Reloading info for Howa 223

[Adelaide]

Evening all, Have bought a Howa1500 short action 223 Rem . Would really appreciate some suggested reloading data ( bullet weight, powder pref , primers, cases seating depth off lands etc.
Thanks a ton.

[in2anity]

What’s your twist? And barrel length. And projectile budget. And is it for hunting or paper-punching? In2.

[bladeracer]

Evening all, Have bought a Howa1500 short action 223 Rem . Would really appreciate some suggested reloading data ( bullet weight, powder pref , primers, cases seating depth off lands etc.
Thanks a ton.

As in2anity already asked, we need some more info.
Purpose of the bullet primarily - varminting, plinking, medium game, target shooting, steel silhouettes?

Bullet length will depend on purpose and twist-rate. From memory the Howa 1500 came in 12" and 8" twist in .223Rem?
The 8"-twist should run bullets up to around 1.220" in length, so from 30gn up into the 77gn -85gn realm. The 12"-twist will run bullets up to about .820" length.
Powders that work well in .223Rem are AR2206H, AR2208, BM8208, AR2206H being my preference.
Primer and brass choice is just personal preference, you want something you can readily get, that is reliable. ADI brass is a good choice.
Ignore seating depth, just load so they'll feed through the action. Some rifles allow much longer than standard length 2.260" cartridges to feed, I load the 80gn ELDM at 2.450" in my Ruger. If your rifle restricts cartridge length, the long bullets will take up a lot of volume inside the case, reducing velocity potential significantly. Tangent ogive bullets tend to less fussy about bullet jump than secant designs, that's why they invented the hybrid designs with a tangent ogive to rifling diameter, then a secant ogive to the tip.

[Adelaide]

What’s your twist? And barrel length. And projectile budget. And is it for hunting or paper-punching? In2.

I think 1in 12 and to punch paper

[Larry]

Pretty sure my Howa 223 is a 1 in 10 twist. It shoots the Sierra gamekings well and the 62grn Hornady TAP very well. I got 6000 of them cheap, they work for everything at the right price. I have tried all the powders from BM2 to 8208 all work well.

[Blr243]

I know someone who uses super cheap ppu factory in a howa 223 and it’s cloverleaf groups

[Bello]

Hi mate
Before you get into reloading for the 223
Try some loaded ammo such as the outback ammo (ADI) 55gr offerings....blitz king and game king.
They are quite accurate and will save you a heap in reloading gear and load development

[in2anity]

Pretty sure my Howa 223 is a 1 in 10 twist. It shoots the Sierra gamekings well and the 62grn Hornady TAP very well. I got 6000 of them cheap, they work for everything at the right price. I have tried all the powders from BM2 to 8208 all work well.

1:12 loves the quintessential 55gr pill. 1:10 is just about perfect for the 62gr. Shame TAP is no-more. 1:9 loves eating the 69gr SMKs. 1:8 deserves to be fed an 80gr fullbore pill; now there’s a distance load!

[BillyBob257]

Hi Adelaide
I also bought a Howa 223. That rifle was for my daughter. She wanted to do a science experiment on the effect of gun powder weight on the accuracy of a rifle for school. After a little discussion with teachers and the school (had to explain she legally held a minors permit, was insured, had safety PPE, range officer blah blah blah ) we were underway. All variables kept the same , projectiles, cases, primers etc.
I was pleasantly surprised how well this thing could shoot 55 gn projectiles. 0.5 to 0.8 MOA consistently. Load I settled on was 23 gn AR2219 . Overall case length 57.0 mm. ADI cases, federal small rifle primers and 55 gn Sierra Super Roo projectiles
These projectiles were cheap, had a good review and if the pro shooters were using them on small game - then why not.
I tried some ADI blitz kings factory ammo. Again well below 1 MOA.
Sure the action isn’t as smooth as the sako , tikka or sauers in the safe but accuracy wise it’s been great. I am not sure of the twist but I know it’s not a 1 in 8 so probably 1 in 12 or similar.
Haven’t tried any other projectiles so can’t comment on them.
For some giggles ( yes I was bored) I did load up some trail boss just to slow it down a little for rabbits etc. I found great accuracy less than 1 MOA 5 shoot group with 7.5 gns trail boss.
I keep the rifle in the back of the Ute when driving around the property. I use it for some general plinking to keep my eye on target, and the occasional split light for a fox. It’s not a safe queen. It’s cheap, robust and but highly accurate.
All I did with mine was replace the trigger spring ) lightened it) and removed a little material from the hogue stock right at the end near the for end to stop it from contacting the barrel.
Hope that helps

