Reloading for AR-10 .308 platform ??

[eli polite]

Ok here we go. I have been reading a lot. As well as watching YouTube. I have watched quite a bit of the videos posted here as well as read through many of the post. I have been investing as much as I can into equipment for reloading as I possibly can. I'll get to that in a bit. Here is the question.

With th an AR-10 should the bull be set so it touches the lands in the barrel or should it be set back just a bit?

Does the force that drives it into the chamber affect how the bullet is set at all ? When the BCG forces the bullet into the chamber is there any chance of the bullet slightly moving forward out of the neck of the case? Or can the force drive the bullet back into the case slightly if it is just touching the lands?

there is the question/ questions. Her is where I am at and what I'm working with.

I have not yet reloaded 1 single rifle round. I have been reloading and experimenting with .357 and gettting use to the equipment I have for about 2 months now. For the past 2 years I have slowly been buying gear. I currently have 2 single stage lee presses 3 hand held priming tools. I have RCBS dies for .223 and .308. As well as .357 .10mm .40 and .9mm
i have an RCBS 1500 charge master and a beam scale. A vibrator with walnut media. I'm working on a wet tumbler and I have the stainless media for that already.

What i I don't have yet
case trimmer.
Annealer.
Precision dies.
Chronograph.

I have 2000 once fired .308 cases peeped and trimmed ready for loading. It's a mixture of horniday, lake city, and mixed factory

1000 new brass .308 cases mixture of what ever I could find bought in batches of 100

5000 .556 brass mostly empties I shot. The brass is not processes and when I reload this it will not be for super precision. I only have about 200 projectiles at this point.

Projectiles for the .308. I have 1200 168smk
1000 180gn SMK
200 175gn Berger ballistic tip

powder 8 lbs of Varget
1lb of benchmark

I know I need to fine tune the load to my rifle. I'm ready to get started.

 

[918v]

Unless u have a custom short chamber you'll never touch the lands with mag length ammo. AR chambers have long freebores and bullets jump a long way.

If you're using standard dies you'll have enough neck tension to prevent unwanted bullet movement while cycling.

 

[padom]

Unless u have a custom short chamber you'll never touch the lands with mag length ammo. AR chambers have long freebores and bullets jump a long way.

If you're using standard dies you'll have enough neck tension to prevent unwanted bullet movement while cycling.

This is not exactly 100% correct. If your using PMAGs or DPMS metal factory mags you wont be touching the lands with mag length ammo. Those of us that run KAC or Larue mags can seat bullets to touch the lands or be off the lands whatever we want and not with "custom short chambers."

 

[918v]

Which 308 AR chambers allow the bullet to touch the lands at 2.850"?

 

[padom]

I stand corrected, just looked at my distance to lands for my 18" Wilson 1:10 308 gasser. I shoot the 168 ELD-M and 2.90" is distance to lands. My KAC mags all load to 2.871" COAL. While this is not touching the lands, its much closer than a PMAG M118LR which only allows you to load to around 2.82" COAL. While 175smk like to jump, a lot of other bullets tighten up as you load them closer to the lands.

 

[padom]

I stand corrected, just looked at my distance to lands for my 18" Wilson 1:10 308 gasser. I shoot the 168 ELD-M and 2.90" is distance to lands. My KAC mags all load to 2.871" COAL. While this is not touching the lands, its much closer than a PMAG M118LR which only allows you to load to around 2.82" COAL. While 175smk like to jump, a lot of other bullets tighten up as you load them closer to the lands.

This becomes even more crucial when running 6.5cm in a gasser. I load my 6.5cm loads in the 2.83-2.85 range which again is not possible with PMAGS but no problem with KAC or Larue mags.

 

[Beneviolence]

In my brief experiences with reloading, the variability of the case volume of your mixed headstamp 308 brass (and likely neck thickness -> neck tension) will have more of an effect than not having an optimal jump to the lands, barring any high sensitivity of the specific projectile. You may consider measuring the bullet length and runout before loading it, then chamber it with dropping the BCG release then gently exctracting and remeasuring to see any effects. My AR-10 beat the poop out of the brass and I suspect it wasn't gentle on the bullet during feeding either.

 

[padom]

Using mixed headstamp brass is your first issue...

 

[eli polite]

I'm well aware of the mixed brass issue. It's all been devided up and separated. The 1000 rounds of new brass is My starting point it's all devided into lots as well

 

[eli polite]

My first loads let me know if anything looks crazy

168gr SMK with 45gr of Varget and federal magnum primers

and

175gr Barnes with 43.5gr Varget and federal magnum primer

 

[eli polite]

Here here are a few photos

 

[FLIGHT762]

My first loads let me know if anything looks crazy

168gr SMK with 45gr of Varget and federal magnum primers

and

175gr Barnes with 43.5gr Varget and federal magnum primer

Why are you using a Federal (Magnum) 215 primer? That's a pretty hot primer. Why don't you use the 210 or 210M.

 

[bobke]

Your loads appear to be near the top of range-not necessarily an ideal starting point. General advice is to work up to upper range of scale, rather than start at top down. Google Dan Newberry for OCW and then work on optimal length to lands, which is a process. Padom has posted yards of his load data work ups for various rifles and calibers. Some pretty solid loading methodology is right here on Hide. The more variables you can isolate, the more reliable your results.

