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Posted: 5/27/2014 9:14:19 AM EDT
Hey guys, I was working up a load and while i got what my rifle likes now, how do you guys determine what you use for plinking loads? Do you use the minimum powder charge, medium? cheap primers? Just interested because i was thinking of using the middle charge for plinking with either XBR or 335. Thanks in advance
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The vast majority of the cost per round is in the bullet. Changing powder charges or primer types barely changes cost. So for me, a plinking load means a cheap bullet. Either pulled milsurp bullets (hard to find now,) or cast bullets (since I got into casting.)
My AR plinking load is a pulled milsurp 55gr. from www.hi-techammo.com and 25gr of H335. |
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To me a plinking load simply indicates I did not process the brass to perfect specifications and did not hand weigh every charge.
Plinking load: Brass is trimmed with possum hollow trimmer and loaded on LNL AP with powder charger Accuracy load: Brass is trimmed with Wilson trimmer, pp uniformed/deburred, sorted by mass, etc. Load is hand weighed. Bullet is sorted by weight. Accuracy is all about consistency. If you have everything exactly the same, you should have pretty good accuracy even if you have not optimized the charge weight. Do that and you can get exceptional accuracy. I still work up a load for my "plinking rounds," so they are still pretty dang accurate. I can have "plinking" and "accuracy" ammo with the same bullet, so that isn't necessarily the single factor for me. |
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My plinking ammo - Hornady 55 gr SP's, 55 gr FMJBT's or 55gr x-treme FMJBT's over H322, H335 or CFE 223 at proper charge weights... I like to use CCi no 41 or 400 primers
I can get the Hornady for about .10 ea and the x-treme's at about .09 ea 1000 rds cost me... Not including brass Batch Cost =$150.73 Batch Cost per Round =$0.151 Batch Cost per 20 Rounds =$3.01 Batch Cost per 50 Rounds =$7.54 Batch Cost per 100 Rounds =$15.07 |
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If you're talking AR-15 specific, I load 55 gr FMJs at what ever velocity they seem to shoot most accurately in most of my AR-15s, and that's generally in the 3100-3200 fps range in a 20" barrel.
My preference is Hornady 55 gr FMJs as they tend to be more accurate and consistent, and retain velocity a bit better due to a better BC than most others. But I'll also use what ever bulk 55 gr FMJ I can find, especially now. I use BLC-2 as my standard powder and either CCI or Winchester primers, depending on availability. I'll also use H335 or Surplus WC844 or WC846 if I come across it. ---- For other larger cartridges, my plinking loads can start to look a little different than their full power counterparts. For example I shoot cast bullets in my .375 Win at .38-55 velocities around 1250 fps, which compares to about 2200 fps for the full power jacketed round. Those loads use a light charge of Unique, which is inexpensive and produces accurate and safe loads in a large case with a lot of airspace. Same with.30-30 and cast or plated bullets where I'll hold the velocity down a bit to the 1800-2000 fps range and sometimes use a pistol powder like Unique, or Red Dot for even slower loads. |
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