[bladeracer]

Hi Adelaide
I also bought a Howa 223. That rifle was for my daughter. She wanted to do a science experiment...

Did you have any trouble getting that through as genuine reason

Awesome that she did ballistics as a school project!

[BillyBob257]

Hi Adelaide
I also bought a Howa 223. That rifle was for my daughter. She wanted to do a science experiment...

Did you have any trouble getting that through as genuine reason
Awesome that she did ballistics as a school project!

Lol. Yeh. I was taken a little bit by surprise when she talked about this science project idea that was working with , variables dependent , independent etc. my first daughter wanted to work with yeast and bake bread. This one wanted to work on ballistics. Lol

The school first pushed back and told her No.
I went to the principle and said that I understood their concerns which were around legality and safety. So I address each one demonstrating it was legal and she would be safe. Once approved I whispered in her ear that she better do the sport proud and blitz her assignment.
She got 91% for it , some people may have had an issue with her behind a howa in the pics for her report but they all said it was an original piece of work

[Adelaide]

Thanks once again to all for there responses, have definitely got a few things to try.

[JohnV]

Check the top of the barrel they have started stamping the twist rate on . Some new Howa's are actually 1 in 8 .

[Oldbloke]

Check the top of the barrel they have started stamping the twist rate on . Some new Howa's are actually 1 in 8 .

Bloody great. All manufactures should all do it.

[Adelaide]

Evening All ,
Thanks once again for all your valuable input. Took it out last weekend and was pleasantly surprised with how it shot with a box of old factory ammo. It definitely has potential . My dies and brass should arrive this week and will start the process. As an additional I have some 45g Barnes TSX does anyone have any experience with them? Secondly whats is ADI brass like

[in2anity]

ADI brass is very good. There’s even been a movement to it club level TR as it’s significantly cheaper than your premium stuff and almost as good. Nice primer pockets and good longevity. Anneal if you can.

[Adelaide]

Thanks

[PM3010]

This might be a bit off topic; however, my rifle is a howa .223, and by the way I love it. I purchased some “once used fully resized and trimmed brass” from a web site and they turned out suspect. Never again. I re-trimmed them and then loaded 25 with my pet load for my .223. When I went to use them, they won’t feed correctly and bolt won’t shut. Possibly would but not keen on forcing it. So, my question, can I use a puller and reuse the components, as they are so scarce these days. NO problem throwing the projectiles, I suppose I could give the thrower a good clean and then be able to use the powder, main issue is removal of the primers. Is it safe or a perilous procedure? I’m going to resize the brass and give them a good look over and measure to see what I do with them. Your thoughts.

[Blr243]

Not sure if.i Ever have but pretty sure others have done so without problems. I Slowly of course

[bladeracer]

This might be a bit off topic; however, my rifle is a howa .223, and by the way I love it. I purchased some “once used fully resized and trimmed brass” from a web site and they turned out suspect. Never again. I re-trimmed them and then loaded 25 with my pet load for my .223. When I went to use them, they won’t feed correctly and bolt won’t shut. Possibly would but not keen on forcing it. So, my question, can I use a puller and reuse the components, as they are so scarce these days. NO problem throwing the projectiles, I suppose I could give the thrower a good clean and then be able to use the powder, main issue is removal of the primers. Is it safe or a perilous procedure? I’m going to resize the brass and give them a good look over and measure to see what I do with them. Your thoughts.

