22BR and the Berger 90's?

[flatlander]

Bradley,
I agree - I used mostly LC with headstamps from 94 to 00 in my AR15 service & match rifles for years, and compared it to R-P, WW, IMI, & some Lapua 223 with Dakota headstamp out to 600, and even out to 1000yds later on in bolt rifles. Given the same prep & sorting criteria, I'm quite certain that LC 5.56 is fully as good as, if not better than, any of the commercial stuff I've had. The caseheads are sure tougher than the stuff that R-P put out in that time period.

I did some neck turning on some of the LC & WW brass I used for 600-1000yd loads, and found that I could leave the cutter set the same for both brands when taking a light clean-up cut. That setting resulted in about the same amount of brass shaved off necks of either brand.

Only thing I'm not sure about is whether the quality of LC is the same since WW lost the contract to operate Lake City. Anyone have an opinion on that?

 

[JASmith]

Some companies are more aggressive about cutting production costs at the expense of quality.

I don't know if it applies here, however.

 

[FroggyOne2]

From the source I have, Federal had to step up their QA @ the LC plant, they way out of spec from lot to lot on the brass and were about to lose the contract to run the plant. General Dynamics is breathing down Federal's neck purdy hard!

 

[FroggyOne2]

Ok, today I had some 22BR dies arrive. So I was able to make a possible dummy round to do some pondering on.
Using Gold box Lapua BR brass the neck dia after seating the bullet was .252, knowing that I have a Blue box pc of brass and the nexk measured .002 less in dia than the Gold box, I figure that the load round would be at .250. So as it stands right now, that the grip on the bullet is about .002 total. I seated the bullet down to where the base of the bulleet is about half way down in the shoulder. This allowed the bearing surface of the bullet to way away from the donut area of the neck. This willl be goood if 2000MR responds the same way as it did in my 223. Meaning that it wanted more neck tension in order for the load to work.
When the bbl comes in and I have it chambered, I believe I will start load development with 2000MR, RL17 and H4350 in that order. I also plan on using moly'd bullets instead of dry bullets. This is my thinking rright now.

 

[Gadget]

Hi Froggy
I posted my load a bit earlier on, I cannot emphasize enough how very little Nk tention I use, it's so soft I can pull the pills out of the case if I want to.
I play silly buggers when we have new guy's come to shoot, I bring the rounds with the pills upside down, then turn them over before chambering ( its the ultimate soft seat )
I only use BVLD's moly'd to do this, it sound's strange but try 5 rounds very soft seated long and you might just like the results.

I also use this soft seat for fire forming .243AI, put a K&N expander in the nk, chuck in the powder and pop on a pill, then let the chamber do the rest, again VLD's only.

Gadget

 

[FroggyOne2]

I forgot to add, that it looks like I will be using a base to ogive seating depth of 1.810. I normally use a thou of tension and soft seat. But it may require more than that looking how it has acted with the 223. 2000MR that is.