I posted this in the guns forum but no one has replied so I thought this might be a better area.

My Ruger 77 mk II .223 will shoot the cheapwinchester varmint factory loads (45gr hollow point, 3600 fps, 40 rounds per box) into a group less than 1/2" at 100 yards. I want to duplicate these loads with my handloads and I was wondering if they use the Win 748 powder for these factoryloads? Does Winchester only use their own powder in their factory loads?

Thanks
Tom

load your .223 with BL(C)-2, H-335, Varget, AA2230, Win 748, or even IMR 3031. I like ball powders because it runs thru equipment so well.

It's not at all likely that Winchester will let anyone know what they load their factory ammo with. Be very suspicious of folks that say they know ....they may or may not.

Any of the above powders (or others as well) are very capable of giving you the accuracy you're used to.

Unless you have shot this load thru a cronograph,that is awful fast[in a 223]!!!!! So it is hard to say what the load data would be???I've found one,for the 748,but it would be packed solid into the case!!!

The velocity is what is printed on the Winchester box. Barnes has 28gr at 3520 fps I don't have my Hornady or Nosler books with me. I do use H 335 and AA 2460 and I do have very good accuracy with them, I was just wondering about the Win 748 and the factory loads.

Factories don't necessarily use only their own brands of powders in the ammo they load. In addition, the powders they DO use may or may not be identical to any canistered powders, and they won't tell you which powder they use in any given lot of factory ammunition.

What they do is use a large lot of some kind of powder that has a burning rate in the ballpark of what they want to accomplish ballistically with any given load, and then load whatever amount of the selected powder it takes to produce the PRESSURE AND VELOCITY LEVELS they have established for that batch of ammo.

So, in other words, you can't disassemble a couple of rounds of factory ammo, and look at the powder and see that it LOOKS LIKE WW748, for example, weigh it, then load up the same kind of bullet with that charge of WW 748 from a can you bought and expect the ammo you loaded to be the same as the factory load! It MIGHT be, but it is more likely that it will be different.

Thank your for the good info. That is what I wanted to know. If that is the case I will probably just stick with the H335 and AA 2460 that shoot well in my rifle.

Thanks again.

Tom

When shooting 45 gr bullets I use 2230_C and IMR 4895,
I looked in my old Lyman manuel and it gives factory velocity duplication load as IMR 4320 @3048 fps and 42,400 cup.This was 50 gr bullet didn't have 45 listed.
This is an old manuel dated 1970.
I shot a box of the win 45 that said 3600 has anyone check the speed to see how close that was ?They did shoot fairly well.