So I finally got the opportunity to take my new WOA 18" SPR .223 out. Its a 1-8" twist. I worked up a bunch of reloads per the Hornady book.... mainly using H322 and Varget. I made them to the OAL advised in the book for starters. Used a lot of different bullets; 55gr SP, 62gr FMJ, 68 and 69gr, 73gr, and 75gr.

None shot worth a crap. The 69gr wasn't terrible, but nowhere near MOA.

Here's the funny thing. In order to get headspace, I bought some cheap Winchester 55gr FMJ from my local store. So before I got all my reloads made up, I shot these... drove tacks. Unbelievable. So after I finally got all these reloads shot, I decided to fire more of the Winchesters.... drove tacks!

The one big difference between my reloads and those Winchesters is the OAL. The Winchesters were around 2.17". My 55gr reloads were 2.20 I believe.

If I decrease my OAL on my 55gr reloads to 2.17, will minimum grain be OK? It shouldn't be too much pressure should it?

I'm going to work on getting a case prepped in order to get a roundabout seating depth for the bullet, but the one thing I noticed between my reloads and the Winchesters was OAL. I bumped the shoulders about .004", so headspace was consistent.

Any advice would be great!

Could be a lot of variables between the factory load and yours including (probably) the use of a ball powder and usually in factory FMJ rounds a pretty good crimp. Check out Johnny's reloading bench 223 series of videos for a deeper dive if you have time and want ideas for loads and ballpark velocities.

My WOA spr barrel produced this group with 25gr of Varget under a 69gr SMK.

Without more knowledge of your load workup procedures it is really hard to comment.

Did you check the seating depth for each bullet? They will vary.

What increments did you work up in? We’re there a couple bullets across a couple steps that were closer to each other than the rest?

Did you find any speed nodes?

What brass and primer?

In general Varget is my most accurate powder under 69-77 gr projectiles. But, it doesn’t meager well so every charge gets weighted.

You’ll find the sweet spot. You just need to narrow the variables and look for signs.

2.250 +/-0.007".

Personally, I wouldn't load as short as the factory rounds you shot.

I usually find my sweet spot for 55-62gr bullets somewhere between 2.230-2.245" oal.

68-77gr somewhere in the ballpark of 2.245-2.255" oal.

I would start by finding the lands of your barrel.
If your using an AR platform,  you'll most likely be limited by mag length of 2.260".

Varget should yield good results with any of the bullets you mentioned.

As previously mentioned,  check out Johnnys reloading bench videos on YouTube.
If you go back 3-5 years into his videos, you'll find a treasure trove of info, where I believe he is even using a WOA barrel and doing tons of load testing that will be applicable to your situation.

So my lands are around 2.33". After watching Johnny's bench, I'm going to do quite a few at 2.26". That's what he loaded all his at.

My best group was the 69 HPBT with 24.5 gr of Varget at 2.235 OAL. I'm going to do a few rounds tweaking that.... Then I'm also going to try some at 2.26 OAL with 8208 XBR.

<This. Bullet tips cause overall length variations. It does nothing to harm accuracy. The 2.250" overall length insures that every round will fit, feed and function from any AR-15 magazine.

I use 24.5 grains of Varget with 69 grain Sierra Match Kings as my accuracy load. Weigh each powder charge to insure the consistency of your throws.

Every rifle I have fired this combination through has been 1 moa or tighter, the only exception being a Bravo Company 20" 1/7 government profile barrel. It shot around 1.5" groups.

Try seating the bullets twice. After seating the first time, lower the ram and spin the round 180 degrees and seat again. This can help reduce runout using standard dies.

Don't mix headstamps for accuracy testing, it will increase groups sizes.

I use and recommend Remington 7.5, CCI-BR4, CCI-450 and Russian kvb-5,56m primers.

Use a good bullet with a known good charge of powder. Everything else will matter much less.

69 SMK with 24.5 gr Varget is the load we use for 100 yard matches. I did not develop it, I just copied what was working for others. Shooting in position it has cleaned the MR31 target with a 200 clean at about 1 moa. That was using mixed year LC brass from reload pull downs only neck sized to accept new bullets. Primers are unknown and charges were thrown with a Dillion powder measure on a progressive. Bullets were seated to mag length.

If that load did not shoot sub moa, I would find another barrel.

I've done some loading for my 18" WOA SPR barrel (7" twist though).

I've also had good luck with 24.5gr of Varget and the 69gr SMK bullet.

I've also had great results with AA2520 powder (25.2gr) with the 77gr SMK bullet.

In my MK 12 mod O

77MK
IMR 8208 @ 23.3
CCI 41
LC Brass