Posted: 3/10/2015 6:39:54 PM EDT
| Using a Factory Remington 700 with 20" 1:10 barrel. Since the twist can handle the heavier bullets I wanted to try shooting the heaviest A-Max which had load data in the Hornady manual. The manual only had 4 loads listed, none of which I can recall at the moment. I ended up using a loading from the Hodgdon website calling for 38.8gr (max) of H4895 and a COL of 2.820. I'm not really interested in loading any longer than my magazine will hold. I've made 40 rounds (8 groups of 5 rounds) starting at 35.6gr and moving up in .5gr increments until max. Gonna go to the range and see what happens. I have 3 other powders I'd be interested in testing too: R-17, IMR 4895, and IMR 4064. |
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Here's some data from the old Hide
http://forum.snipershide.info/showthread.php?t=24338 |
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Thanks for the link. I've been cruising the internet the last couple of days for info on this load. I have found a lot of stuff but not that one yet. It seems like people are having pretty good results with the R-17. I had already loaded the rounds with the H4895 last week so I'm committed to trying this first, but I picked up a pound of R-17 today so I'll be trying that really soon too. It also looks like people are loading pretty long with that bullet (longer than mag length), so I wanted to try with the recommended COL of 2.820.
Anyway... I was setting up my stuff at the range when I noticed one of my 20rd Berry's cases opened up in my bag spilling half the rounds all over the place D: total bummer. Those F'ing cases are useless. I had bought a 50 round Berry's case with the little snap lid because I saw the potential for the 20rd ones to shit the bed, but hadn't switched my loads over because I didn't want to put 40 rounds in a 50 round case. Crazy right. Well I paid the price: wasted time, wasted gas, etc. Since I had no idea what loads were what I decided to weigh every cartridge and interpolate where the loose cartridges should go. Even though I went through the process scientifically, I don't have a lot of confidence in everything being placed back correctly. BTW those harbor freight digital scales you see in the picture are total junk (I bought mine to weight out my morning coffee). So I will try going back tomorrow getting the muzzle velocity data and try correlating it back to the charge weights. I'll probably have to redo this experiment though. Depending on how tomorrow goes, I might move on to the R-17 |
| That sucks dumping your ammo box. I use a permanent marker and mark each case when I work up loads. Sucks taking apart rounds when shit like this happens. BTW, all pocket scale are junk. I learned the hard way using a RCBS POS pocket scale. I now use a gem pro 250 that weighs to 100th of a grain. Worth the money. |
| Been there done that on the loose rounds. I bought a 10 pack of sharpies in different colors. I color the bullets of each group a different color. Not only does it make it easy to recover from a spill but the ink rubs off on the holes in the paper so you don't have to be quite so careful remembering which group was which. |
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Well I didn't learn much from this past outing at the range. I shot terrible groups and my muzzle velocities were all over the place. The most accurate loads were the two lowest (35.6 and 36.2 grains of H4895) and up near the max (38.8gn) the recoil was heavy, the groups opened up a lot, the muzzle velocity inexplicably dropped off, and primers were looking a little flat. Running the most accurate muzzle velocity (2137 ft/s) through JBM gives a mach 1 distance at 1150 yards @ 578 foot pounds of force.
35.6gn Avg: 2137 SD: 88 ES: 208 36.2gn Avg: 2188 SD: 10 ES: 19 36.8gn Avg: 2213 SD: 30 ES: 60 37.3gn Avg: 2300 SD: 118 ES: 214 37.8gn Avg 2270 SD: 128 ES: 250 38.3gn Avg: 2411 SD: 34 ES: 67 38.8gn Avg: 2262 SD: 86 ES: 155 |
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looks like you need to go lighter on the projectile if your best groups are at 2100fps.
