It should be noted that if it’s military brass, the primer pockets will need to be reamed.Yep those will work perfectly fine. Any .223 or 5.56 brass will work.
IF powders were easily available like in the past then finding and using what IS available is the hard part. I use TAC and cfe223 mainly at 55-62gr. All things aren't as equal as they were in the past unfortunately.I don't think I recall you mentioning what gun you are shooting 223 rounds through but powder selection is important for a direct impingement rifle like an AR. H335, Tac, AA2230 are tried and true. With some "ball" powders magnum primers are recommended. My go to is 24.2-24.6gr TAC rifle under a 62gr Hornady BTSP. Magnum or std primer fine with that load. Like most people I started out loading bunches of 55gr bullets even Xtreme like you mentioned but I have moved to heavier weights that give me better accuracy in my barrel twist rates(mostly 1:8).
For the 308, imr 4064, W748, Blc2, are all great, run gas guns well and have been available here and there. If you are curious about a powder look at the most popular and then see what's adjacent to it on a powder burn rate chart. It will put into perspective your best alternates.
As far as 9mm, I use mostly titegroup but it's not for everyone. If cost wasn't a factor I'd be using vivhuatori powders. I also started with 115s but have since moved to 124-135 gr. When you come across reasonably priced powder or primers(<$35lb powder, <$100/1k primers) buy em up and use or horse trade later. Happy shooting and reloading!
TAC available now from Powder Valley. N320 and Titegroup available from Bruno. Hope this is helpful.I don't think I recall you mentioning what gun you are shooting 223 rounds through but powder selection is important for a direct impingement rifle like an AR. H335, Tac, AA2230 are tried and true. With some "ball" powders magnum primers are recommended. My go to is 24.2-24.6gr TAC rifle under a 62gr Hornady BTSP. Magnum or std primer fine with that load. Like most people I started out loading bunches of 55gr bullets even Xtreme like you mentioned but I have moved to heavier weights that give me better accuracy in my barrel twist rates(mostly 1:8).
For the 308, imr 4064, W748, Blc2, are all great, run gas guns well and have been available here and there. If you are curious about a powder look at the most popular and then see what's adjacent to it on a powder burn rate chart. It will put into perspective your best alternates.
As far as 9mm, I use mostly titegroup but it's not for everyone. If cost wasn't a factor I'd be using vivhuatori powders. I also started with 115s but have since moved to 124-135 gr. When you come across reasonably priced powder or primers(<$35lb powder, <$100/1k primers) buy em up and use or horse trade later. Happy shooting and reloading!
H335 and TAC in stock at Brownells, TAC in stock at Bruno and Powder Valley. IMR4198 is available at a few vendors, but it is not quite the same as H4198 (I haven't found H4198 available in nearly a year).Thank you all for the wonderful advice. Today was a good day. I received my Lyman case trim express and my 1000 CCI magnum small rifle primers 450. I also received my 223-55gr FMJ bullet. They are so small in person compared to the videos I saw online. Still looking for the 400 version for my main primer and keeping the 450 as a backup.
Now the only thing left is the powder. From all the feedback so far I'm hearing these are all good powder for AR15.
H335
AA2230
CFE223
Alliant AR-Comp
Varget rifle powder
H4198
Like I said this is my first time reloading. I'm learning from reading and watching videos online. Sucks that there aren't any reloading courses or centers willing to offer reloading stuff.
Anyway with the world going to sh*t in the next couple of months. I want to get this down in case ammo get's short again.
Thanks again for everyone's help on here.