A Little Help for a new AR owner

[johara1]

I'm just getting started with a gas gun and in need a little info. up front. It has 20" 1in 7 Kreiger on it and what i need to know is what cases, bullets and powder. ……jim

 

[jr600yd]

What do you want to do? Competition, high power, 3gun, tactical, plinking?

 

[johara1]

Don't know at this point, but it's a CLE. service rifle. i just want to make shoot small then we will know what we want to do with it….. jim

 

[Jason Boersma]

Jim, a good place to start is with LC brass and 69gr matchkings, I use w748, 25.2gr, a great powder for 223's. Prep the brass like your dasher and it'll shoot great, no need for lapua brass in an ar

 

[cmillard]

I would agree with the LC brass. I personally shoot 77 grain bergers with aa2520 and wolf srm primers.

 

[skiutah02]

My first rifle was a Windham VEX-SS with the CLE chamber, 20 in barrel and 1:8 twist. Experimented with 40-80 grainers and everything in between. Shot 50 gr Vmax with H322 very well in FC case, but settled on 69 gr SMK with Varget (about 25ish grains) in LC case, 75 gr Horn HPBT with IMR8208XBR (23ish grains in LC case), and 77 SMK (also 8208XBR, 23 grish in LC case). These were subMOA loads consistently and used these for mid-range F-class (600 yds) late last summer and had a blast! Have taken them out to 900 yds, but the wind does blow them around. Have fun with your AR. Drew

 

[johara1]

Thanks guys , I have a ton of 8208 and H4895 to try ….. Why don't they use the Lapua cases? I did find some LC. for sale but it has the crimped primer pockets……… jim

 

[Jason Boersma]

Lapua brass would work good but it's expensive to have the rifle just throw it on the ground all the time and get dinged up.

 

[lloydx2]

Nothing wrong with Lapua. With your reloading experience they will last forever.

 

[johara1]

Thanks again, One last thing with the 1 in 7 barrel what would be the the best bullet to start with? and will they work with 8208 or H4895?….. jim

 

[JORTZ]

I have a 1 in 7 twist ar and it loves
Lc brass
Cci br primers or works good with fed 205
24.7 rl 15 or varget
77gr smk
Getting about .5 moa out to 300 yards

 

[wapiti25]

You might look into getting an adjustable gas block so you can get the gun to just extract and gently eject the case. Most AR's are designed to eject with minimum gas, they get real violent with max loads. The adjustable gas block lets you control how much gas it will let thru to cycle the bolt. Check out the one that Wilson Combat makes. IMR 8208 XBR is a good powder with 69 SMK's in my bolt gun with a 1:9 PacNor barrel at 600yds.

 

[25AI260]

my Ar has a 1-7 an older Colt..it'l shoot anything form 52gr up 80 gr... your barrel will tel ya what it likes
with 4895 you'll probably wanna start with 55gr bullets an UP.... AA2230 or 748 work good as well as varget

this may help--- http://accurateshooter.net/Downloads/sierra223ar.pdf

 

[johara1]

I want to thank everybody for there help. I was hoping the 8208 would be good in it because i have 10 lb. and meters super it would sure make life easy……. jim

 

[jonbearman]

Jim,notice the common denominator here with the lake city brass as it works wonderful in any ar. I wouldn't buy lapua brass for a cartridge slinger,especially ar,s.It just isn't necessary.You will get superb accuracy using any military brass as long as it is match prepped.

 

[JORTZ]

Jim,notice the common denominator here with the lake city brass as it works wonderful in any ar. I wouldn't buy lapua brass for a cartridge slinger,especially ar,s.It just isn't necessary.You will get superb accuracy using any military brass as long as it is match prepped.

+1 there heck i use lc brass in my ftr gun.

 

[searcher]

Most guys use Lake City over Lapua as A/R's are tough on brass as compared to a bolt gun - and the brass (even Lapua) is just too beat up after 5 or so loadings for most folks to want to keep reloading, especially if running the 77's, 80's or warm loads in general. I hate reaming primer pockets in the LC brass as there is always a primer that leaks a bit, marking my bolt face. About three years ago, I switched to using the new, unfired LC brass which costs about half or less than Lapua. Those with Remington 7 1/2 or Federal A/R Match primers do nicely. Brassmanbrass,com usually has the brass in stock, but Natchez is cheaper "when" they have it in stock. Best of all worlds.

 

[Scott Harris]

I've used Lapua match brass for years in our ARs. The brass is durable and works great. Lapua made the "match" brass specifically for service rifle shooters. Lake City is popular because it is decent and less expensive.

 

[johara1]

I went with LC. that was cleaned and the primer pockets were done. Ran some H4895 and 77 gr. bullets and it really wants to shoot with the crude set up i'm loading with now but it will get better. I want to try the 8208 xbr in it, my powder measure throws it with in a .1……. jim

 

[searcher]

XBR works well indeed - even with the lighter bullets