First range session with new AAC barrelled blackout.

[KneverKnew]

Finished my new build the other day and finally got around to testing the first loads.



Build consists of:
Aero Precision Upper and Lower.
AAC 300 Blackout Light weight profile, Carbine gas system, 1:7 twist, 16" barrel.
AAC 51T Blackout Flash Hider.
Daniels Defense Butt stock, Pistol Grip.
MI SS Gen2 15" rail.
Nikon P-300 BLK 2x7x42 scope with Burris QD PEPR mount (borrowed from my son's 300 BLK.)
Colt 5 round hunting magazine.
Troy front and rear BUIS (to be zeroed once best load is determined.)

All shots were fired from a bench at 50 yards. Every other group or so I sprayed bore out with BreakFree Powder Blast and then ran a bore snake through it twice. This cleaned the barrel a bit and helped it cool down some. I did tend to notice a first round flyer after each of these cleanings. The best groups in these photos are typically shot while barrel is still warm and fouled from previous groups. No chronographing today. Just function, accuracy and pressure sign testing.
Primers are CCI 41's. Cases are reloaded Remington nickle 300 Blackout cases.

Sierra 110 grain HP varminter.
17.5 grains Lil-Gun.
These were some old bullets I had just sitting around, so loaded them up for fun.
First 4 where about three inches low, discounting the flyer. Adjusted scope up for the top three in the diamond. Not bad for first go. Plenty of room for improvement. No pressure signs. Last round failed to feed completely from magazine. See note below.

Only things I noticed with these, an most of the other starting loads in the test, was sooty cases. I assume this is just indicative of too low a pressure. Higher loadings didn't seem as bad. Also, This particular charge (17.5 grains LG) seemed to fail to feed the last round in magazine. The round gets stripped from mag and makes it half way to chamber, but gets pinned by bolt. Does this sound familiar to anyone? Suggestions on a remedy? Maybe my rifle just needs to break in a bit more, because this did not happen in my sons 300 blackout with Wilson barrel. His rifle fed and fired the last round in the mag just fine.

Sierra 125 grain Match King.
16.7, 17.0, and 17.2 grains Lil-Gun
No pressure signs on any of these, so will work up slightly higher.



I liked this one! Probably will call this one good. Still need to test at 100 yards though. No pressure signs at all. Nice rounded primers.

And then the big money...

Barnes 110 grain TAC-TX (Blacktips)
18.0, 18.5, 19.0, 19.2, and 19.5 grains Lil-Gun.
Again, no pressure signs that I can tell, even at 19.5 grains. Primers still have nice radiused edges. Will continue to work up a little higher.





19.2 looks real good. Still need to Chrony these, try some slightly higher loadings, and then try at 100 yards.
My main goal with these blacktips is to simply duplicate the Barnes factory 110 Blacktip velocities for my hunting loads. That "should" be around 2350 fps. If anyone has reached that velocity safely with the 110 blacktips, please fill me in.

[plant.one]

nice shooting


just out of curiosity can you give me a length measurement of the projectile itself and the oal of those 125 smk loads you did?

[bman940]

Very nice shooting. My Blackout rifle's love the 125 gr. NBT out of all length barrel's,10.5-16 inches.
Nice range report.

[randyrucker]

Looking good.

[RDA]

19.2 looks real good. Still need to Chrony these, try some slightly higher loadings, and then try at 100 yards.
My main goal with these blacktips is to simply duplicate the Barnes factory 110 Blacktip velocities for my hunting loads. That "should" be around 1350 fps. If anyone has reached that velocity safely with the 110 blacktips, please fill me in.

1,350 fps with 19.2 Lil Gun and Barnes 110 blacktips? Don't think so, you should be north of 2,000 fps I believe. Factory loads use ~19.2 or 19.3 of H110 AFAIK and run around 2,200 fps out of my 9" AAC barrel.

Thanks for sharing your results.

[KneverKnew]

19.2 looks real good. Still need to Chrony these, try some slightly higher loadings, and then try at 100 yards.
My main goal with these blacktips is to simply duplicate the Barnes factory 110 Blacktip velocities for my hunting loads. That "should" be around 1350 fps. If anyone has reached that velocity safely with the 110 blacktips, please fill me in.

1,350 fps with 19.2 Lil Gun and Barnes 110 blacktips? Don't think so, you should be north of 2,000 fps I believe. Factory loads use ~19.2 or 19.3 of H110 AFAIK and run around 2,200 fps out of my 9" AAC barrel.

Thanks for sharing your results.

