For many years I loaded 8K plus of 223 rounds for matches. That being said you can use lots of powders.

A few thoughts. Varget is usually a good powder and if you work up a load in a sweet spot(audette method that everyone should use anyway) a few tenths one way or another won't hurt. I know my guns still shoot sub MOA with thrown loads of Varget years ago when I still used that powder. And I know that I had variances of up to .3 grains.

WW748. Nice great powder. Extremely temperature sensitive.

AA powders-- vary so much from one lot to another at times that I'll never use em again unless I bought about 100 pounds at a time or more. YMMV. When I got 200 FPS variance and from great accuracy to no accuracy......

Surplus powders like from gibrass.com or patsreloading.com are worth looking at. But surplus IE military stuff can vary 10% in burn rate from one lot to another. So buy a bit at a time. WC 844 and WC846 are both worth looking at anyway.

All Reloader powders have been good. All IMR powders and all Hodgon powders good. All Viht powders good.

Thats about all I can add.

Jeff

My Sako likes 24.5 grains of W748, I believe the bullet used was a Nosler 55 gr. BT.

my savage 10 FP .223 likes varget behind a speer TNT hollow point.

My 112Fp likes

new IMI brass
Vihta N133 24.7gr
Nosler 50gr Ballistic Tip
Winchester small rifle primer
seated 2.260

If you can still find any the Accurate 2200 is a real fine powder for the 223. I bought a bunch before they stopped importing it. vangunsmith

Try WW 748-it does very well in the .223, and is excellent for the heavier bullet loads as well as the 55-grain ones. H335 is also good in the .223, and also in the 7.62X39mm!

2230-c is a very good powder for bullets under 55 grs and r-15 works very well in 69 gr match bullets in my savage 10 fp.
You can get the 2230-c pretty cheap,around 60 to 70 dollars for an 8 lb jug and meters very well.
For the 55 gr bullets I like IMR 4895 the best

wolf killer,

I've found varget too be a little slow for the .223, but heres three you might want to give a try. Will list them in the order of prefference.


1. H-Benchmark. Start with 24.0 grains and max suggested load is 26.0 grains. This is a new powder designed for use as a accuracy load in the .222/.223. It is an extruded powder but has the smallest kernels I've ever seen for an extruded powder
2. H-4198. Start at 19.5 and max is 21.5. This is also an extruded powder. Both H-4198 and benchmark are easy to ignite and work fine with standerd small rifle primers.
3.BL-C2. Start at 26.0 and max is 28.0 grains. This is a ball powder and I've found accuracy drops off as the temperature gets colder. If you use this one. you might want to use a magnum small rifle primer. Good luck.

Bob

The load info for all three powders is for the 53 grain bullet and comes from the Hodgdon manual

My .223 likes Winchester 748, also. Maybe my most accurate loads are using IMR-4320.

WK,
It's not on your list, but if you have your mind made up abaout a ball powder, give Win 748 a try. Hodgdon recently brought out a benchrest powder for the .223 Rem.It is an extruded powder, but the kernels are so small it meters as nice as a ball powder. Plus it is one of the Extreme line of powders, so it won't be sensitive to temperature changes. I've had great results in a .222 Rem and two . 223s. One a bolt action and the other a AR-15. Good luck and God Bless.
Bob..