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You're going to feel
a little pressure...
posted
Hey all-

A question occurred to me while posting in the Long Range Shooting thread. It seems like it would be betrer asked over here:

Those of you that load and shoot "barrel burner" cartridges like 6mm Creedmore and others, do you have a "test mule" rifle that you use to work up loads before finishing dialing them in on your "match rifle"?
Or do you do development on your primary rifle and just get comfortable with barrels being consumables and change them every couple of thousand rounds?

I ask because the window between break in, shooting good, and shot out sounds pretty small.

What's your method, for load development?

Bruce






"The designer of the gun had clearly not been instructed to beat about the bush. 'Make it evil,' he'd been told. 'Make it totally clear that this gun has a right end and a wrong end. Make it totally clear to anyone standing at the wrong end that things are going badly for them. If that means sticking all sort of spikes and prongs and blackened bits all over it then so be it. This is not a gun for hanging over the fireplace or sticking in the umbrella stand, it is a gun for going out and making people miserable with." -Douglas Adams

“It is just as difficult and dangerous to try to free a people that wants to remain servile as it is to try to enslave a people that wants to remain free."
-Niccolo Machiavelli

The trouble with fighting for human freedom is that one spends most of one's time defending scoundrels. For it is against scoundrels that oppressive laws are first aimed, and oppression must be stopped at the beginning if it is to be stopped at all. -Mencken
 
Posts: 4245 | Location: AK-49 | Registered: October 06, 2011Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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I have equipment that makes testing more repeatable and less work, by eliminating me as a variable.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PG13s1bj-jw
 
Posts: 481 | Location: DFW | Registered: May 03, 2006Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Prepared for the Worst, Providing the Best
Picture of 92fstech
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quote:
Originally posted by jmorris:
I have equipment that makes testing more repeatable and less work, by eliminating me as a variable.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PG13s1bj-jw



Ok, that's pretty sweet! Care to share pics and an explanation of your setup?
 
Posts: 8417 | Location: In the Cornfields | Registered: May 25, 2006Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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This is it using a bag at the rear.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ng39ce3Ii_w&t=5s

This is how it was in the 1st video I posted.

 
Posts: 481 | Location: DFW | Registered: May 03, 2006Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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posted Hide Post
quote:
Originally posted by RNshooter:
Those of you that load and shoot "barrel burner" cartridges like 6mm Creedmore and others, do you have a "test mule" rifle that you use to work up loads before finishing dialing them in on your "match rifle"?
Or do you do development on your primary rifle and just get comfortable with barrels being consumables and change them every couple of thousand rounds?

Offgrid will be among the best to discuss this issue. I think he chambered about ten Dasher barrels through Jonathan Elrod, plus others in 6mm through 7mm bores. To the best of my knowledge, offgrid confirms loads on each barrel. However, evidently the 6 Dasher is pretty easy to tune, and Jonathan's chambers are very consistent.

I don't know of people who use a "test mule" barrel. I suspect they burn more rounds on the first barrel getting a load, then the process is quicker on subsequent barrels.

I shoot factory ammo and haven't consumed nearly the number of barrels as others. However, I do have experience with three different Wilson Combat 16" SS AR-15 barrels. Barrels #1 and #3 are fluted, #2 is not. All three are chambered in 5.56. Barrel #1 had a twist rate of 1/9, #2 and #3 had 1/8. Understand that I use factory ammo.

#1 -- Shot best with FGMM 69 and Hornady 55 VMax. Did quite well with various 52 grain HPBT match loads. Didn't care much for Hornady 75 grain match. Liked 40 and 50 grain VMax loads. Sometimes didn't shoot accurately with FGMM 77, but yet the best 5-round 100-yard group I ever obtained (a mere .37") with this barrel was with FGMM 77.

#2 -- Finicky from the start, in part due to installation issues where the gas block touched the rail when the barrel was warm and I loaded the bipod hard. Prefers 68 and 69 grain ammo, pretty much exclusively. Best results from Aussie Outback SMK 69, then FGMM 69, then Hornady 68 BTHP, then Copper Creek SMK 69. OK with VMax bullets, but nothing special. Doesn't really care for any 73-77 grain ammo.

#3 -- More like barrel #1 than #2, but better with heavier bullets. Pretty much likes any match or quality ballistic tip bullet, from 50 to 77 grains. My only 5.56 chambered barrel that likes Hornady 73 ELD-M -- although I need to do more testing at 400+ yards in low winds to better see how it holds vertical at distance. This is a good barrel.

I suspect you need to treat each barrel as its own. Should you choose a chamber with a short life, then load development just needs to proceed more quickly.
 
Posts: 7853 | Location: Colorado | Registered: January 26, 2008Reply With QuoteReport This Post
You're going to feel
a little pressure...
posted Hide Post
Good advice, Fritz.

I guess that by the time I am ready to switch from .308 to one of the barrel burners, I will have my reloading down well enough that I'm less often testing loads for pressure, safety, and consistency so I can just load them and see if that known good load is one that my barrel likes.

Bruce






"The designer of the gun had clearly not been instructed to beat about the bush. 'Make it evil,' he'd been told. 'Make it totally clear that this gun has a right end and a wrong end. Make it totally clear to anyone standing at the wrong end that things are going badly for them. If that means sticking all sort of spikes and prongs and blackened bits all over it then so be it. This is not a gun for hanging over the fireplace or sticking in the umbrella stand, it is a gun for going out and making people miserable with." -Douglas Adams

“It is just as difficult and dangerous to try to free a people that wants to remain servile as it is to try to enslave a people that wants to remain free."
-Niccolo Machiavelli

The trouble with fighting for human freedom is that one spends most of one's time defending scoundrels. For it is against scoundrels that oppressive laws are first aimed, and oppression must be stopped at the beginning if it is to be stopped at all. -Mencken
 
Posts: 4245 | Location: AK-49 | Registered: October 06, 2011Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Prepared for the Worst, Providing the Best
Picture of 92fstech
posted Hide Post
quote:
This is it using a bag at the rear.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ng39ce3Ii_w&t=5s

This is how it was in the 1st video I posted.


That's a sweet setup, thanks for sharing!
 
Posts: 8417 | Location: In the Cornfields | Registered: May 25, 2006Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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