I'd try 11.0 gr of A1680 and work back for the subs. Those loads are too slow. The supers I'd work up 5rds at a time at .2 gr and observing the cases for flattened primers and other signs of overpressure.
Shot placement is a key fundamental which most tired people tend to sleep on, and dark earth is still the new pink. Save the DI's VIVA LA Colt!
I'd try 11.0 gr of A1680 and work back for the subs. Those loads are too slow. The supers I'd work up 5rds at a time at .2 gr and observing the cases for flattened primers and other signs of overpressure.
I've worked up to 12.8 with the 220s and 11.4 with the 225s. Most accurate loads were 10.4, 11.6, and 12.8 with the 220s, so I chose 10.4 to test today since I knew it would be subsonic. Didn't realize just how subsonic it was. Fun to shoot though, recoil is nothing.
21.2 is my max (and most accurate) load with the 125 TNT. It's a lightly compressed load, Quickload used to show it at 55K psi, now showing it at 58K. Don't think there's any more oomph to be gotten with 1680 and those small bullets, just not enough powder capacity. As much as I hate to do it, I may go back to H110 to see what kind of velocities that gets.
JohnInNH wrote:ES is Dismal . 121FPS!!!! geesh trash can load.
1680 is NOT a good powder for the 125 gr .. try Lilgun or 296/H110
If you throw out the first shot the ES is only 40. First subsonic after shooting supers, in a barrel that hasn't been fired in a year, or cleaned in the past 600 rounds, maybe there was something going on there.
110 Sierra Varminter
CCI 450 primer
18.5 Grains H110
147 M80 pulls
CCI 450 primer
16.5 H110
125 Sierra OTM
CCI 450 primer
16.5 H110 (very accurate at this node)
As always, start 10% lower and work up.
Thanks,
Mike
Bolt/Semi auto?
Barrel length?
Gas system?
Case length?
Case annealed?
Crimp?
COAL of the finished cartridge?
Velocity (if you are able to chrono)?
Function - feeding, lock open on empty mag?
Accuracy - if you are able to shoot any distance?
Appreciate you posting your data, but it'd be really useful if you post the full details. I wouldn't really know what to expect if I loaded what you posted.
When I go to bed a law abiding citizen and wake a felon, by the stroke of the legislative pen, tyranny has arrived.
Post complete and accurate info when inquiring about loads, or be ignored.
JohnInNH wrote:Note the Extreme Spread. With your annealed loads was the ES any lower?
ES was almost cut in half, next chrony session I'll shoot a larger control group for a GOOD comparison.
Ahhhh. I think this is the Achilles heel of the BLK. It is very unforgiving as a hand loading round. Factory ammo may be much more consistent, but when hand loading the bullet pull seems to really effect the ES, making it unforgiving.
I now anneal my brass each reloading making the bullet pull more even. I have never run into a round that is so temperamental as the blk. But in all practicality since it is mostly a <200 yard round it makes little difference.
The more I reload it and the more i shoot it, the more I realize the BLK's limitations, and benefits. It's no 6.5 MPC. The BLK is by far a better subsonic round. I shoot a lot of subs. So the blk works for me. However if I was hunting with supers I would go 6.5 MPC for sure. I reload only so the MPC not having factory ammo is meaningless. The flatter shooting higher energy of the 6.5 MPC makes it an obvious choice over the BLK if and only if subsonic shooting i not on your menu.
But I shoot a lot of .30, so the BLK gets a lot of press time. If you are not shooting subs, then you might benefit looking into the 6.5 MPC. I shoot a lot of subs so the BLB is a better choice for me.
Lil Gun sure seems to be a good powder for the BLK!
JIN, what is "the bullet pull"?
When I go to bed a law abiding citizen and wake a felon, by the stroke of the legislative pen, tyranny has arrived.
Post complete and accurate info when inquiring about loads, or be ignored.
Bullet pull = the energy to release/move the bullet from the neck when firing
Neck tension is another probably more proper term
Not to be confused with "Pulled bullets" which I use often.
When seating the bullets i can feel a huge variation in pressure to seat.
Brass hardness variations
dimensional changes brass and or bullets
Crimp variation
I had to go to the extent of sizing my rem factory primed brass (w/o the decapping pin), to help uniform the neck tension. This helped a lot. I also should set up my trim to length station as the brass length was also all over. When seating bullets with a crimp groove I could easily see this problem. OAL was correct but due to variations in the brass length the groove was not matching evenly.
My 308 does not seem as effected by these variations. Match prepping will give better groups, but even normal variations in the 308 still give me sub MOA and ES of 15 not 50 or more.
The worst ES I see is light bullets with A1680, 1680 being the best for cycling, but worst for ES. RL-7 looks promicing but my loads are not cycling reliably in my subs with my M16, but were better with my AR. A1680 runs both.
Long distance, the next best thing to being there!
JohnInNH wrote:Bullet pull = the energy to release/move the bullet from the neck when firing
Neck tension is another probably more proper term
Not to be confused with "Pulled bullets" which I use often.
When seating the bullets i can feel a huge variation in pressure to seat.
Brass hardness variations
dimensional changes brass and or bullets
Crimp variation
I had to go to the extent of sizing my rem factory primed brass (w/o the decapping pin), to help uniform the neck tension. This helped a lot. I also should set up my trim to length station as the brass length was also all over. When seating bullets with a crimp groove I could easily see this problem. OAL was correct but due to variations in the brass length the groove was not matching evenly.
My 308 does not seem as effected by these variations. Match prepping will give better groups, but even normal variations in the 308 still give me sub MOA and ES of 15 not 50 or more.
The worst ES I see is light bullets with A1680, 1680 being the best for cycling, but worst for ES. RL-7 looks promicing but my loads are not cycling reliably in my subs with my M16, but were better with my AR. A1680 runs both.
Thanks
When I go to bed a law abiding citizen and wake a felon, by the stroke of the legislative pen, tyranny has arrived.
Post complete and accurate info when inquiring about loads, or be ignored.
While at the range I narrowed it down to two test loads today. 8.8g and 8.9g of A5744 behind the Hornady A-Max 208g. Used my own cut and trimmed LC brass with Fed. Gold Cup primers. AOL 2.230" with a medium tapered crimp. Both are subsonic and cycle my YH Upper with a 16" Novesky gas carbine barrel with the YH Phantom 7.62.
Not sure of the fps, don't have a working chrono. but I can tell they are subsonic.
Now I need to get bipond on and sandbag rest and see which is more accurate at 100 yards.
Shot some sierra 110 hp's last weekend, loaded 18.7 gr h110 and 19.5 gr h110
The 19.5 was kind hot, but it grouped really well. I decided to stick with that. No idea on pressure or velocity. The smaller load did not group well.
Also shot nosler 125 gr bt's at 18.5 gr h110. I like these, think they will be my hunting load this fall.
Curious about subsonic. I loaded some 208 amax's with 11.2, 11.4, 11.6, and 11.8 gr of RL7. I couldn't tell if any of them went supersonic because I was at the range along with a hundred other people. I was going to run with 11.4 or 11.6. I don't have a chrony and don't want these running too slow. Does this sound reasonable?
Lake city once fired brass courtesy of the classifieds and Remington 7 1/2 primers...