Did you re-size them?
Always size brass so it fits your chamber before you load anything, even if you're sizing it yourself.
Use a kinetic hammer to pop the bullets out.
You can bump the shoulder back without de-priming, but I've deprimed and re-used the primers without any issues.
No reason you can't re-use the lot, just disassemble, bump the shoulder, check the brass chambers okay in the rifle, then re-load them. Load one and confirm it chambers as you normally do before loading the batch.

[Larry]

If you get a body die you can size them with the primer in. Otherwise it will pop out without any problems just do it smoothly no fast knocks.

[Oldbloke]

This might be a bit off topic; however, my rifle is a howa .223, and by the way I love it. I purchased some “once used fully resized and trimmed brass” from a web site and they turned out suspect. Never again. I re-trimmed them and then loaded 25 with my pet load for my .223. When I went to use them, they won’t feed correctly and bolt won’t shut. Possibly would but not keen on forcing it. So, my question, can I use a puller and reuse the components, as they are so scarce these days. NO problem throwing the projectiles, I suppose I could give the thrower a good clean and then be able to use the powder, main issue is removal of the primers. Is it safe or a perilous procedure? I’m going to resize the brass and give them a good look over and measure to see what I do with them. Your thoughts.

Did you re-size them?
Always size brass so it fits your chamber before you load anything, even if you're sizing it yourself.
Use a kinetic hammer to pop the bullets out.
You can bump the shoulder back without de-priming, but I've deprimed and re-used the primers without any issues.
No reason you can't re-use the lot, just disassemble, bump the shoulder, check the brass chambers okay in the rifle, then re-load them. Load one and confirm it chambers as you normally do before loading the batch.

This ^^^^^

[JohnV]

This might be a bit off topic; however, my rifle is a howa .223, and by the way I love it. I purchased some “once used fully resized and trimmed brass” from a web site and they turned out suspect. Never again. I re-trimmed them and then loaded 25 with my pet load for my .223. When I went to use them, they won’t feed correctly and bolt won’t shut. Possibly would but not keen on forcing it. So, my question, can I use a puller and reuse the components, as they are so scarce these days. NO problem throwing the projectiles, I suppose I could give the thrower a good clean and then be able to use the powder, main issue is removal of the primers. Is it safe or a perilous procedure? I’m going to resize the brass and give them a good look over and measure to see what I do with them. Your thoughts.

You can reuse the powder and bullets as long as you don't damage the projectiles too much , inertia pullers don't harm the bullet much . Leave the primers in and buy a Redding body die . Adjust the die to just bump the shoulder enough to chamber the case with some bolt resistance . Then adjust the die down one 1/16th of a turn more and lock it . Then size all the cases . Wear eye protection and keep your head well back . Body dies don't have any primer removal pins . Redding does not " recommend " and neither do I that you size the loaded round and just bump the shoulder just enough to chamber it .

[Adelaide]

Evening all,
Can anyone tell me how I can establish the twist rate of my Howa 1500 SA .I cannot find any markings on the barrell. What are most accurate projectiles and suggested load data.
Appreciate any help

[JohnV]

Put a cleaning rod down the barrel from the muzzle end with a tight patch on a jag or a tight bore brush , Push it about halfway in . Put a small thin strip of masking tape on the upper side off the rod right at the end of the muzzle . Gently pull the rod out by the handle allowing it to rotate until the strip of tape rotates around one turn to the same original position on top. Measure the distance between the end of the muzzle and the front edge of the tape . So if it measures 12 inches it's a 1 in 12 twist .
It's not possible to say for sure which bullets will shoot best in your gun with your load but start with Sierra projectiles . Use the ADI website loading manual such as it is now with it's stupid design .

