the 77gr bullets as well. I use Silhouette and Titegroup pretty exclusive for pistol rounds 9,45acp and 44 mag/special. Good luck!
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tgh,
I used 4064 for about a thousand rounds of .223/556 during the recent "great hoarding." I ran mine through a Dillon 650 and I had to pause at the upstroke to let the long grain powder meter slowly into the small .223/556 case neck (about 2 seconds). I also would occasionally get some bridging of the long grains across the case neck and this would cause powder spillage onto my shellplate. If I wire-brushed the inside-neck it seemed to help feeding the kernals into the case.
Finally some AR powder has become available. Recently I've seen IMR 4320 available and it works great. It meters well and shoots well. Widener's has it in the 8 lb. kegs for $169 presently. In the past I've preferred W-748 but it is not to be found presently. Good luck.
best wishes- oldandslow
Wow. I wouldn’t even try running 4064 in my progressive. It’s a good powder, but I only run it on the chargemaster.
Agree, it meters quite well on my charge master with the McDonalds straw trick. I can’t imagine how horribly it would meter in my progressive.
Thanks again i will write down some of these powders and keep a look out.
Xbr 8082 has been real good in my 55gr loads and works well for 308 also. Seems to always be in stock at my local gun shop.
XBR is my favorite powder for 77gr SMK loads. It meters and performs very well. Thankfully all of the bottom feeders only want H335 and other ball powders.
It’s works, I’ve hand loaded a few, but haven’t conducted a ladder test yet with varying grains to find a sweetheart load. As you can see below, IMR’s 4064 load data, you can expect compressed charges trying to get max out MV w/ 77 SMK .
http://www.imrpowder.com/data/rifle/223rem-2005mar28.php
Bullet Weight (Gr.) Powder Bullet Dia. C.O.L. Grs. Vel. (ft/s) Pressure Grs. Vel. (ft/s) Pressure
77 GR. SIE HPBT IMR 4064 .224" 2.260" 20.0 2397 42,200 PSI 22.7C 2698 53,000 PSI
Hell, even on the RCBS Chargemaster, mine always seems to throw a couple tenths over, not a big deal for plinking rounds, but for match ammo, I set it to 2/10ths lower than desired, then tap the spigot lightly to get a few kernels to drop. But it’s a good powder, less temperature variant than other competitors, and what’s used in FGMM 168/175 SMKs.
Just loaded my first rounds of .223 with 8208 XBR. 1,000 rds of 77gr SMK’s. Can’t wait for Service Rifle match season to start. I used to single stage load my short distance loads using RE-15. A great powder but I LOVE the 8208 since I can load it on my Dillon 550. No issues with metering.
Yep, it produces nice velocities, meters well, burns clean, temp stable, and accurate. There really isn’t a downside to XBR if you stay within safe/published loading limits.
I progressive load .223. I throw 22.8gr Benchmark behind a 75gr BTHP. Load to mag length. Put a primer in there somewhere.
Rinse.
Repeat.
4064 is OK for .223, but starts to shine for .308. The knock on 4064 is that it does not meter as well as other powders. I have used it for .223, but would rather load .223 in volume on a progressive press and 4064 doesn’t meter well enough for it.
CFE Pistol is better than 231 for 9mm and can usually be found. From my experience with it, Win 231 is better for lower velocity 45ACP and 38 Spl. Yellowfin is right about PB, but I have never been able to find it in my area reliably.
At SHOT, the nice lady from Hodgdon mentioned that Universal Clays and other “Clays” family powders should be back this summer since the Thales factory is back online in Australia. I love Universal Clays for 9 and hope my stock lasts until new is available. I know it isn’t as loved as Unique, but Universal Clays burns pretty clean with hotter SMG loads.
The problem here is that i bought some win231 and the guy had just put it out that morning.
And i havent seen anymore anywhere. After 3 months i saw some unique. And i go out and look,drive to other towns etc.
I would like to try some cfe pistol but ive never seen any for sale. Iam sure if i drove in Austin TX becouse iam close, but thats a giant pain in the butt. I drove 4hrs round trip to find win231 but i had other things to do there,just got lucky and decided to stop at a little LGS.
It doesnt help that iam new to reloading. So iam still finding the local places that have stuff. Plus i live in small town.
They got their first academy 2 months ago. Also all the towns that are around me are very small. Some dont even have a grocery store. The guys in Austin have more money than sense (Not all of them but alot.) and they buy up what ever they need at ANY price. Its like the ammo craze but with powder,not primers or bullets. I dont see any reason to fight them over it. I get what i can at fair prices,some powder i paid 5 bucks to much just to have it but normally i buy for what it would cost me to order it without the hazmat fee even. I didnt buy any $250 bricks of .22 back when people were doing that either.
Its still part of the ammo craze. Hopefully the tail end of it. All iam saying is guns and ammo are here to stay, who wants the job of going door to door TELLING bubba that he has to give up his daddys old shotgun. Really,Good Luck…especially now that people that have never owned a gun before 9.11 have stockpiled ammo like some kind of addiction.