Happy with this....Barnes 110 Black Tip

[gomeybear]

Went out today and shot some groups with my new 10.5” PSA upper (with FN barrel) and Barnes 110 Black Tip handloads. Now you guys have badgered me left and right on here and it has paid off finally. JK.... Ive enjoyed the banter and Im sure y’all have printed better groups than this. Was doing a ladder on the new 10.5” upper; started at 18.6 and went up to 20 grains of W296. All were 5 shot groups at 100 yards. No pressure signs whatsoever. Best group printed right under 1” and was 20 grains of W296. Load for my best group was:

LC Brass trimmed to approx 1.355”
COAL - 2.25”
20 Grains of W296
CCI 400 primers

19.6 and 19.8 printed really well too, just over 1”. Photo below so that I can maybe prove Ive passed from beginner to novice

And ok, I may have nudged the caliper to my favor more or less! Ill call it 1”!

[rebel]

What kind of trigger do you have?
What kind of rest are you using? Rear bag? Sled? Bipods?
Edit - which one was cold bore?

[gomeybear]

Im a cheater, I have a SSA-E Geissele trigger in the lower I throw around. Magpul bipod and using my range bag to support rear of pistol brace. Strike Eagle 1-8x on top. Cold bore was 18.6 grains but I loaded up 10 of those to shoot 5 of them on warmer bore.

[rebel]

Not cheating at all.So your barrel was warmed up when you shot the smallest group?

[gomeybear]

Not cheating at all.So your barrel was warmed up when you shot the smallest group?

I would think so, at that point I had about 30 rounds through it.

[dellet]

I know a number of people who are good shooters on the bench that can’t shoot MOA in field conditions. Bipod and a bag is harder than some would think.

That’s a nice start.

[Sig220]

Nice shooting, G'bear!

I knew you would put those blacktips to good use!

[rebel]

Not cheating at all.So your barrel was warmed up when you shot the smallest group?

I would think so, at that point I had about 30 rounds through it.

First of all, that's a solid , honest group for what you are shooting. An AR pistol isn't the easiest thing to rest or handle on the bench. If you were going to hunt with that, I'd say your looking pretty good. My SBR is only a bit better to rest because of the stock. Still hard to set up and shoot tiny because of it's length ( little movements make a big difference).
Sorry for the Bench rest style trouble shooting - it's where I tend to go to help me understand. Vertical tends to be the load, horizontal tends to be gun handling, i.e. rests, booger hook, sometimes neck tension. You have a great trigger and 3 shots wadded up. I bet if you had a better rear rest and load that bipod a bit, you would bring those two right ones right in there. Just thoughts.
Good shooting and good hand loading.
P.S Thank you for not creating a thread where everyone gives advice and find out your groups were at 30 yards in your back yard. Trust me, it has happened.

[gomeybear]

Thanks Gentlemen - every dog has its day.

Curiosity here, I remember you all saying that there are accuracy nodes in rifles, could it be coincidence that 20 grains shot well and anywhere between 19.4 - 20 grains might have yielded the same results, but didn’t this time around? 19.4 shot well too and was maybe a bit closer to 1” than 19.6 and 19.8. Reason why I ask, is Id like to stay a little further away from max charges (Barnes says 20.2 with H110 is max).

[rebel]

Accuracy nodes a generally velocity based so without chrono data, hard to tell. I never spent much time with that bullet as it was impossible to get in the early years.