I was loading some .223 ammo this weekend and was deciding on a OAL for my cartridges. Most of the time I usually go by whatever factory ammo I have on hand.

While measuring a factory PMC XTAC with a 55 gr. bullet, I was wondering how much powder they were using. So I opened the cartridge and poured the charge onto my scale. 25.9 is what the scale read. I'm assuming that means it's a factory 26 grain load with a .1 grain variance.



The bullet itself came in at 54.8 grains which may have lost .1 grains or so by the pliers I used scratching off some of the jacket. So it appears that PMC is using a 26 grain charge of non-canister ball powder. It was very similar to what I've seen from the Federals XM193 charge although the powder was more of a graphite color than a charcoal color used in the Federal cartridges.