170 grain Lapua lockbase loads

[telshe49]

Hi to you all
This my first post, Has anyone out there any good loads for this hard to get lapua bullet. l have tried several loads mainly with VV n140 at around 45.5 grs with moderate success at 900/1000 yds. Also do you that have shot these get the odd flyer. My rifle s a AI AE Mk111 1in12 barrel. Yours thoughts on this would be most appreciated.
Regards Telshe49

 

[KevinThomas]

A little clarification on the caliber would be helpful here. We can assume, but that's never a good thing in this field.

 

[telshe49]

Hi Kevin
oops l totally forgot to put that information in. It is a 308 win cartridge. :-[

Regards Telshe49

 

[Laurie]

I had good results with this bullet in an SGC SSR-10 straight-pull AR10 (Krieger 1-10"). Lapua brass, PMC LR primer, 44gn Viht N150 for 2,662 fps MV. PMC primers (Russian Murat manufacture) are no longer available in the UK - shame! - but CCI-200 or Fed210M will do nicely for you in the AI. The old, long superseded Lapua Shooting & Reloading Manual 2nd edition gives a maximum charge weight of 44.7gn N150 in 308W with this bullet and 47.5gn for its double-base high energy N550 version.

You can use widely available load data for the 168gn Sierra MK and similar as there isn't a lot of difference in the pressures they generate. The old Lapua B476 Lock-Base is a bit more finicky than the MatchKing though in my experience.

If you plan on shooting the AI competitively beyond 500 yards, I'd recommend you look at the Berger 175 and 185gn Long-Range BT bullets (Hannams Reloading or Norman Clark) which are expensive, but perform very well and which are far superior ballistically to the Lapua or its 167 and 185gn Scenar stablemates, or any of the 168gn match bullets from Hornady, Sierra and Speer, so you get a lot less wind drift. The AIs have a reputation for 'long' chambers, unsurprising as they have to perform with run of the mill 7.62 ball ammo if needed in their military role, so you need to be careful in how you size your cases. Either neck size or if full-length sizing, ensure you don't push the case shoulders back too much.

 

[Will]

Never could get the lockbase to match the re-bated BT 170's. In fact the last batch of 170s rBT I bought from some one had the lockbase included. I was shooting them in a GAP 700 24" Schneider5P & my T2K w/30" barrel. The T2K shoots the rBT fairly well ( most of the issues is ME!!) all the way to 1K but they were originally designed for 300 mtr. (?) I have an OLD Lapua load sheet and I followed it almost correctly except That I 1st moly'd then went to hBN coating. ALL of my current loads are above book/list & I'd prefer not to post. IF you are going to 1K frequently then I'd suggest either 185 Lapua or Berger or 178 AMAX.