Lighter Bullets for 1:9 twist AR
 

The title says it all: Does anyone here run lighter bullets in their 1:9 twist barrel? I tried 55 grain bullets in mine on a couple occasions, and the results were less than impressive. Since then, I've always just run it with 62 grainers. I've heard so many people, here and on other forums, say they have excellent results with 60, 55, and even 50 grain bullets, that its got me wondering if I should give it another try.

I'm planning on working up some test loads, using 50, 55, and 60 grain bullets - mostly for my own personal amusement, but hoping I might learn something along the way. However, to save myself some work, I was wondering if anyone here has any pet loads to share - just to give me a starting point when I make my own test loads.

Let me know what you think!

I stumbled across this load when I was in high school, forget if it was a NRA reduced-range HP match load or where exactly, and I forget the bullet it was SUPPOSED to use, but I've loaded over a million of these since then (literally, as depressing or exciting as that might sound) and shot them through hundreds of AR-15's and bolt rifles.

If 27.3grn Varget under a 50grn V-max doesn't shoot well in your rifle, your rifle has a problem.

Of course, this assumes your reloading practice is sufficient to size, charge, seat, and crimp consistently.

Varget is actually one powder I don't have on hand. Do you think I could get similar results win an appropriate charge of Win 748? I did some reading and I got the impression that it might be an OK substitute.

Have you tried lt-32 I am not able to look up my data now but it works great in my ruger sr556c with 55gr and 62gr bullets

I can honestly say I'm not familiar with that one. When I learned about reloading, we always had IMR or Winchester powder. Because of that, I have most all useful IMR numbers on hand along with a few Winchester numbers. I've only recently started adding a few Hodgdon numbers to the reloading bench. That said, most of my .223 loads were worked up with 4198 or 4895.

I run 50 and 55's in an 8 twist with excellent accuracy, you can't over stabilize a bullet as long as the integrity of the jacket isn't compromised.
RR

I'm playing with H335 recently for a customer, it's shooting sub MOA with near max loads under 50 and 55grn Vmax's, really really likes the 50 CT BST. Did sub MOA with 69smk and 75 Amax too. Hadn't used it much in 223 until this "project," but I'm very impressed so far. A few max loads have scattered on me though, but the velocities with sub-max have been good enough to not worry much about Max's.

W748 should do well for you too, but it's been a long time since I've used it. CFE 223 is one I think will be as popular as Varget in its time. 4198 and 4895 should be ok as well, although you might have issues in AR.

H335 has been my "go to" for a long time in 223, IMR 3031 ain't bad either
RR

Thanks for the info, guys. I think that should give me plenty to work with, when I start turning out some test loads this coming week. As I mentioned before, I have some pre-conceived notions about what you can and can't do with a 1:9 twist AR. Since I don't have any new reloading projects to work on, I figured that maybe it was time to challenge some of those notions.

Well, I didn't quite make as much progress as I had hoped to, but I started putting together those test loads over the weekend. I used Winchester 748 and IMR 4198, since those are the 2 numbers I have a lot of. By the time I'm done, I'll have a set made for 50, 55, and 60 grain bullets. Another good session at the reloading bench, and I'll be ready to go. It'll also make for a long day at the range, but I figure its time well spent, as long as I learn something along the way