quote:

Originally posted by TKO:
It has arrived....

Ive got it all adjusted for the initial run except for the powder drop. Wife is glaring at me and I need to go cook dinner...

Saweeet!!!! That is great that you now have it!!! Looks good. Now go cook dinner!!

The bride is happy, and now Im gonna go play!

Looks good. Let the fun begin!

First loads cranked out this evening...



150gr SMK HPBT
LC once fired converted brass
16.5, 17, and 17.5 gr of H110 and 17 and 17.5 gr of lil gun.

OAL on all set to 2.120.

Looking forward to getting to the range.

TKO,

Nice! Have you had a chance to shoot them yet?

Not yet sir. The plan for now is to get up early tomorrow morning and get out to shoot them.

Its going to be 120 here today and unfortunately work intruded on my plans this morning...

Got out to the range today to test my first .300 BLK loads for the Remington. Below are the results.

Conditions 105 degrees, 20% humidity. Winds variable with an occasional full value.

Platform Remington 700 AAC-SD 16.5in barrel, 5R rifling, 1 in 7 twist.


1st to fire were the H110 loads.





They felt good but were not grouping particularly well. They were first to shoot so Im sure Im part of that problem...

Second up were the Lil Gun loads.






These grouped much better and felt equally comfortable. No signs of pressure on the cases, the primers were flat after firing...

I think Im going to load a small batch of Lil Gun rounds and chrono them. I also will load up some more H110 loads and see if shooting them second after Ive settled in tightens them up at all.

quote:

Originally posted by TKO:
These grouped much better and felt equally comfortable. No signs of pressure on the cases, the primers were flat after firing...

From what I have read Lil' Gun works a little better on heavier bullets. Your Lil' Gun grouping looks good!

Ive been reading the same thing. I think Ill probably hang onto the H110 for the subsonic bolt gun rounds. Still gotta snag some 1680 just in case I give in and get an upper.

Very nice groupings there.

What twist barrel are you using? I'm seeing 1:7, 1:8 and 1:10.5 available for use for the AR platform.

Thanks. Its off a bench at the local range but on a bipod and not a sled. Still relatively forgiving.

Its a 1 in 7 5R R700.

I loaded up another 10 rounds of 17.0 gr Lil Gun. I increased the OAL a bit this time to see what effect is will have.

Going to try and get out on Sunday for another round of shooting.

quote:

Originally posted by TKO:
I loaded up another 10 rounds of 17.0 gr Lil Gun. I increased the OAL a bit this time to see what effect is will have.

Going to try and get out on Sunday for another round of shooting.

I need to clean my gun, do some more reloading, and shooting but I have been traveling like crazy for work so it might be a while.

I hope your test rounds shoot well.

I decided to go ahead and clean my gun and work up another two different types of bullets and got a chance to go shoot today.

I worked up loads for the Barnes TAC-TX 110gr. blacktip and the Hornady 208gr A-Max. I used H110 with the 110gr bullet and tried Lil' Gun with the 208gr bullet but it looks like I will have to use A1680 for the 208gr as it will not cycle my bolt unsuppressed just like what happened when I worked up the Sierra 220gr SMK and A1680 fixed it. The brass I used is new Remington primed 300 Blackout brass.



Noveske 300 Blackout AR Platform
10" Barrel 1:7 twist
H2 Buffer
Pistol legnth gas system
AAC-762-SDN-6 when suppressed


First up is the Barnes TAC-TX 110gr blacktip. I worked up loads with an OAL of 2.250" and started at 18.7gr of H110 up to 20.2gr and applied a 1/2 light crimp on the Lee FCD. I began to see some primer flatening at 20.2gr and the grouping really opened up. I liked 19.0gr; unsuppressed group at that load was very tight and I had one flyer suppressed. I fired 5 rounds unsuppressed and 5 suppressed. All loads fed and function perfectly suppressed or unsuppressed.




