Thread: The “you can’t go wrong” .223 load

Greetings All,
Getting back to the OP AR2206H has been my main powder in the .223 since I ran out of AR2206. Mostly it has been loaded with 55 and 69 grain projectiles. It is a little bulky with most loads being compressed. More recently BM8208 has been used in some loads. Most of my loading has been with now ADI powders starting with AR2201.
Following on from some of the later posts ADI, then Mulwex, starting in the mid 1980's produced a range of powders including AR2205, AR2206, AR2207, AR2208, AR2209, AR2213 and others. By the early 1990's ADI was producing most of Hodgdons extruded powders and around 2,000 there was a bit of a reorganisation and AR2206 was dropped in favour of AR2206H (H4895) and also AR2213 in favour of AR2213SC (H4831SC). Both powders were a little slower than those that they replaced. Nick Harvey described AR2209 as being between IMR4350 and IMR4831 in speed and my chronographing supports this. About 2002 AR2209 was sped up to match H4350 more closely without any suffix being added. Again this is supported by Hodgdons online data and my own chronograph results. There also seems to be two sets of data for BM8208 (IMR8208XBR) with later lots being significantly slower. My chronographed results giving much less velocity than suggested in the Hodgdon data even in a 26" barrel but close to Pet Loads data from Handloader and the Hornady data. Without a chronograph I would not have not have had a clue about any of this.
Regards Grandpamac.