service rifle load

[Liven The Dream]

R-15 24-24.5 Rem . Brass 205m Primers .
1-7.7 Kreiger Wyle Chamber .020 off
Always worked well ?
I am running a White Oak 24” Optical barrel 1-8 with S062 24.1 with 75 Hornady and 80 Nosler .
This cleans a 600 F-Class Target ? 75’s at 485 yards 80’s at 600
No Velocity to report now ?
This load grouped best at 200 yards ?

 

[Laurie]

that's a little frightening actually, lol. Maybe I don't want to be laying down next to these guys.

Mag length rounds with 69s and 77s can see some heavy charge compression without incurring high pressures if using extruded powders. Like @milanuk mentions I eventually did a Redding Competition seater not a lot of good with these loads not having noticed Redding's small print that these dies are unsuitable for compressed loads.

This was in a UK-legal manual (side handles straight-pull) AR-15 with a Wylde chamber and 24-inch barrel not shot in SR type disciplines. As this was years ago, results weren't chronographed, BUT believe me straight-pulls make excellent alfresco chamber pressure gauges. Once into the (QuickLOAD calculated) low 50,000s psi, you easily feel the resulting harder extraction when you pull on the handle with each 0.2gn charge weight increment. All of my standloads extracted very sweetly. Conversely UK (Radway Green) L2A2 5.56mm standard NATO military ball was a swine to extract, not that I shot much of it.

@Bamban 's 80gn SMK over mag length load was my usual single-loaded recipe - 23.5 - 24.0gn VarGet and Re15 in Winchester brass - very mild with sweet extraction. This was my F-Class rifle and load in the discipline's first couple of years with 2-MOA 5-ring standard UK NRA targets and predating F/TR introduction. I did well at short/mid ranges with it, a highlight being winning F-Class in a regional 'Open' 300/500/600 yard stages competition against people with custom F rifles, and I also shot it a few times in 800-1,000 yard matches to the amazement of many club members who had trouble believing the 223 would reach that far never mind keep the shots on the paper. My match results and placings hardly sparkled at these distances but this perversion gave great personal satisfaction. If pressures were modest, MVs must have been too as bullets were subsonic at the targets at these distances and I had to yell to have the target pulled every third or fourth shot the strike having been missed by the butts crew.

 

[Laurie]

that's a little frightening actually, lol. Maybe I don't want to be laying down next to these guys.

Mag length rounds with 69s and 77s can see some heavy charge compression without incurring high pressures if using extruded powders. Like @milanuk mentions I eventually did a Redding Competition seater not a lot of good with these loads not having noticed Redding's small print that these dies are unsuitable for compressed loads.

This was in a UK-legal manual (side handles straight-pull) AR-15 with a Wylde chamber and 24-inch barrel not shot in SR type disciplines. As this was years ago, results weren't chronographed, BUT believe me straight-pulls make excellent alfresco chamber pressure gauges. Once into the (QuickLOAD calculated) low 50,000s psi, you easily feel the resulting harder extraction when you pull on the handle with each 0.2gn charge weight increment. All of my standloads extracted very sweetly. Conversely UK (Radway Green) L2A2 5.56mm standard NATO military ball was a swine to extract, not that I shot much of it.

@Bamban 's 80gn SMK over mag length load was my usual single-loaded recipe - 23.5 - 24.0gn VarGet and Re15 in Winchester brass - very mild with sweet extraction. This was my F-Class rifle and load in the discipline's first couple of years with 2-MOA 5-ring standard UK NRA targets and predating F/TR introduction. I did well at short/mid ranges with it, a highlight being winning F-Class in a regional 'Open' 300/500/600 yard stages competition against people with custom F rifles, and I also shot it a few times in 800-1,000 yard matches to the amazement of many club members who had trouble believing the 223 would reach that far never mind keep the shots on the paper. My match results and placings hardly sparkled at these distances but it gave great personal satisfaction. If pressures were modest, MVs must have been too as bullets were subsonic at the targets at these distances and I had to yell to have the target pulled every third or fourth shot the strike having been missed by the butts crew.