 

[BangBangBlatBlat]

My experience with Semi-Auto 308s is that 42 grains of Varget/RL15/H4895/IMR 4895 seated at magazine length with Sierra 175s or 168s is almost always a good load.

 

[eli polite]

I'll give them a shot in the next few days.
I'll see if I can find better primers

 

[christopher.dow]

45gn Varget/168 SMK is the best load I've run through my gas 308. It's one grain under the Fluffy the Cat load from the Sniper Forums (I believe Fluffy worked the load up for a bolt). I seat to 2.800 COAL.

I know you're planning on loading a LOT of rounds, but I'd recommend working up a number of loads and testing them, then going for volume with what your gun likes.


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[christopher.dow]

45gn Varget/168 SMK is the best load I've run through my gas 308. It's one grain under the Fluffy the Cat load from the Sniper Forums (I believe Fluffy worked the load up for a bolt). I seat to 2.800 COAL.

I know you're planning on loading a LOT of rounds, but I'd recommend working up a number of loads and testing them, then going for volume with what your gun likes.


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Also, I use CCI 200 primers


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[eli polite]

45gn Varget/168 SMK is the best load I've run through my gas 308. It's one grain under the Fluffy the Cat load from the Sniper Forums (I believe Fluffy worked the load up for a bolt). I seat to 2.800 COAL.

I know you're planning on loading a LOT of rounds, but I'd recommend working up a number of loads and testing them, then going for volume with what your gun likes.


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Not necessarly going for volume. I don't think I will be loading more that 100rounds at a time once I work up the best load

 

[DrewC]

To the OP. How / what / why did you get to the point of using that powder charge and OAL? Did you do a proper load development finding your charge weight, then work on seating depth? Sounds like you're new to all this and that's cool but damn.. you're gonna get nowhere, use a ton of components and frustrate yourself to no end. Don't use them magnum primers and get a chrono. It's a must have for reloaders. Don't just load rounds using charges other people have posted. Do a proper work up for your rifle. You can get some really bad info and screw yourself.

 

[eli polite]

To the OP. How / what / why did you get to the point of using that powder charge and OAL? Did you do a proper load development finding your charge weight, then work on seating depth? Sounds like you're new to all this and that's cool but damn.. you're gonna get nowhere, use a ton of components and frustrate yourself to no end. Don't use them magnum primers and get a chrono. It's a must have for reloaders. Don't just load rounds using charges other people have posted. Do a proper work up for your rifle. You can get some really bad info and screw yourself.

I got got ahold of 3 -1000 count boxes of 210 match primes

2 -1000 count boxes of 150 pistol primers

I have also been looking at chronograph for the last 3 days. I am new and I have loaded a total of 16 rifle rounds. I have loaded plenty of hand gun rounds. I know that doesn't count it's not the same.

 

[918v]

What brass are you using?

 

[eli polite]

What brass are you using?

Horniday

 

[Beneviolence]

Since you're full length sizing the brass, you don't need to worry about fire formed brass for your chamber. If it's super easy to get to the range, I would load 3 cartridges per 0.3gr in the low-max published range and find out what your pressure ranges are, then for the next range trip, load brackets of 0.3gr spacing between low to the increment below signs of pressure (5 cartridges per bracket). Next outing, work in 0.1gr increments (5 rounds per bracket) between the brackets that showed the most consistent groupings (in precision and velocity). After that, next outing you can mess with seating depth. Start at mag length and start bringing it back in 0.010" increments; watch for signs of pressure (primers, extraction, ejection direction) while doing this.

As other said, use consistent and appropriate primers for the cartridge. My experience with projectiles has been that the polymer tip bullets beyond 165gr are too long to seat at mag length with an appreciable amount of powder. You can get the best BC and velocity combination with the polymer tipped 165 or regular 175SMK's with regular mag lengths. Otherwise you start compressing the powder to the point that it pushes the bullet back out, at least that was my experience with IMR4064, Varget may be a higher density.

Edit: and no, I cannot properly grammar or punctuate.

 

[918v]

Horniday

And this is the new Hornady stuff you
loaded up or the 1x fired?

 

[eli polite]

And this is the new Hornady stuff you
loaded up or the 1x fired?

ill be a bit more specific on every thing.

All of the once fired stuff will be for the second upper upper I am currently working on. I have the barrel and upper reciever at this point. that upper is not going to be a precision upper the current upper that I have is my "precision" upper. The barrel and reciever have been trued up by my smith it has an 18" 1x11 twist polygonal Riffling. This is what I am currently working a load up for. I have pulled a bag of NEW brass for this purpose 100 rounds of new horniday empty brass.

I now have 3 different projectiles to try
168gr SMK 1200 bullets same lot
180gr SMK 1000 bullets same lot
175gr Barnes 500 bullets now

witch ever on works best for my precision upper is what I will stick with for that obviously. The remainder will go to the second upper i currently have 3 AR-15s none of witch are precision rifles. I wanted an upper for my AR-10 that was also not a precision upper that's why I have the excess of other components.

For the precision upper I doubt I will load more than 100 rounds at a time for it once I have worked up a load

 

[eli polite]

This is the rifle

 

[Ncwg2boatguy]

My experience with Semi-Auto 308s is that 42 grains of Varget/RL15/H4895/IMR 4895 seated at magazine length with Sierra 175s or 168s is almost always a good load.

Don't forget 4064. Doesn't meter for crap but performs excellent.