RDA,
You are correct. I just caught my mistake and have already edited my OP. I mistakenly said that Barnes Factory 110 Blacktips have a velocity of 1350 fps. I meant to say, 2350 fps, as printed on the side of their ammo box. I'm sure they tested with a 16" barrel, which is what my son and I have. I've also verified this velocity in my son's blackout with the chrony. I will also be interested to see if there are any velocity/ accuracy differences between my barrel and my sons. My AAC barrel is 1:7 twist and his Wilson stainless is 1:8. Both are 16".

[KneverKnew]

19.2 looks real good. Still need to Chrony these, try some slightly higher loadings, and then try at 100 yards.
My main goal with these blacktips is to simply duplicate the Barnes factory 110 Blacktip velocities for my hunting loads. That "should" be around 1350 fps. If anyone has reached that velocity safely with the 110 blacktips, please fill me in.

1,350 fps with 19.2 Lil Gun and Barnes 110 blacktips? Don't think so, you should be north of 2,000 fps I believe. Factory loads use ~19.2 or 19.3 of H110 AFAIK and run around 2,200 fps out of my 9" AAC barrel.

Thanks for sharing your results.

RDA, are you saying you know for sure that Barnes uses H110 in their factory 110 blacktip loads? That is interesting. I not only have a good bit of H110, but also have some milsurp WC820 which is supposed to be close to it. I've tested some of the WC820 with some 147grain pulls and it did okay, but I got started on the high dollar bullets and haven't messed with it any more. I will delve back into it though becasue I have a big jug of it and it would be great for FMJ loads or even hunt loads if it turns out it works well. It is supposed to be about 13% faster than H110 so I will have to reduce accordingly.

[RDA]

19.2 looks real good. Still need to Chrony these, try some slightly higher loadings, and then try at 100 yards.
My main goal with these blacktips is to simply duplicate the Barnes factory 110 Blacktip velocities for my hunting loads. That "should" be around 1350 fps. If anyone has reached that velocity safely with the 110 blacktips, please fill me in.

1,350 fps with 19.2 Lil Gun and Barnes 110 blacktips? Don't think so, you should be north of 2,000 fps I believe. Factory loads use ~19.2 or 19.3 of H110 AFAIK and run around 2,200 fps out of my 9" AAC barrel.

Thanks for sharing your results.

RDA, are you saying you know for sure that Barnes uses H110 in their factory 110 blacktip loads? That is interesting. I not only have a good bit of H110, but also have some milsurp WC820 which is supposed to be close to it. I've tested some of the WC820 with some 147grain pulls and it did okay, but I got started on the high dollar bullets and haven't messed with it any more. I will delve back into it though becasue I have a big jug of it and it would be great for FMJ loads or even hunt loads if it turns out it works well. It is supposed to be about 13% faster than H110 so I will have to reduce accordingly.

No, I never stated I know for sure, that is why I said AFAIK (as far as I know). I disassembled a few factory Barnes 110 Blacktip and found the powder to be in the 19.2g-19.3g range and the powder looked just like the H110 I have. I worked up some loads with the same bullets and same length in some converted LC 300 BLK brass up to 20g. I found that the loads I had in the 19.2g to 19.3g range chronoed the same as the factory loads. So, even if it isn't H110, I found that an equivalent H110 load delivered the same speed as the factory rounds.

I agree that 2,350 was likely from a 16" barrel. 20g of H110 resulted in 2,432 fps on average from a 16" barrel I had. 19.3g of H110 in my 9" AAC barrel resulted in 2,202 fps average (very similar to the factory rounds shot the same day from the same barrel).

Disclaimer: The above is not reloading advice, work up your own loads in your own guys safely.

[Alien]

The Varminter failed to load last round is common. I found that if I used a Lancer L5 AWM mag in 10 or 30 round I did not have the last round fail in my gun. Seems to be my Magpuls follower would set the bullet to far to the left and the last round would hit the left feed ramp and damage the bullet and case in my gun. Too much surface area on the nose of that bullet.

That being said, you can get some really tight groups out of those bad boys. Only bullet I found that would rival the 125 SMK's in group size out of my gun.

[KneverKnew]

The Varminter failed to load last round is common. I found that if I used a Lancer L5 AWM mag in 10 or 30 round I did not have the last round fail in my gun. Seems to be my Magpuls follower would set the bullet to far to the left and the last round would hit the left feed ramp and damage the bullet and case in my gun. Too much surface area on the nose of that bullet.

That being said, you can get some really tight groups out of those bad boys. Only bullet I found that would rival the 125 SMK's in group size out of my gun.

I will have to play with these and some other magazines some more. I did notice they shot pretty tight groups, even with the starting load.