300BlkTalk

Hi, newbie here so please excuse any dumb ideas, I've hit a brick wall with reloading 300blk & need some help.
This is for a 12.5" barreled NEA-15 manually operated AR (UK spec) so no gas system.
I tried 125gr Sierra tmk's with 17gr of Hodgdon lilgun as I was told the 1-8" twist would stabilise both lightweight supers or heavy subs, but I was lucky to hit the floor with them, in desperation I bought some magtech 200gr subs just for something to shoot & they were cheap.
Miles better at 300yds so I bought the closest bullets I could to reload, 190gr ppu match, there's not alot of load data for 190gr that I can find, mostly 180 & 200/220.
I don't really want a powder just for this calibre, RS Swiss & Viht are prohibitively expensive over here (£85/lb) so I'd prefer to use something I already use for other cals like Reloader 7 or lilgun, does anyone here reload with either powder & similar bullet weights for subsonic loads?
Any help much appreciated.

its a bit heavier bullet but might give you someplace to start?

viewtopic.php?f=141&t=81566&start=20#p857785

Barndoor wrote: ↑Thu Jan 16, 2020 5:46 pm I was lucky to hit the floor with them

Explain, please. Were these something you reloaded or purchased? Details on the round. Just how bad were they? Do you use a suppressor?

I have never seen a 125 TMK shoot poorly. Something ain't right.

They were home loads, I started at 17gr & went up in 0.2gr increments to 18.6, at that point it becomes a compressed charge apparently & I've no experience with that so I stopped, all loads shot poorly at 300 and were lucky to group inside the black on a standard 300yd target.
I don't use a suppressor as its just for targets, all rounds were very snappy & recoil was a short, sharp kick, but I've never fired 300blk before so this maybe what it's like.
Like I said, the 200gr magtech were a completely different story, bit of elevation correction & it was holding its own with. 223's & 308's either side off me.
In the UK some powders have been banned due to their high carcinogenic percentage, plus we can't mail order powder either so imi can only get what my local shop stocks, so pretty much Vihtavuori, RS Swiss, Alliant & some Hodgdon.

I have never been happy with the accuracy of Lil’gun, but some people swear by it.

It will be hard to get one powder to perform well with both light and heavy bullets. Powder good for light bullets will develop pressure early with heavy bullets or have low case capacity effecting both velocity and accuracy. Powders good for heavy bullets can be accurate with light bullets, but you lose velocity. If I had to choose just one, I would choose the latter, accuracy over speed.

For light bullets, 150 and under

Hodgdon/Winchester H110/296

Allianz MP 300

Vihtavouri N110

Accurate 11 FS

Bullets over 150 grains

CFE BLK

Reloaded 7

Accurate 1680

Accurate 11FS

Vihtavouri N120

Lovex D063

Let us know which of those might be available to you.

For load data, the Hornady manual is probably the best, it is available as a downloadable version if you can’t get it in print. Then Sierra linked below.

https://sierrabulletsblog.com/2017/12/2 ... load-data/

Hope that’s a help

Judging by factory ammo I think subs is the way to go, I'm not bothered by velocity, odd rather have accuracy.
From those powders listed I can regularly get R7 & Viht N120.

I don't have as much experience with Reloader 7 as N120, but would likely choose N120 for better performance across a large weight and speed of bullets. It will do better with heavier bullets. Here the Vihtavouri powders cost about 50% more, but for $115 per pound I might try match heads . Both will do well at velocities from 1000 fps up to max pressure and loads will be from 10-20 grains.

If you are going to shoot subsonic, or just low velocity supers, there are many other powders you can use. Some pistol powders work very well but there is no published data because they will not cycle the semi-auto's. Some will be in the link below.

viewtopic.php?f=141&t=92768

Blue dot, Bullseye, N105, N320, Unique all of these powders will be less than 10 grains so are economical to shoot, some loads 1000 rounds per pound is possible.

Bang Bang has done a lot of work with some of these other powders. as well as GD and Dolomite_supafly. Since you will be hand cycling some of the bolt action and single shot loads will be helpful to you. You have many choices, we just nee to find the right combination for you.

Thanks for all the info everyone, I use unique too in my 357 & my cat sneeze 45/70 reloads, I think I'll stick with bullets in the 190-220gr range, it's just the powder to sort out.
I don't have to worry about cycling semi autos as in the UK we're not allowed them in centrefire, only 22lr & wmr.

I have a question Barndoor.

Since you can't have semi autos in the UK can you use barrels that still have the gas port drilled into them as long as their plugged or no gas port at all?

TIA

brutis wrote: ↑Sun Jan 19, 2020 10:34 am I have a question Barndoor.

Since you can't have semi autos in the UK can you use barrels that still have the gas port drilled into them as long as their plugged or no gas port at all?

TIA

No, it has to be all UK compliant parts, none of it can ever have been from a semi auto, that also covers pistols too, when they got banned in 1997 people asked what a pistol actually was, the government said anything below 24" in length with a barrel less than 12", lots thought they'd just put a wrist brace & longer barrel on their pistols but as they'd been originally "a pistol" it wasn't allowed.
Dont ever give them an inch or you'll end up like us.