American reloading powder snd projectiles on sale

[Ryridesmotox]

I placed my order for some of that 846 powder. They also had the pulldown sierras on sale. 175 SMKs for 19 cents a piece. I said screw it and ordered 500.

Shipping and haz are free there, so maybe I can work a load up with that powder for plinking in 223 and 308.

If I don't like it for 308, back to IMR4064 I go.

Figured if anyone needs some plinking loads or other practice loads, that's a good place to start.

 

[Ryridesmotox]

So I got the powder and bullets today. The bullets were as described and as I imagined. There was some sealant on some, and some were a few shades dark with tarnish. I figured I should clean em up a bit. Me being lazy, I threw em in my tumbler with some walnut media and nufinish. They came out pretty decent actually. There are very minor surface imperfections on them. I'm not too worried abou it. Going to measure and compare them to another batch of brand new sierras.

As received:

After 30 minutes in the tumbler:

All in all, I'm not going to complain. For like 19 cents a round, it could be much worse.

 

[Gregor.Samsa]

You expect them to perform any differently than standard SMKs?

 

[MK20]

Where did you get the bullets?

 

[Ryridesmotox]

You expect them to perform any differently than standard SMKs?

Being pulled, yes. There is some deformation of the meplats on most of them. Not sure how that will effect it. And a few had pretty good dings in the sides, which I'm less concerned about.

Where did you get the bullets?

The price went back up though... I paid $94 for 500. And they also had a coupon I used. If they shoot well, I'll definitely get more later, when they go on sale

https://americanreloading.com/en/30-caliber-308/1990-308-175gr-hpbt-m118-lr-lake-city-250ct.html

 

[MK20]

Thanks. I suspect that their primed 7.62 brass is pulled down M118 LR brass but I will need to call them to check. If it is, that is a really good price.

 

[Ryridesmotox]

Thanks. I suspect that their primed 7.62 brass is pulled down M118 LR brass but I will need to call them to check. If it is, that is a really good price.

I bet it's all mixed headstamp to be honest.

I also got an 8lb jug of their 846 rifle powder. It came in last night. I have to finish up my IMR4064, but I'm moving onto that 846 next. It says its comparable to BLC2... we'll see I guess. I'm not going to hold my breath about its similarity.

 

[atakawow]

I got the same WC846 from them recently that was advertised as "similar" to BLC2...mine was not even close. Much faster than load data of BLC2.

 

[Ryridesmotox]

What are you running it in?

I haven't shot with it yet. I have a bunch of virgin brass I need to form to my gun. It's a 308, so I started at 41 and loaded one each in .5 increments to 46. Figure I would find where the pressure starts and then go back a grain and call that my limit. I threw a bunch of cases with 42 gr to fire form brass. That's a grain below blc2 minimum charge. I'll find out next thursday if that's too much.

 

[mcfred]

I used an old lot of wc846 for 'blasting' .223 Rem ammo a long while ago, not sourced from American Reloading. BLC-2 "starting loads" blanked the primers.

20" barrel
55gr tracer
23.8gr WC846 (25.5gr was 3250fps hot)
2.255" coal
Wolf 223 primers
3000 fps

Start low, work up.

 

[Ryridesmotox]

I used an old lot of wc846 for 'blasting' .223 Rem ammo a long while ago, not sourced from American Reloading. BLC-2 "starting loads" blanked the primers.

20" barrel
55gr tracer
23.8gr WC846 (25.5gr was 3250fps hot)
2.255" coal
Wolf 223 primers
3000 fps

Start low, work up.

Yea definitely starting low. Starting 2 grains below blc2. Hope that doesnt give pressure signs in the 308

 

[clcustom1911]

I used an old lot of wc846 for 'blasting' .223 Rem ammo a long while ago, not sourced from American Reloading. BLC-2 "starting loads" blanked the primers.

20" barrel
55gr tracer
23.8gr WC846 (25.5gr was 3250fps hot)
2.255" coal
Wolf 223 primers
3000 fps

Start low, work up.

