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Tikka .223 Plinking Ammo Recipe
Rifle: Vanilla T3 in .223 with no modifications. Trigger set as low as it would go.
Bullet: 55gr FMJ-BT with cannelure. Bought them in bulk to use as plinking ammo but I think they're made by Hornady. I go mine for 7 cents apiece (with shipping).
Powder: IMR4198 Tested charges at 19.1 19.4, 19.7, 20.0 (5 shot groups), metered using an RCBS 10-5 scale
Case: Lake City (range pickup, full-length sized with RCBS die, no weight sorting)
Primer: CCI Small Rifle
Seating Depth: 2.20 inches
Weather: no wind, mid 30s-low 40s Farenheit (2-7C), 40% RH, 6,000 foot elevation
19.7 grains shot 4 in a 3/8″ group with one flier. The other charges yielded somewhat larger groups. 20 grains yielded the highest velocity, largest spread, largest standard deviation, and probably the worst group (just over an inch).
IMR4198 is extruded so it's a bit of a pain to work with but it's relatively inexpensive and you don't need much of it. Not saying this is THE best .223 recipe around but someone else might find it to be useful.
YMMV
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2 Replies
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If you have any Varget or IMR4166 on the shelf try 25-26grs with that projectile at max mag length…excellent combo. The IMR will be slightly faster (approx 25-50fps) with all parts being equal.
Thanks for sharing the load data.
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For 55 gr check out cfe powder, it’s cheap and I get decent accuracy at about 25.5-25.7 of course work up your loads
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