223 subsonic update

[Great-Kazoo]

Ran 10 of the SS 223's sat. Up side is they work, downside, wind out east was howling more than my ex after i stopped alimony
Anyway. they look like 1-150 yd plinkers, extremely quiet w/out a suppressor DEFINITELY an extremely low POI. We were out, hoping pd's would pop up , between the 40-50 mph wind and cloudy day, no luck.

I took kellytte's advice , used a tighter crimp, however my "tight" crimp was one turn more than normal for cannelured 55's. SO i'll readjust crimp, up the powder then to range, to see what true POI is vs a standard 55gr load.

My start load is 2.7gr Titegroup, 55gr FMJ-BT with cannelure, hornady, 2.20 OAL . Since this is a test, i felt start load small batch would determine if i wanted to use the ladder test. . No sense working up loads if there was no solid distance and targets to shoot.
I used my MVP 20" bolt action for testing.
The sub's will not cycle a semi so why bother? That's what my suppressors are for Then again why not do some single shot AR goodness? oh well next time.

The load range for Sub 223 using TG is 2.7 - 3.1
I'll do 2.9 & 3.0 loads to see difference. Since 3.0 is shy of MAX load, i'm going to keep crimp same as ones i previously loaded, then a tighter crimp on the 2.9 load.

[spleify]

Thanks for the follow up I have been interested in some of these loads for a while now. Please let us know the future results

[Tim K]

Good report. I was going to fool with the same thing this weekend but ran out of weekend.

I'm surprised you started on the low side. I've heard many guys express concern over sticking a bullet in the barrel, so they work a load down to subsonic instead of up.

Did you chrony your fist load? Any thoughts of using a heavier bullet? I was thinking 77's or even heavier, though mine will be in an AR and so will be single fed.

[Great-Kazoo]

Good report. I was going to fool with the same thing this weekend but ran out of weekend.

I'm surprised you started on the low side. I've heard many guys express concern over sticking a bullet in the barrel, so they work a load down to subsonic instead of up.

Did you chrony your fist load? Any thoughts of using a heavier bullet? I was thinking 77's or even heavier, though mine will be in an AR and so will be single fed.

Don't have any data for heavier than 55 FMJ. Not really concerned about sticking bbl, @ approx 1K FPS did not feel bullet stick would be an issue. I shoot Colibri (red box) 22 (primer only) out of a 16" 22 w/out bullet stick.

I never start high end for anything, Worse case scenario, i use a wooden dowel to remove bullet, pull start loads, rework higher.

No chrony, we were out east doing a PD shoot. Wind, temp, clouds kept pd's away but massive shooting did happen. Once i load my ladder i will range and chrony.

Since it's a first setting the chrono up, how far from muzzle do you place it?

[Tim K]

There's no hard and fast rule, but 10' is common. Your ballistic software should allow you to tell it how far away you put it, so it doesn't really matter. I've had rifles with lots of muzzle blast cause problems with chrony's placed close, but that's obviously not the case for you!

[ray1970]

You should try some Trail Boss powder. Let me know how it works.

[Great-Kazoo]

You should try some Trail Boss powder. Let me know how it works.

I could, but the specs call for TG which I happen to have a few pounds of. I'm old school, prefer to work with known data, than blaze New trails. Especially when guns are not cheap to replace, if a load goes bad. Not that I don't mind pushing the envelope, but with the sub load I want to work with confirmed specs.

[ray1970]

Supposedly you can just fill the case full of Trail Boss and not have any pressure issues. Doesn't even seen to matter what cartridge. .308, .223, 30-30, whatever.

[Great-Kazoo]

Supposedly you can just fill the case full of Trail Boss and not have any pressure issues. Doesn't even seen to matter what cartridge. .308, .223, 30-30, whatever.

They cut that shit with sawdust?
http://www.hodgdon.com/PDF/Trail%20B...oads%20R&P.pdf

[ray1970]

They cut that shit with sawdust?

Yeah, I think so.

I've used it for cowboy loads. It's kind of "fluffy". Looks kind of like Cheerios. Has a hole in the middle of each flake.