I have been posting in the reloading forum and looking for help in improving the accuracy of my AR in 223, built with a Krieger 1/9 26" barrel. At best, I can get around 1" groups (five shot at least), but never consistently better. Would like to see groups in the 3/8 range, shooting with a match Geissele trigger, 8-32 scope, and off a heavy rest with rear sandbag.
Have really beat on the reload aspect, new Lapua brass, CCI BR primers, Sierra 69MK bullets. Brass were FL resized, opened with a mandrel, neck turned, resized, trimmed and chamfered, and then loaded. Neck tension is 0.003. TIR ranges around 0.002-0.003 at the ogive, using Redding competition seating die. Best SD I have seen so far is around 19 (ten shots), using Varget.
Perhaps Varget is too slow a powder for the 69's- my rifle seems to like AA2520, TAC, and H335 better, but even then, it is hard to consistently get better than around 3/4 inch consistently.
Running out of ideas on improving accuracy, but still think the rifle is capable of much more. It tends to shoot much tighter groups with lighter bullets, like match bullets in the 55grain range, and I have not tried any of the heavier bullets, like the Hornady or Bergers at around 77 gr.
Still, would like to find a good combination using the Sierra 69MK bullets, if possible.
Any other ideas or things I might be missing?
Have really beat on the reload aspect, new Lapua brass, CCI BR primers, Sierra 69MK bullets. Brass were FL resized, opened with a mandrel, neck turned, resized, trimmed and chamfered, and then loaded. Neck tension is 0.003. TIR ranges around 0.002-0.003 at the ogive, using Redding competition seating die. Best SD I have seen so far is around 19 (ten shots), using Varget.
Perhaps Varget is too slow a powder for the 69's- my rifle seems to like AA2520, TAC, and H335 better, but even then, it is hard to consistently get better than around 3/4 inch consistently.
Running out of ideas on improving accuracy, but still think the rifle is capable of much more. It tends to shoot much tighter groups with lighter bullets, like match bullets in the 55grain range, and I have not tried any of the heavier bullets, like the Hornady or Bergers at around 77 gr.
Still, would like to find a good combination using the Sierra 69MK bullets, if possible.
Any other ideas or things I might be missing?