Yes, all of those are 31.8 of Benchmark. I did drop a bushing after the 3 shot group. I'm jamming a bit and I think the bullet moved but who knows? I need a bushing that I don't have with this lot of brass and after a few firings, I've lost a bit of neck tension. It was very light before dropping down and then it was very heavy.
22 ARC Begins
- Thread starter Cfshooter
- Start date
Oh, I did come in one mark on the tuner after the first group showed vertical. Top left group. I'll work on that too. I don't think I'm at the best tuner setting but not bad.
Cfshooter
Silver $$ Contributor
I don’t anneal usually for gas guns and I did after the 4th firing on the batch I have been using since I need to see how much I can get out of this brass, now I’m worried about the neck tension. The only good thing is that if it doesn’t shoot as good, it shoots good with a crimp too.
I was right on the edge of being too light already, I think. Should have ordered bushings but though I likely had one within a thou. No dice...that I've found.
Oh, I was wrong on estimated speed too. It was 31.8 so I'll work it up further. Felt pretty mild with no pressure signs. Might get to 3800 plus but not there yet. I'll chrono again next time.
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Update.
Received the Starline brass. I annealed, ran expander and trimmed all 500 in the Henderson trimmer. Lost (3) to the god of annealing for analysis.
I tried using a 6.5 Grendel neck die to neck down with a 0.263” bushing but it just crushed the neck. Another one bites the dust. Then I figured what the heck and screwed in the 22 arc Hornady full length die and bingo! Success. I did lose another when I forgot to lube the neck.
Without neck turning the loaded cases would not drop in a case gauge, they measured about 0.253”.
Decided to turn the necks before sizing. Basically just a 80-95% cleanup yielded 0.250” loaded necks. Perfect fit in the case gauge, snug but free. Decided to do (70) to start.
Reamed the primer pockets and the flash holes. One hour in the tumbler and loaded up some test rounds for tomorrow.
Will report back the results.
Received the Starline brass. I annealed, ran expander and trimmed all 500 in the Henderson trimmer. Lost (3) to the god of annealing for analysis.
I tried using a 6.5 Grendel neck die to neck down with a 0.263” bushing but it just crushed the neck. Another one bites the dust. Then I figured what the heck and screwed in the 22 arc Hornady full length die and bingo! Success. I did lose another when I forgot to lube the neck.
Without neck turning the loaded cases would not drop in a case gauge, they measured about 0.253”.
Decided to turn the necks before sizing. Basically just a 80-95% cleanup yielded 0.250” loaded necks. Perfect fit in the case gauge, snug but free. Decided to do (70) to start.
Reamed the primer pockets and the flash holes. One hour in the tumbler and loaded up some test rounds for tomorrow.
Will report back the results.
Attachments
FWIW, I've not lost a single case going from 6.5 Lapua brass to 22 ARC in a Whidden bushing die. I did start doing them in two steps after several(about 100) but only because the runout is a little better that way. I did not anneal.
I have some lapua brass that I used in a 6 arc but was concerned a little about blowing it back out 0.030” so I opted for the Starline. It’s a prs gun so I will be losing brass in the grass so 50 cents a piece is better that $1+ for the lapua. Hope the Starline shoots well, we will see.
Ok, more results. Please remember these powder/charges are in a bolt gun.
Shot at 200M. Barrel has sped up some. 95gn SMK’s, 205m primers, Starline brass.
27.2gn of N150 was a bit hot (2 primers fell out and 3-4 pieces had burs). Going to back it down and try some different seating depths.
29.2gn of H4350 didn’t show any signs of pressure but the es and sd were a little high for my liking. Going to try some different primers, maybe 205MAR and 7-1/2’s.
N150 brass
H4350 brass
Shot at 200M. Barrel has sped up some. 95gn SMK’s, 205m primers, Starline brass.
27.2gn of N150 was a bit hot (2 primers fell out and 3-4 pieces had burs). Going to back it down and try some different seating depths.
29.2gn of H4350 didn’t show any signs of pressure but the es and sd were a little high for my liking. Going to try some different primers, maybe 205MAR and 7-1/2’s.
N150 brass
H4350 brass
Cfshooter
Silver $$ Contributor
She is hammering! No issues with brass being hard to extract? What barrel again?
Got to the bench and started to check out the fired brass. The N150 brass is toast. 80% of them failed a no go primer pocket gauge. Will definitely dropping down half a grain on the N150.
The H4350 cases were gtg. Fired neck was 0.253”. Fired cbts was 0.005” longer. All the pockets were fine.
Barrel is a shillen.
Drawing a blank here. What's cbts?
If your CBTS grew 0.005", maybe size a little longer.
Cartridge base to shoulder.
Ok, I thought that was Datum. But thanks for the clarity.
There are clearly some "leakers" besides the ones that came out. I'd be curious how the same load worked in Lapua brass. Probably not smart without backing both down a bit and also, to chrono both so it's apples to apples.
Cfshooter
Silver $$ Contributor
Some great info, slap some RL15.5 under them
Coming, want to finish with N150 and H4350 first.
Datum is probably a better way of saying it. I used a Hornady gauge with the #350 insert.
Cbts is just an annotation I use in my records.
Today’s update. Primer test. The wheels came off of the cart. :/
Tested 205MAR, Win #41, Rem 7-1/2 and CCI #450 with 29.0gn of H4350
Every group today was the worst to date. All the velocities were all over the place. Total dumpster fire.
No signs of pressure, guess that is a plus.
Will try again with the H4350 and 205M but think I will use a neck expander to lighten the neck tension some.
Also going to lower the charge of N150 down 1 grain and try a seating depth test.
Tested 205MAR, Win #41, Rem 7-1/2 and CCI #450 with 29.0gn of H4350
Every group today was the worst to date. All the velocities were all over the place. Total dumpster fire.
No signs of pressure, guess that is a plus.
Will try again with the H4350 and 205M but think I will use a neck expander to lighten the neck tension some.
Also going to lower the charge of N150 down 1 grain and try a seating depth test.
Have you seen my recent results with IMR-3031 and H4198 in my 22 PPC? It really likes it. Your results say to me that it doesn’t like the powder. Do you have any faster powder to try?
Edit: I had trouble getting consistent results with the 95 SMK. I would describe it as mercurial - teasing me just often enough with tiny groups to make me think it was worth continuing to work with.
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