Thread: Help Tearing rims off when reloading 223

Hi Tim
The object of the reloading was to find a comfortable and reasonably accurate load for a first time rifle user, My grandson aged 14 and a flyweight in build has been busting his guts to fire my 8mm, if he did it would be his shoulder busted and he would be scared off firearms for the rest of his life. So we bought a RossiTaurus with 223 barrel and 12:1 twist. Much to my surprise after reading all the bad press and horror stories the rifle is not bad. Reasonably well finished, tight action, no misfires or punctured primers and a very efficient spent case ejection system. Open the rifle and it spits the case about 3m behind you. Probably more dangerous than getting shot.. We fired 40 rounds of factory to sight in and shake the rifle down a bit before playing with reloads. Anyway needed cases to reload.
Using ADI AR2208,CCI primers and Speer TNT HP 55gr. Started loads at 24.2gr and worked up to 26gr. Seating depth was trial and error.Chambered a round, had a look at the lands marks on the bullet and racked the seating plug down one turn.Using factory open sights at 50 m it grouped at 6 moa on the lighter load and 4 moa on the mid to high loads. One of the rounds at 26gr fail to make it to the target and I suspect it self destructed before it got there, it just disappeared. For comfort and a "feel good" feel 25.2 gr was it. The young fellow coped easily with the recoil and the noise didn't spook him. Accuracy was acceptable as he managed to avoid flinching. As he improves I'll progress him to a scope and then he can do some real shooting while I can play with the reloads.
Regards Tad