Hand loading a 16" AR-15

[yotehater]

You can also look in the handgun section of the reloading manuals for short barrel loads. They are usually a bit faster powders and give more complete burn and less muzzle flash. My favorite is H322 in 16" and 10.5". CFE223 is a slow powder in the .223. The copper erasing advantage of it is available in the new IMR 4166 .

 

[Rsadams]

thanks mr.big
I have some bulk stuff in case of emergency. My reason for hand loading is I am going to do some G-hog and coyote hunting with it so I thought i'd try and work up a decent accurate load with good speed and try a bullet or two and see what worked. So what I am saying to you is 26.0 gr of RL15 cci BR4 behind that 73 gr ELD M bullet was 2,720 FPS form that 16" barrel. I caught all my brass and my brass looks clean and not dented up bad. heads look good ect. and the group was coming in say it was 1" and I felt 26.5 might just pull it under a inch at 100 yards. YOU SAY DO NOT do THAT ? ? I mean if it shoots well, cases look good and speed is 2,750 I don't see where it is going to hurt. IS that TOO much to expect from a 16" barrel. As it would seem to me I am not making too much pressure whether it is do to this bullet barrel combo or the short barrel making less pressure.. I also heard the 69 gr ers are great I may try some. I am not sure I want to go to the 77 if I can only push them at 2,400 FPS. what do you think or what do you know.

If I am reading this right I think the concerns are with beating up the rifle... A 16 inch barrel m4 is made as a fighting weapon more than a long distance gun. Don't get me wrong it will reach out there but with a carbine length gas system the gun is already beating itself pretty hard compared to the standered or even a midlength gas system.. Then add a gas port that's to large resulting in an over gassed gun thats commen place these days its really hard on the short carbine length gas systems.

Now you add in some over pressure rounds on top of that and your life expectancy goes down very fast.. Also the pressure signs you look for in the m16 platform are a little different than a bolt gun do to the unlocking and twisting action. You want to see your ejection at about the 4:30 position... There's just to many variables to list but the info is out there..

 

[Richard Coody]

that seems pretty hot for an AR15,,I cant attach my magnetospeed to my AR`s and dont know the speeds but from how much the 65 SGK drops at 300 yards it is pretty slow but shoots very good groups and functions 100%,,I use 24.5 Varget with the 65s and 23.0 H322 with the 55s,,,
if I need to drive a 70-75 at max speeds I would grab one of my bolt rifles,,

HOT!!!!

with an AR15 the barrel throat can be so different it is crazy. Is it 5.56 or wilde or .223 or something in between all of them.

Most of those stock ARs have a 5.56 throat. If you have one of those you can hot up your loads without worrying too much. Hard to find 5.56 reloading data in the reloading manuals. Most is .223 which is conservative in a 5.56. Pretty much like most.reloading let the rifle tell you

If you have a .223 AR it will be much more accurate than the 5.56 but you better stick with the more conservative .223 load data.

 

[Frankr]

Thanks for the info guys...I now have a 20" DMR barrel and a adjustable gas block just need to put it together.
Hopefully by next weekend. Ah 20" is a handgun length barrel for me..I understand room to room to 100 yards maybe the 16" ers are great but not my purpose and when my cross hairs contact I expect a hit.. So I opt for the longer barrel and 20" seems short to me. But I don't want a 10LBS AR hell I might as well go AR 10 if its going to be 10LBS..I not sure how much it will weigh but around 8.5 is my guess maybe less. I will weigh it. I did not shoot them loads going to pull the buller's and stay in the book..Hope to see some speed from this 20". But thanks for the info I put it together upstairs and seen the danger in what I was doing.

 

[Richard Coody]

Thanks for the info guys...I now have a 20" DMR barrel and a adjustable gas block just need to put it together.
Hopefully by next weekend. Ah 20" is a handgun length barrel for me..I understand room to room to 100 yards maybe the 16" ers are great but not my purpose and when my cross hairs contact I expect a hit.. So I opt for the longer barrel and 20" seems short to me. But I don't want a 10LBS AR hell I might as well go AR 10 if its going to be 10LBS..I not sure how much it will weigh but around 8.5 is my guess maybe less. I will weigh it. I did not shoot them loads going to pull the buller's and stay in the book..Hope to see some speed from this 20". But thanks for the info I put it together upstairs and seen the danger in what I was doing.

Might get 8.5# without optics. Be glad you didn't go hbar.

 

[Frankr]

Might get 8.5# without optics. Be glad you didn't go hbar.