 

[nbkky71]

AR-Comp. You want AR-Comp.

I've been using AR-Comp for years and love it. Current shooting 22.3gr under a Hornady ELD-M 80gr, CCI450 in LC brass, .030 off the lands. Velocity is around 2720 fps.

 

[Bamban]

Mag length rounds with 69s and 77s can see some heavy charge compression without incurring high pressures if using extruded powders. Like @milanuk mentions I eventually did a Redding Competition seater not a lot of good with these loads not having noticed Redding's small print that these dies are unsuitable for compressed loads.

This was in a UK-legal manual (side handles straight-pull) AR-15 with a Wylde chamber and 24-inch barrel not shot in SR type disciplines. As this was years ago, results weren't chronographed, BUT believe me straight-pulls make excellent alfresco chamber pressure gauges. Once into the (QuickLOAD calculated) low 50,000s psi, you easily feel the resulting harder extraction when you pull on the handle with each 0.2gn charge weight increment. All of my standloads extracted very sweetly. Conversely UK (Radway Green) L2A2 5.56mm standard NATO military ball was a swine to extract, not that I shot much of it.

@Bamban 's 80gn SMK over mag length load was my usual single-loaded recipe - 23.5 - 24.0gn VarGet and Re15 in Winchester brass - very mild with sweet extraction. This was my F-Class rifle and load in the discipline's first couple of years with 2-MOA 5-ring standard UK NRA targets and predating F/TR introduction. I did well at short/mid ranges with it, a highlight being winning F-Class in a regional 'Open' 300/500/600 yard stages competition against people with custom F rifles, and I also shot it a few times in 800-1,000 yard matches to the amazement of many club members who had trouble believing the 223 would reach that far never mind keep the shots on the paper. My match results and placings hardly sparkled at these distances but it gave great personal satisfaction. If pressures were modest, MVs must have been too as bullets were subsonic at the targets at these distances and I had to yell to have the target pulled every third or fourth shot the strike having been missed by the butts crew.

Laurie,

When I switched to molied 80 Berger VLDs and over the book load of N540, it was a game changer. Brass killer load, I just shot new brass once and tossed them. Bill Wylde, the creator of the Wylde reamer chambered my ARs back in the 90s from his stash of Obermeyer barrels. After I distinguished, he built a 28 inch match rifle for me. Shooting the same load I shot through the SR, the additional 8 inches gave me enough velocity to go over 3000 fps I shot that 223 across the Palma course at Camp Bullis in San Antonio, and did ok with the hot load. I did not mind discarding new brass after one firing, I had 10K of them at that time.

The highlight shooting the 223 was in 1997 Championship Iron Sight 1000 yards. The 223 shot against magnums, Palma guns, and other match rifles and the little cartridge took the wood.

 

[Hohn]

There's a reason some SR shooters started using Forster BR seaters, back when... because the stem on Redding Comp dies would eventually split under the repeated force of seating compressed loads of Varget, RE15 and H4895.

The stem on the Forster will split too. At least for the micrometer Forster. Its very thin wall.

 

[Laurie]

The highlight shooting the 223 was in 1997 Championship Iron Sight 1000 yards. The 223 shot against magnums, Palma guns, and other match rifles and the little cartridge took the wood.

Well done - that was quite something! Having got the 223 bug with my AR, I later was 7th F/TR in the UK national GB F-Class League in either 2011 or 2012 shooting a custom Savage PTA based 223 bolt-gun. The seven annual fixtures have one mid-range weekend and all others are shot with four or more stages varying from 800 to 1,200 yards, but predominately 1,000 yard stages. That used 90gn VLDs at 2,910 fps in a 31-inch barrel. So 223 can hack it at these distances, but unlike in the US I was almost alone here in using it at this competition level.

It had its downsides 8 years ago at 1,000, but wouldn't come near competing against today's 308 rifles and loads. (Nor could I against today's competitors sadly!) Sic gloria transit mundi.