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Posted: 9/6/2016 10:37:46 PM EDT
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I spent all day finishing up my .223 load development for the Hornady 68g and 75g HPBT match bullets. I live in the country and can readily test shoot.
I use a 20", 1:8, Wylde barrel as my test mule, as most AR data I see uses a 20" barrel. All loads are chrono'd. I used the initial 5-round per load regimen. After that, however, it got a little less clear between a couple of loads for the 68g and 75g HPBT match bullets. I spent nearly all day shooting and going back in the house to reload a few more rounds just to be sure. On those close ones I erred on the side of the faster. I'm guessing how many additional rounds one has to use depends on the consistency of the shooter and the conditions. Something I found interesting...and maybe not that interesting to those who've done this more...was that every .223 gun I fired today with my final loads from the 20-incher were excellent in 4 of my other guns ranging from 1:7, 1:8, and 1:9 twist. The 1:9 twist was a Steyr AUG, and I was surprised how well it did with the heavier bullets. I have nine 5.56/.223 weapons. I really don't want to have to grind through load development in the numbers normally necessary on every single gun. I think I'm finding that I may not have to. I never had this many same caliber weapons that I've reloaded for that I'm really making an effort to optimize the ammo...at least within reason Those of you in the same boat, what have you found to be the case as far as having to develop a load for every same caliber gun? In that 20" mule rifle I even had two of the bullets go through nearly the same hole and the other three within 7/8 of an inch. I went to 50 yards on the following guns because they're red dot optics that I wouldn't trust my precision shooting at 100. The Steyr AUG 16" shot right at an inch, but 3 were touching. A cheap barreled 10.5" AR pistol went 1.5". A 16" Tavor went 1.25". For a crazy finish, a Kel-Tec 5.56 PLR16 did 1.25" with a 9.2" barrel...with a cheap Bushnell TRS-25 red dot. Now...these 4 described guns are not precision shooters, but they never shot this good with off-the-shelf ammo. The AR pistol and PLR16 were frankly downright bad...5-6 inches at 50 yards under the best conditions with XM193 off of a rest. I'm thinking I can call all 5 of these guns good-to-go with these loads. I do have an 18" AR and two 16" AR's that I will probably spend some more time on to see how they fare. I know any improvement is good, but on the 4 red dot, non-precision weapons here, I'm pretty happy at this point. I know the norm is usually every gun likes its own ammo, but outside the realm of long range and precision shooting, do most of y'all find it necessary to pursue that kind of effort for every gun? I definitely want my 20" and 18" rifles to be more precision, and I will continue to push out at distance to see what works best. |
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My results seem to match yours. I've worked up loads in an AR with a premium barrel and these same loads shoot extremely well in 1/7 through 1/9 with 16" and 20" barrels. Also it seems my top loads are nearly the same
as others best loads. Nice when you can find a load that works well in several rifles as trying to work up loads for every different rifle would be a nightmare trying to keep loads separate and organized. |
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