I also recommend the gempro 250 scale as someone has posted above. I can't imagine reloading without it. I haven't used my ohaus 10-10-10 since I got it. thanks for the write up as I am also interested in loading heavier for my 24" barrel. I will probably use a 190 smk after seeing your resulting velocities. I think that with the 210 gr. projectile that you'd want to be in the 2300fps minimum ballpark. |
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Quoted:
looks like you need to go lighter on the projectile if your best groups are at 2100fps. I also recommend the gempro 250 scale as someone has posted above. I can't imagine reloading without it. I haven't used my ohaus 10-10-10 since I got it. thanks for the write up as I am also interested in loading heavier for my 24" barrel. I will probably use a 190 smk after seeing your resulting velocities. I think that with the 210 gr. projectile that you'd want to be in the 2300fps minimum ballpark. Yeah, pretty crummy performance. I'm shooting out of a 20" so you might be able to squeeze a few more fps out of it. I'm thinking about coming down to a 178gr A-max, I've calculated (JBM again) that I need to launch it at about 2550 fps to get it out to 1150 yards, although at slightly less energy 500 foot pounds vs 578 with the 208gr A-Max. I'm still determined to see if I can use these bullets loaded to mag length. I'll probably start looking into reloader17 |
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Quoted:
Yeah, pretty crummy performance. I'm shooting out of a 20" so you might be able to squeeze a few more fps out of it. I'm thinking about coming down to a 178gr A-max, I've calculated (JBM again) that I need to launch it at about 2550 fps to get it out to 1150 yards, although at slightly less energy 500 foot pounds vs 578 with the 208gr A-Max. I'm still determined to see if I can use these bullets loaded to mag length. I'll probably start looking into reloader17 Quoted:
Quoted:
looks like you need to go lighter on the projectile if your best groups are at 2100fps. I also recommend the gempro 250 scale as someone has posted above. I can't imagine reloading without it. I haven't used my ohaus 10-10-10 since I got it. thanks for the write up as I am also interested in loading heavier for my 24" barrel. I will probably use a 190 smk after seeing your resulting velocities. I think that with the 210 gr. projectile that you'd want to be in the 2300fps minimum ballpark. Yeah, pretty crummy performance. I'm shooting out of a 20" so you might be able to squeeze a few more fps out of it. I'm thinking about coming down to a 178gr A-max, I've calculated (JBM again) that I need to launch it at about 2550 fps to get it out to 1150 yards, although at slightly less energy 500 foot pounds vs 578 with the 208gr A-Max. I'm still determined to see if I can use these bullets loaded to mag length. I'll probably start looking into reloader17 175smk's are my go-to 308 bullet. 42.5gr imr-4064 is getting me 2640fps and tight groups. |
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Quoted:
Before you go lighter, try RL-17. I've seen 4-5 different 700's with 1:10 all shoot lights out with 208's and RL-17. Usually around 42-43gr. They're slow, but they just keep going, and buck the wind well. They shoot great out to 1,000. Quoted:
Before you go lighter, try RL-17. I've seen 4-5 different 700's with 1:10 all shoot lights out with 208's and RL-17. Usually around 42-43gr. They're slow, but they just keep going, and buck the wind well. They shoot great out to 1,000. Yeah, but how far out are they seated? My throat is very long and while I can seat them super far out I don't want to single load. My max overall length for mag feeding is about 2.8ish. 42-43 grains seems like a lot of powder when 38.8 grains is already compressed. 38.8 grains gave quite a kick and my primers were beginning to flatten. I understand r17 is more dense so I'm willing to try some loads with it. I know velocity isn't everything; even at 2100 fps its still super sonic at 1000 yards. I feel this is new territory though considering I haven't seen anyone claiming to be loading for the shorter COL of 2.8 inches. Quoted:
175smk's are my go-to 308 bullet. 42.5gr imr-4064 is getting me 2640fps and tight groups. Additionally, I see people loading the bullets touching the lands which I read is something that secant ogive bullets like the Amax are very sensitive to. I'm beginning to consider switching to the 175 SMK because of that too. What imitation crab said sounds nice; I'm getting 1210 yards from those numbers! |
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Quoted:
Additionally, I see people loading the bullets touching the lands which I read is something that secant ogive bullets like the Amax are very sensitive to. I'm beginning to consider switching to the 175 SMK because of that too. What imitation crab said sounds nice; I'm getting 1210 yards from those numbers! Quoted:
Quoted:
