300BlkTalk

Should be ejecting case about 15 ft. If neck is dinged, under gassed. Neck could hit front of port. Over gassed, may hit deflector and dent neck.you are getting close to overload for 168 gr.

Get the small tire tool and lever against the upper forward mount lug. It will come out. If the nose is too large it might jam and increase pressure or a deep seated bulet. May have just blown the base off and jammed, no damage to the upper.

A small cycle tire tool will get the bolt open. Never used #9 but seating depth will change pressure. Ar case head is not fully supported. IMHO your flat nose vs pointy nose and seating depth is problem.

Takes about 20% tin.

Try hornady 100 gr half jacket and 4-5 gr fast pistol powder. Or any 30 cal 100gr PB lead. Anything lighter will seat too short. Hot melt glue bullets are generally accurate to 25m but will do damage. ~150gr mould and large glue gun. Oil the mould first, fill, wait until hard. Shake cast with a few ...

Drop only depends on BC and fps. Put into anybody's ballistic calculator. Get drop and energy at whatever distance.

Smoke's from CBA is good. I run full fps from AR10 PCd, no problem. CBA has a section for coatings starting back 8-9 yrs ago. Best I've seen is MOA @ 350yds 338 cast full jacketed fps. So yes it works.

BruceB soft point method. Pour soft in the nose and follow with harder. Works fine. HP & AR don't always work together. Cup point and soft or BB initiator work OK. Most of the heavies have SP so you'd lose a lot of weight making HP. I just use FP and 50/50.

Lilting burns hot. HiTek cooking results in AC hardness. Need to quench after cooking. You need 3% Sb for what you are trying.

I run a 170 RD type PB in my pistol from 850 to 1400 fps. 31-172iirc. Use 2400 or cfe pistol powder. Lancer mag. Haven't tried the 185gr GC yet. Both are for PC.