[bladeracer]

Evening all,
Can anyone tell me how I can establish the twist rate of my Howa 1500 SA .I cannot find any markings on the barrell. What are most accurate projectiles and suggested load data.
Appreciate any help

Take your cleaning rod and a marker and mark a line down its length about 15" or so.
Ideally you want a cleaning rod with a ball-bearing handle so it can rotate freely, but a fixed rod will still work.
Start a patched jag into the bore most of the way until you can align the mark on the rod with a handy rotation datum, like the ejector or sight. Place a piece of insulation tape around the rod in line with a handy length datum that you can access, like the end of the receiver or the muzzle.
Pull the rod back toward you, watching the line as it revolves around the rod. When it is aligned again with its datum, place another piece of tape around the rod at the length datum.
Pull the rod out and measure between the two pieces of tape. It should be close to one of the common twist rates - 8", 10", 12", 14". Do it two or three times to get an average.

The most accurate projectiles will be bullets, but the rifle will really choose for itself which bullet design it prefers the best.
At relatively close ranges you may find a flat-base bullet is most consistent, and a lighter bullet can be launched at higher velocity, spending less time being affected by the wind during its short flight to the target.
At longer ranges you will probably find a long VLD/ELD bullet with a very long nose and a boat-tail base will be distracted less by variations in the wind, which should equate to smaller groups. The boat-tail base is also less prone to being damaged during bullet seating, and the base of the bullet plays a large role in accuracy. But if your throat is not long enough for these very long bullets, you may find that they encroach too far inside the case, eating up valuable combustion volume and limiting the velocity you can launch them at.
Another important part of accuracy is how well the bullet is aligned with the centre of the bore when the cartridge is chambered. This can require seating the bullet out well into the throat, and even pushing it tightly into the rifling before firing it.

A tangent ogive bullet tends to align itself better when it hits the rifling, so it's not generally very fussy about how far it has to "jump".

A secant design is more aerodynamic but is not so good at aligning itself with the bore when it hits the rifling, these can be very fussy about bullet "jump".

A hybrid design has the tangent ogive down to bore diameter (about .216") for the .223, then it has a secant ogive to the point to have less drag. These are less "jump fussy" but have slightly lower ballistic coefficients of drag.

You really have to try them all to determine which works best for you in your rifle.
I hope you don't have the Howa Mini-Action?

You said this was for shooting paper, for precision shooting you will likely be single-loading anyway to avoid any damage to your bullets during feeding.

I would start experimenting with Berger hybrids, depending on your twist rate. Something like the Hybrid Long Range Target 85.5gn if you have an 8"-twist, but this is a very long bullet (.007" longer than the 80gn ELDM) so you need a long throat to get the most out of it, and you will likely have to single-load it as it would be too long to feed through the magazine. But I don't know that there is any supply of Bergers here currently.

Projectile Warehouse do Outer Edge bullets, and have decent stocks of them. I haven't used them myself but they're a machined copper bullet so I would expect pretty good accuracy out of them. They might be worth trying if only because there is decent supply so you shouldn't have trouble getting more of them when you need them.
https://www.projectilewarehouse.com.au/full-packets/?cn=410&rf=cn

Sierra Matchkings are another good choice to play with, as well as the Hornady ELDM's, and I think supplies of these are still pretty good.

8"-twist will stabilise bullets up to about 1.080" in length (85gn to 90gn), 9"-twist up to about 1.000", 12"-twist up to about .820" (50gn to 70gn).

Load data will primarily come down to which powders you have access to a good supply of.
If I were precision shooting I'd probably start with BM8208 if you can get it, if not then AR2206H or AR2208.

[JohnV]

A secant ogive is not more aerodynamic by and of it's self it's just a way of terminating the longer ogive to a smaller meplat while at the same time conserving bullet length . Smaller meplat is the more aerodynamic feature .

[Adelaide]

Thanks a ton for your input will put it to use.

[JohnV]

Double post

[animalpest]

ADI brass is very good. There’s even been a movement to it club level TR as it’s significantly cheaper than your premium stuff and almost as good. Nice primer pockets and good longevity. Anneal if you can.

That hasn't been my experience. Recently loaded my first 200 new ADI cases in .223 and had them up to 13.5 thou headspace. Enough for some to not go bang. Still working on why. Rifle headspace is fine.