Well scoped and a five round loaded mag weighed in at 9 1/4 lb. Heavy but I will live with it. I shot it some and with Black Hills reman 69gr SMK it shot 1/2" groups at 100 yards easy...several...like four groups 1/2" to just a little under.
So if I want to try and duplicate this load..69gr SMK...What brass would you buy,? Primer ? what powder would you use ? ... They say the reman is LC brass...but yea it just pounds the black hills in a hole...cheep 3-9 power scope and factory 6+ pound gritty factory trigger. I think more glass and a good trigger and it just has a car buttstock so it does not ride a bag good. But yea 20" SDM barrel adj gas block. free float tube. and other than that factory Bushmaster. going to add trigger here soon. But I am going to take it out and wack a few G hogs. But load info would be helpful.
Thanks.. hell I could load a few hundred far cheaper than you can buy BH ammo

 

[Richard Coody]

Consistent half inch groups out of that rifle is exceptional. Great shooting!

69 gr match kings were my go to bullet.

You will get lots of opinions on brass. LC brass has a good reputation but requires a lot of prep. Lapua is expensive but you eliminate the prep. When you divide the price by 10 or so reloads its a no brainer to me.

CCI BR4s for me. Thicker cup for AR and great consistency

Powders? Bunches work. Try some and see what your rifle likes. A little reading will give you lots of choices. 25.5 to 25.7 gr of CFE223 gave me good velocities and accuracy. Exceptional accuracy at a little over 26 gr. but it gave the brass hell.

A little pricey but put a Geissele SSA-E trigger in there and you will love it.

Personally i prefer the A2 stock over a carbine especially for accuracy work.

 

[RCC1]

My go to AR load is a 75gr Hornady BTHP in a LC case with 25.5 grains of CFE 223. It works well in everything from my SBR's to my longer barreled precision rifles.

 

[Frankr]

Ok thanks I have CFE223 powder. I shot some loads I had loaded of it with a 73 gr ELD M I think they were 26.0gr and it did not like them at all. But it liked that 69 SMK and what ever Black Hills loads...I shot a few 55gr Steel match HP and they were not terrible useable...I was going to try a few more others but shooting and cleaning ect then back and shoot some of them BH 69gr'ers hell I had six of them in a 1/2 group firing fast..So I will order some 69 SMK's and try some CFE223 loads but I had fired a few loads of RL15 in the other barrel that shot well. So I don't know what all powders work well in a AR I like the accuracy but also want some velocity. the BH 69gr 'ers lit threw the chrony at 2,620 to 2,690 I do expect the barrel to pick up 100 FPS after I get it broke in good. The 73 gr ELD M's lit threw at 2,790 with the 26.0 of CFE 223.. I only have only put about 50 rounds threw this barrel shooting and cleaning.. But first firing I shot one and could not see it. so I walked up came back made a scope adjustment. clicked the gas block and shot another one it hit the bull. clicked the gas block, shot another one and it looked in the same hole, clicked the gas block and shot another one and it looked right there with them. bolt was locked back. So then I cleaned..And I had to walk up to look at them three they measure by BR standards .293 So I said looks like we have a good Barrel...So shooting and cleaning some but did not follow the one and clean plan.

 

[ericbc7]

What brand of barrel is that 20"?

 

[hunter243sgk]

With the 69g smks i got my best results with h4895. Cant remember the velocity right now but i got it wrote down. (somewhere). This is my most accurate load with my 16" RRA home built gun.

 

[Ironworker]

26grs of TAC behind any 55gr bullet is sweet in my AR-15

 

[TheOtherZilla]

Since most of the time it is just spray and pray I use a variety of powders and bullets.. But 65 Sierra's are the usual fare with TAC..

 

[Knotwild]

5.56 Chamber, 55 grain Nosler Varmegeddon, Federal AR Match primers, Benchmark loaded a little hot for .223 loads. 16" PSA stainless 1/9 barrel. I actually had to shorten COAL to arrive at the final group.

 

[Frankr]

I'll come clean It is a AR Stoner SDM-R 20" barrel ...Man does it shoot. Factory bushmaster other than the barrel and free float tube..I need a trigger and riser blocks so I can get a 20 power scope on it to really test it. Just has a redfield 3-9 tac on it..good clear optic. But at 100 yards it has consistently been under 1/2 " groups if I can do my part. the white target is Black Hills reman 69 SMK. The green target is 5 shots rapid fire of my load. LC brass,CCI BR4, 26.0 gr Varget 69 smk at mag length. At 200 yards due to I cant really see well enough with the 9 power I just hold on a 1" dot and pound the trigger than walk and see what I did and it's been around 2 1/2 " at 200 doing that..I think it's as accurate as factory bolt varmint rifle.