So after researching I think I finally have narrowed down what I'm gong to run for my first batch of test loads and wanted to post here some details for others who may want to use the same components or that might have a similar rifle looking for a place to start. I'll start there.
The rifle is a DPMS Panther upper which began life as a LR308 with a 24" bull barrel with a 1:10 twist. I had the barrel cut down to 20" and threaded for my YHM flash hider which has QD threads for my YHM Phantom suppressor which I shoot through. Other than that the upper is your garden variety DPMS upper.
The ammo I'm looking for is kind a magic bullet if you will. My goal is something that will be sub MOA and yet heavy enough to fly relatively straight in stiffer winds since most of the shooting I do is in the Northern Colorado, Cheyenne & Western Nebraska area which can all get quite windy. An added bonus is a round that will also work well for game should I decide to use it for such. In other words I was looking for something that would kind of meet all my needs well enough to not need to mess with working up several loads for different situations. I knew I wanted to go heavier with the barrel being 1:10 and 20" and started down the path of 175gr Sierra Matchking bullets. I wasted a few days just trying to source them and it was during this search that I stumbled upon the 178gr A-max by Hornady. I began digging and heard all sorts of positive things on them including from people who previously shot the 175gr SMK bullets that liked the Amax better. I made a couple calls and found a few hundred at a local shop and decided that I would give them a try. After a little reading around I settled on the following components for this setup:
178gr Hornady Amax bullets
New Winchester brass (I had some x1 fired LC but it was a mess)
Federal 210 primers
Varget powder
I loaded the rounds to 2.8" OAL and the first thing i noticed was how consistent these bullets were when measured. They were substantially more consistent than the SMK's I had used before and have read a few different things that leads me to believe this is not uncommon between these two manufacturers as of late. All 50rds I loaded was within a few thousandths plus or minus of each other and one thing I noticed is there seemed to be two variances... once would be spot on and the other would be about three thousandths long which was plenty acceptable. With the SMK I used they would vary a lot more and there didn't appear to be any uniformity to the variances the way the Amax seemed to have. Again, this is only a single box of 100 that I used only half of so take that with a grain of salt as i t could be attributed to the same batch or.... who knows. Just something I noted as a positive right out of the gate.
That being said I did a little reading about powders for this type of setup and it looks like people usually end up with a honey of a round in the 43.0-45.0 grain range using Varget. This seemed like a good place to start and while I planned to start a full grain low with my Lake City brass since it's a thicker wall I decided to jump right to the bottom end of that to start testing with the Winchester brass. So, I have ten each of the following grains:
43.0
43.5
44.0
44.5
45.0
I'm obviously going to start with the 43.0 and check carefully for pressure warnings with each shot. Once I determine which yields the tightest groups at 100yds I will work up more at that pressure and run them over a chrono to see what speed they're pushing. Kind of curious to see what this platform is capable of with decent ammo. The only thing I've run through it up to this point is 50 year old Lake City military ammo and it's shown some potential. Here's what the rifle looks like as well as a snap shot of the ammo sitting in wait for tomorrow.
More to follow hopefully tomorrow after I get a chance to run through these.
The rifle is a DPMS Panther upper which began life as a LR308 with a 24" bull barrel with a 1:10 twist. I had the barrel cut down to 20" and threaded for my YHM flash hider which has QD threads for my YHM Phantom suppressor which I shoot through. Other than that the upper is your garden variety DPMS upper.
The ammo I'm looking for is kind a magic bullet if you will. My goal is something that will be sub MOA and yet heavy enough to fly relatively straight in stiffer winds since most of the shooting I do is in the Northern Colorado, Cheyenne & Western Nebraska area which can all get quite windy. An added bonus is a round that will also work well for game should I decide to use it for such. In other words I was looking for something that would kind of meet all my needs well enough to not need to mess with working up several loads for different situations. I knew I wanted to go heavier with the barrel being 1:10 and 20" and started down the path of 175gr Sierra Matchking bullets. I wasted a few days just trying to source them and it was during this search that I stumbled upon the 178gr A-max by Hornady. I began digging and heard all sorts of positive things on them including from people who previously shot the 175gr SMK bullets that liked the Amax better. I made a couple calls and found a few hundred at a local shop and decided that I would give them a try. After a little reading around I settled on the following components for this setup:
178gr Hornady Amax bullets
New Winchester brass (I had some x1 fired LC but it was a mess)
Federal 210 primers
Varget powder
I loaded the rounds to 2.8" OAL and the first thing i noticed was how consistent these bullets were when measured. They were substantially more consistent than the SMK's I had used before and have read a few different things that leads me to believe this is not uncommon between these two manufacturers as of late. All 50rds I loaded was within a few thousandths plus or minus of each other and one thing I noticed is there seemed to be two variances... once would be spot on and the other would be about three thousandths long which was plenty acceptable. With the SMK I used they would vary a lot more and there didn't appear to be any uniformity to the variances the way the Amax seemed to have. Again, this is only a single box of 100 that I used only half of so take that with a grain of salt as i t could be attributed to the same batch or.... who knows. Just something I noted as a positive right out of the gate.
That being said I did a little reading about powders for this type of setup and it looks like people usually end up with a honey of a round in the 43.0-45.0 grain range using Varget. This seemed like a good place to start and while I planned to start a full grain low with my Lake City brass since it's a thicker wall I decided to jump right to the bottom end of that to start testing with the Winchester brass. So, I have ten each of the following grains:
43.0
43.5
44.0
44.5
45.0
I'm obviously going to start with the 43.0 and check carefully for pressure warnings with each shot. Once I determine which yields the tightest groups at 100yds I will work up more at that pressure and run them over a chrono to see what speed they're pushing. Kind of curious to see what this platform is capable of with decent ammo. The only thing I've run through it up to this point is 50 year old Lake City military ammo and it's shown some potential. Here's what the rifle looks like as well as a snap shot of the ammo sitting in wait for tomorrow.
More to follow hopefully tomorrow after I get a chance to run through these.