175smk's are my go-to 308 bullet. 42.5gr imr-4064 is getting me 2640fps and tight groups. Additionally, I see people loading the bullets touching the lands which I read is something that secant ogive bullets like the Amax are very sensitive to. I'm beginning to consider switching to the 175 SMK because of that too. What imitation crab said sounds nice; I'm getting 1210 yards from those numbers! Tangent ogives like that on the smk's are very tolerant to jump. I load mine to 2.800 COL and get great results. My load was to clone the performance of FGMM 175smk factory load and it worked out great. The federal factory load shot so well in my gun that I didn't need to improve on it so much as just making it more affordable to shoot by reloading. My 2640fps average was a 10 shot average during 85 degree weather at around 300' MSL. I recently chronoed this load again at 41 degrees and lost a few fps but so did the factory fgmm. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 175smk-42.5gr_IMR4064, Shots:,10 Min,2604, Max,2632 Avg,2619 ,S-D, 9.2 ES , 28 Series,Shot,Speed 22, 1, 2604, ft/s 22, 2, 2621, ft/s 22, 3, 2630, ft/s 22, 4, 2611, ft/s 22, 5, 2609, ft/s 22, 6, 2632, ft/s 22, 7, 2626, ft/s 22, 8, 2624, ft/s 22, 9, 2622, ft/s 22,10, 2616, ft/s ----,----,----,---- 175smk-FGMM_factory, Shots:,10 Min,2608, Max,2649 Avg,2623 ,S-D,11.7 ES , 41 Series,Shot,Speed 23, 1, 2608, ft/s 23, 2, 2614, ft/s 23, 3, 2635, ft/s 23, 4, 2620, ft/s 23, 5, 2615, ft/s 23, 6, 2626, ft/s 23, 7, 2649, ft/s 23, 8, 2617, ft/s 23, 9, 2626, ft/s 23,10, 2625, ft/s ----,----,----,---- |
| Loading mag length that is probably the best you will get. With my 20" 700 I get 2340fps out of 230gr bergers but that is at 3.225"OAL and 2500fps out of 210gr bergers and those are at 3.100". At mag length I could probably get almost 2400fps with the 210s which is still supersonic past 1100yds. I use W748. |
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I have never gotten into the heavy bullets in .308. For a know distance match where you don't really care about more rainbow like trajectory and only worrying about wind they will do better with their slower speeds as long as you get the accuracy. Also if you has a slightly longer barrel you might get some more out of them.
I like a more flatter trajectory from a 178 BTHP. Still a good BC at .530 but get around 2700fps out of a 20" barrel with them. |
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Quoted: Yeah, but how far out are they seated? My throat is very long and while I can seat them super far out I don't want to single load. My max overall length for mag feeding is about 2.8ish. 42-43 grains seems like a lot of powder when 38.8 grains is already compressed. 38.8 grains gave quite a kick and my primers were beginning to flatten. I understand r17 is more dense so I'm willing to try some loads with it. I know velocity isn't everything; even at 2100 fps its still super sonic at 1000 yards. I feel this is new territory though considering I haven't seen anyone claiming to be loading for the shorter COL of 2.8 inches. Additionally, I see people loading the bullets touching the lands which I read is something that secant ogive bullets like the Amax are very sensitive to. I'm beginning to consider switching to the 175 SMK because of that too. What imitation crab said sounds nice; I'm getting 1210 yards from those numbers! Quoted: Quoted: Before you go lighter, try RL-17. I've seen 4-5 different 700's with 1:10 all shoot lights out with 208's and RL-17. Usually around 42-43gr. They're slow, but they just keep going, and buck the wind well. They shoot great out to 1,000. Yeah, but how far out are they seated? My throat is very long and while I can seat them super far out I don't want to single load. My max overall length for mag feeding is about 2.8ish. 42-43 grains seems like a lot of powder when 38.8 grains is already compressed. 38.8 grains gave quite a kick and my primers were beginning to flatten. I understand r17 is more dense so I'm willing to try some loads with it. I know velocity isn't everything; even at 2100 fps its still super sonic at 1000 yards. I feel this is new territory though considering I haven't seen anyone claiming to be loading for the shorter COL of 2.8 inches. Quoted: 175smk's are my go-to 308 bullet. 42.5gr imr-4064 is getting me 2640fps and tight groups. Additionally, I see people loading the bullets touching the lands which I read is something that secant ogive bullets like the Amax are very sensitive to. I'm beginning to consider switching to the 175 SMK because of that too. What imitation crab said sounds nice; I'm getting 1210 yards from those numbers!  I forgot we were using modified AICS mags with the front steel insert plate removed to give us a little extra length. It's been a couple years. I forget what the OAL was. As far as case capacity, I don't recall it getting crunchy until over 43 gr. |
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on these 208. are your guys varying your OAL to increase accuracy? Lately I've been using some Bergers VLD for for win mag. Varying the OAL until the group tightens. Haven't done that yet for my 308. Berger VLDs give me some room to play, but I'm wondering what to do with a 308. Normally, I've been using 2.80.
My best groups are with the 175 gr SMK using 4064, right at 42 grains. |