Yeah that's a very hot lot of 846. My 844 I got from there was pushing 62's at 2850-ish out of a 16" with 25.3gr.

 

[Ryridesmotox]

Went out to see where the limit was.

Using:
Jag 308 brass
CCI 200 large rifle primer
175gr nosler

I seat long, like 2.860 full mag length in a Magpul AICS.

I started charging at 41.0 gr and went up to 46.5 in .5gr incriments. One cartridge per load so I didnt have to pull a whit ton of bullets.

Just for reference, I've used up to 46.0 gr of IMR4064 in a compressed load and not had pressure at all.

Today I started at 41.0 and got to 45.0gr. At 45gr I blew a primer. No other pressure signs at all. I'll set my max at 44gr to account for any temp issues, it was 80°F when I shot these.

I knew it was going to be hot so I fully prepared to pull some when I was loading. Another piece of evidence to always work up with a low start.

 

[truck1]

I also purchased 1k of the 175 SMK pulls from American Reloading. My order had a little less tar . Cleaned them first in a tray of brake clean and then dry tumbled . I culled the ones with any visible pull marks other than minor scratches and loaded them in LC fire formed cases , collet neck die sized ,with 43 grs of Varget , and Fed 210 primers. Got the same results as new SMK 175's , sub MOA groups most one ragged hole. I like them and wish I had more. They raised the price after my purchase. Shot from a Rem 700 5R 24" barrel.

 

[Ryridesmotox]

I also purchased 1k of the 175 SMK pulls from American Reloading. My order had a little less tar . Cleaned them first in a tray of brake clean and then dry tumbled . I culled the ones with any visible pull marks other than minor scratches and loaded them in LC fire formed cases , collet neck die sized ,with 43 grs of Varget , and Fed 210 primers. Got the same results as new SMK 175's , sub MOA groups most one ragged hole. I like them and wish I had more. They raised the price after my purchase. Shot from a Rem 700 5R 24" barrel.

I havent started with the sierras yet. I am working through a lot of nosler 175 CCs. Your results are encouraging though. I figured that, they cost about what bull FMJs cost, so as long as they didnt shoot worse than a bull 147fmj, I really couldnt lose. But I didnt want to splurge too much on them. If they go on sale again, I might get a few thousand.

 

[truck1]

They don't have them listed on their site anymore.

 

[Ryridesmotox]

They don't have them listed on their site anymore.

They seem to be out. Theh send an email newsletter all the time, so sign up for tha tf maybe. It has all their current/best deals.

I am in no way affiliated with them. But I like to be able to save money where I can.

 

[Ryridesmotox]

Take these results with a grain of salt. My gun, dont copy the land without working up, etc etc.

Factory howa 1500 in 308. Barrel has about 1k rounds. The brass is a 1x jag case, powder is WC846. Sized in a Lee FL die, though I now have a forster FL die.

The loads with less than 4 readings were errors on the chrono. It was picking up the shooter next to me. I really wish I figured that out before I finished this string of velocity tests. I looks like I'll stick with 44.0 gr of WC846. I know that one group of 4 charges does not a statistic make. But due to my quantity of once fired, I tried to get the most data over the widest acceptable range of, what I hoped would be adequate, velocities I could.

175 nosler Custom Comp
CCI 200
CBTO 2.270
Jag 308 1x fired (first firing was with 42.0gr of 846, since I wanted to hit it with a relatively safe load).

After the first firing, and after every firing, I anneal the brass. No hard bolt lift or other pressure signs at all in the charges up to 44.4gr. Previously I had a primer blow out at 45gr, so 44.4 was as high as I was willing to go. I'm happy with the velocity at 44.0gr, I just need to play with seating depth a bit because the group wasn't what I was hoping for, going to see if that will help at all. Hopefully I don't lose too much on that extreme spread. I'd really like to keep it below 15.

Hopefully I don't have to do too much new load workup when I switch to the Sierra 175s.

Any input to help improve results is welcome.