Took my Defiance AnTi-X (pictured above) to the indoor 100 yard tunnel range tonight in SLC. Specs are long action, 24" proof 1-8.4 twist, Leupold 3-15x44 scope XLR Element 4.0 magnesium, Hellfire 3 port brake, Harris bipod, unfired till tonight. Spun up by Eric Smith at ES-Tactical, and he always does phenomenal work. Took 3 rounds to get centered then I fired the following loads in the chart below. I would not pay attention to the SD, there are several reasons I won't elaborate upon, why they are all over the place (part of it is the tunnel itself messes with the radar). Also, the first group of 4 was right at 0.5", one ragged hole. They deteriorated after that, I thought it was me getting my cage rattled in the tunnel, then I realized I never torqued down the side bolts to the rings beyond finger tight! And the scope was loose, and my crescent wrench was missing from my range bag, so I called it quits after that discovery. Anyway, I'm posting this data for velocity and pressure information. Only the last one of the 69.0 grains of H1000 in Hornady brass had just slight increase bolt lift, and an ejector mark. I usually back down from that a grain, so I think I'm going to settle on 68 grains. (QL thinks 68 grains is 106.7% full [not even close!], gets 62342 PSI, and produces 2886 fps - so close to my results and almost max velocity/pressure on QL, FWIW.) All cci 250 (as if that matters). COAL is 3.310, which is .025" off the lands. The 69 grain one is 99+% full - I can barely hear it rattle and there is no crunch. QL thinks this should be 108% full for some reason that is beyond me - this is not a compressed load AT ALL. The case capacity is just shy of 82.0 grains H20. Ambient temperature was about 65 degrees in the tunnel, but the ammo started at about 40 degrees and I warmed the rounds up (a little) in my pocket before firing. Powder humidity was 48.5%RH at the time of reloading and at 60 degrees F. Also, I never shot more than 3 rounds before cooling the barrel with my Ryobi inflator gizmo - this is my first time with a Proof and they do indeed heat up and require some real air movement or time to cool off!
Final analysis: 2900-2950 fps is definitely possible with 180 ELD-M and H1000 in some guns, even with Hornady brass (gasp!). Assuming this barrel will "speed up" as they are rumored to do, 2950-3000 fps is possible. These velocities may change as I transition to Lapua brass later this year (hopefully). Wheeler or Ackley or one of the wildcat guys said on the forums about 10+ years back that you should do load development in weak brass as a worst case test - if you're at/under pressure there, you should have a good margin of error for strong brass, which can hide excessive pressure because it's so strong. I like that idea, because I like to have a good margin of error for temperature changes, lot-to-lot changes, powder humidity changes, etc. Hence, I will be using these same 50 pieces of Hornady brass and see where things settle out, rather than chase speed and blame the brass as I have seen others tempted to do. I have not checked the primer pockets on the 69 grain loads yet - but they are neither flat nor cratered.
| Powder | Charge 175 ELD-X | Charge 180 ELD-M | Charge 180 ELD-M | Charge 180 ELD-M | | H1000 | 67.0 | 68.0 | 68.5 | 69.0 | | | 2841.0 | 2887.0 | 2930.0 | 2964.0 | | | 2855.0 | 2868.0 | 2971.0 | 2966.0 | | | 2828.0 | 2920.0 | 2956.0 | 2960.0 | | | 2832.0 | 2910.0 | 2929.0 | | | | 2778.0 | | 2929.0 | | | | 2872.0 | | 2944.0 | | | | | | 2895.0 | | | | | | 2912.0 | | | | | | 2895.0 | | | | | | 2918.0 | | | AVG | 2834.3 | 2896.3 | 2943.2 | 2963.3 | | SD | 21.7 | 18.8 | 13.8 | 2.2 |
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