Best Powders for the .223 Rem.?

[270man]

Dovehunter,

When I got my first bolt action 223, I used Hodgdon BLC2 almost exclusively since I had a large supply. When that ran out I picked up a big supply of Hodgdon H335 and have been using it ever since. Never had any pressure problems with it like Rocky mentioned. However, I will take a close look at my barrel to see if there is any unusual fouling there. Accuracy hasn't changed in many years, so any potential fouling isn't opening up my groups.

Other powders I've tried -- with comments:

H322 -- meters well but nothing special
H4198 -- doesn't meter well and performance inferior to H335
H4895 -- good performance but doesn't beat H335
Varget -- recommended by Hodgdon tech guy, but good loads filled cases too full and I spilled powder without very careful handling.

Like you, I don't like compressed loads unless they really deliver greatly improved performance (velocity and accuracy).

Remember that the above comments apply to my rifles only. What's best for them may not work for you.

270man