All lake city brass with cci primers








Sad part is I left my chrony battery at home


I am leaning towards 23.3....

What's odd was hogdgon has max load at 23.7 and there are some pushing to 24+

Very nice.

I agree 23.3 gr looks the best.

I learned the hard way about chrono batteries too, I always carry a couple extra now..

What bullet and twist? I bet you can pull the 1 or 2 "flyers" tighter, Like your 23.3 load, a different bullet might bring the one stray up with the others

I love Varget

Not bad, but try some IMR 4198 or CFE 223. I bet if you do your part there's a good chance those group sizes could be cut in half.

IIRC, my Varget load I worked up was 25.5 with 55 gr bullets, LC brass, and CCI primers as well, but I don't believe I was over any max load.

I have since moved on to CFE223, but hope your find the node you're looking for.

This was with 77smk.

This ar is not a precision ar. It has just a basic ctr stock. I am going to load some more up and chrono this weekend hopefully

I have to admit to not having a chrono and just building my loads on accuracy.

I also have to say that my favorite pistol (9mm, 45acp) and rifle (.223 and .308) are both coming out of respective CFE.

Got back out today....

Had some good luck with the 23.3 load. Had a 3 shot group that were touching at 100

Velocity avg was 2546, but the min was 2444 and max was 2607. That was on a 10 shot group.


I think the issue was my brass did not have an inner chamfer. I will test again on the next round with inner chamfer. That spread should be lower,
Some people are running up to 25-27 grains... I have no signs of pressure. I am wondering if I should push it harder or not. My range is only 200 so not super long

I may be a bit confused, but Hodgdon's data indicates a 23.7 is compressed and 2700 fps. I can understand their velocity is likely from a 24" bolt action barrel but I can't understand why your velocities are so low or how others could be loading 25-27 grs. Am I misreading something?

Note, I am preparing to work up similar loads of 77 gr for my ARs so interested in learning from ohters' experiences.

I think you answered it, Tim.

24" vs. 18" = 120~ fps loss, using the 20 fps per inch of barrel rule of thumb.
Then there is the gas gun tax. Loss of velocity operating the bolt on the AR.

So if I get into loading my 16" AR with the same bullet and powder as Cleric I won't be surprised if I'm running 40 fps less than he is.

Brass type also will come into play for velocity

My loading wasn't the greatest as I had no inner chamfer I had some veloxity loss as a result

Got it and thanks!

I think after I shoot through my 77smk I am going to switch to the 75amax... A lot cheaper butler...

No, don't!!!

Then there will be less of them for me.

Went out again with same load. Got a good inner chamfer on the brass

20 rounds avg 2573, std dev 30, Es 127

A bit better need to work on varget metering to get a lower Es

If thats 556. I have an idea 18" yote gun and run 69gr smk over 25.3 gr of varget its not hot in mine but be careful. I shot a .196 ctc group yesterday. H4198 and 55gr nos bt was incredible shooting. .3's ctc group.

I made some hotter loads to test but left them at home