Then I tested the Hornady 208gr A-Max at a subsonic load. I worked up loads with an OAL of 2.200" at 8.7gr of Lil' Gun up to 9.9gr and applied a 3/4 medium crimp on the Lee FCD. 9.6gr was the most accurate load for me both suppressed and unsuppressed but it is odd that the rounds for each load are impacting a little to the right. All rounds fed fine, but the bolt would not cycle unsuppressed and cycled fine suppressed so I will have to work this round up with A1680.




Barnes TAC-TX 110gr
19.0gr H110
2.250" OAL
1/2 light crimp Lee FCD

Hornady 208gr A-Max
9.6gr Lil' Gun
2.200" OAL
3/4 med crimp Lee FCD

That 19gr load under the Barnes looks pretty good. I started my hunt this past week for some different bullets to start load work ups for varmint hunting. So far not much available locally except for heavy bullets. I poked a bit online too but didn't find much.

Im going out to shoot my new loads tomorrow.

My next batch Im going to seat just short of the max length for my chamber and see what I get out of them.

I took a look at my fired brass again and did notice some slight cratering on some of them. Unfortunately I cannot tell which load it was that did it so Ill keep an eye on them tomorrow.

Ive got 3 loads for tomorrow, two lil gun and one H110. Im shooting the lil gun loads first to make sure that the H110 grouping wasn't me all jittery from the morning coffee.

Results posted tomorrow when I get home.

The Barnes TAC-TX 110gr is the HARDEST to find!!!! I only have 440 rounds left. After I figure out the Hornady 208gr A-Max with A1680, then I want to do some ballistic testing for expansion and penetration on both.

I label each of my 10 round work up of loads in zip lock bags and then put the fired casings back into that same labeled bag after firing so I can compare them and know what load they were.

I wish I could chrono right now, but the only place I can do it is at my brother's land which has zero protection from the sun and today it was 100 so it was way too hot so I went to an indoor range that does not allow chrono.

I had kept em separate and looked at each for cracking around the neck and flat primers after I shot em. When I got home I just dumped them out of the block and into the bin for cleaning.

I was reading an article on cratered primers tonight and so I pulled a few out and bigger than shit a couple were, just slightly.

In the end this load is just a play thing. Ive got less than 70 150gr SMK's left. When I get my hands on some 110 and 120gr bullets then Ill start to really work at it!

Damn was it hot and muggy today. I cant remember a time when I couldn't quit sweating in the shade...


Platform Remington 700 AAC-SD 16.5in barrel, 5R rifling, 1 in 7 twist.

1st up today were the lil gun loads. The loose rounds were definitely on me. The three in the center were pretty close to what I was achieving originally with the hand loads. An increase in OAL from 2.120 to 2.155 was the only difference.



The second group shooting H110 was much better than last weeks. Again, the flyer was me. Did I mention I was sweating profusely?



The best group of the day was back with the lil gun. This load was the same, with an increase in OAL to 2.180.




To recap the shooting, I was sweaty. The humidity was much higher this week than last but seemed only to affect the shooter at this range.

Did I mention it was hot?

Yeah it is not easy to test loads sweating your brains out and sweat dripping into your eyes. That is the way it was the day I was running the chrono at my brother's land sweating like crazy.

It is interesting that you had pretty accurate results with 17.0gr of Lil' Gun at both 2.120" and 2.180". I think the 2.120" was a little tighter, but they are close. I would think that 17.0gr at 2.180 is just like loading 2.120" at 16.7 or so. Are you going to do one more shoot with a 17.0 load at both lengths and see which one wins?

At this point Im planning to load some max length cartridges and bump up the powder loads in each to see what I can get max velocity wise and see how much the accuracy suffers.

After shooting the Lil Gun 2.120 loads I had yesterday (not pictured) to check them for signs of pressure, I did confirm that I am getting a slight crater in the primer. The outside edge of the strike has come up. The longer OAL loads didn't show this on either powder so Ive crossed that one off the list.

I really need to just quit messing around and go get a chronograph so I can figure out what Im really doing.