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Greenday

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Posts posted by Greenday

  2. Posted

    What a fun morning there today. It was full by 9am. Got one of the last few lanes. People taking their damn sweet time, walking onto the range after nearly everyone was back to go down 100 yards to fix a target that was just slightly tilted. Another person when their time up refused to leave. Someone else was firing tracers and lit the berm on fire. People were being stupid as hell.

  7. Posted

    There's a youtube video out there I'll have to find on testing various muzzle brakes. Basically they tested how much recoil was reduced and how loud it was. Essentially, the stronger the brake, the louder it was. So it's give and take if you want a quieter brake.

  9. Posted

    44 minutes ago, Bully said:

    What twist is your 223?  
    I shoot 80’s from a 7 twist at 600 pretty well for a guy that doesn’t shoot particularly well. 
     

    I agree with you on the Creed vs the PRC. For around here it’s really not worth it. That said, I would also encourage you to look at a 6. Either a 6Creed or even a 243. Given that you reload, either are a great choice. 

    I believe Peterson makes 6C brass. Others it’s a simple neck down and you’re ready to roll. 
     

    Contact Nick at NE Reloading. He’s a Jersey guy with a really good selection of bullets. Email him for anything you don’t see listed. He carries more that his site says. 
     

    Good luck. 

    My RAR is 1:8 twist. I've tested some 77s before on it and they seem pretty stable.

  12. Posted

    So, I think it's time for me to get a bigger caliber rifle. I love my RAR 5.56. Loading .223 ammo is cheap, fun, and I'm consistently hitting sub-MOA down to levels of even 0.7" or less a few times a few times at 100 yards. But thanks to having a chronometer, I know a lot more about the shortcomings of the 16" barrel. I'm losing about 250-300 fps which at 100 yards, who cares? But it'll definitely affect things the farther I go out. That much more drop, more time in the air means the more wind can push it around. Let me just give this example.

    Theoretical load that would be 2850 fps initial velocity out of 24" barrel. Zeroed at 100 yards, a 52 SMK would drop 4.35 inches after 200 yards, 16.77 inches after 300 yards, 40.59 inches after 400 yards. 0.59 seconds. All assuming no wind.

    With my 16" barrel, I'm seeing around 2550 fps initial velocity. Same conditions, the 52 SMK would drop 5.93 inches at 200 yards, 22.28 at 300 yards, 53.52 at 400 yards. And it takes 0.67 seconds to do that. Throw in a 10mph crosswind, that's 35.17 inches horizontal movement vs 29.80 inches.

    So yes, I love my RAR. For the price, it's a stupid accurate rifle. But I just want to start varying my collection. I'd love to go to 6.5 PRC. Reloading dies are more common now and readily purchasable. Still fires 6.5mm bullets which are easy to get. Brass is the biggest issue I see right now. Hornandy is pretty much the only manufacturer of it and it's on backorder everywhere. And it needs a little more powder per round loaded. So I think the logical step up is 6.5 creedmoor.

    Some of the rifles I've been looking at:

    T/C LRR

    Remington 700 PCR

    Ruger Hawkeye Long-Range Target

    That should pretty much give you guys an idea of what I'm after. Since I know no one with any of those three, I've never had a chance to shoot them. Any recommendations are welcome.

  15. Posted

    3 hours ago, USRifle30Cal said:

    Let me clue you in on a few things - shooting at distance involves so much more than the actual gear.

    Many contributing factors will dictate your success or abject failure on this endeavour and it will not be calculated in FPS from your reloads....  :)

    But now it all kinda makes sense what you are trying to achieve - so if this is what you are doing you now need to step up your reloading game and it is not just working up the load.

    Bullet uniformity, of size type and weight

    Case segregation of type weight dimensions

    Case prep - case mouth, primer pocket & flash hole

    Uniformity of powder drop, uniformity of seating depth of bullet and primer, uniformity of crimp or not

    Beyond that you other gear, is your scope setup properly? Torqued to spec? Have the rings been lapped - trued? Do you understand parallax?  Do you understand repeatability of you mounting the gun to your body?

    Are you shooting off a bench? Bipod, if so are you loading it?  If a sling, do you know how to properly sling up with the sling you have?


    All the above can be spot on for the most part, but you are still the unknown variable at the break.....

    My main thing about velocity at this point is how long the bullet spends in the air. The lower velocities means it's in the air that much longer making it more susceptible to gusts of wind.

    I try to keep as many factors the same for each load. I arrange my cases by lot, how many times fired, dimensions. I keep everything as consistent as possible so when the time comes, the biggest variable is my aim.

    It's one of the great things about having an indoor 100 yard range for practice nearby. I can work on my fundamentals without having to account for changes in temperature, humidity, wind. When I fire the same load trip to trip, my zero doesn't change on my Nikon scope. I usually only try to practice one or two things at most per trip. When testing out new loads, I shoot off bags on the bench. I've shot prone with both bags and bipod. I've found my comfort positions that work for me and it's just about repeatability. How I aim my rifle, my breathing, taking my time between shots to let the chamber cool.

    When I pick up a hobby, I nerd out. I can't just be super casual about it. I like challenging myself, learning, and getting better.

  17. Posted

    9 hours ago, Maksim said:

    With 223 you have a few factors...

    Brass can easily effect velocities by a few hundred FPS depending on case volume.  Same charge in lower case volume = higher pressure.

    Then yes... barrel size will make a difference too as a lot of the posted data is for 24" barrels.

    Then you also have to figure out if it is a new barrel or an broken in barrel.

    Beyond that... the powders you are using... are they temperature sensitive?  If so, regular or inverse?

    You found a chrono?

     

    All great points. Case volume is huge. 20gr of powder is going to (theoretically) produce the same amount of gas every time. But a case that is 90% the volume of a "normal" case will (theoretically) produce 11% more pressure.

    I did. Nothing super fancy bought I bought Competition Electronics' ProChrono DLX. Had a good discount coupon on Optics Planet. Super easy to use and I really like the app that goes with it. Fire a round, it verbally tells you the velocity, and stores lots of useful stats.

    53 minutes ago, USRifle30Cal said:

     

    What is an extra few hundred feet per second netting you if you are shooting at 100yds and the accuracy is there at the slower load.

    Actually, in all things being equal, in a bolt gun for sub 150yd sniping - the .243 is hard to beat.

    I haven't had any experience with .243 but theres so many cool rounds when you get away from the standard 223/308/6.5s.

    So at 100 yards, the slower velocity isn't a big deal. The accuracy is there so I can shoot the 52gr all day long.

    I really want to do the 300 yard tournaments this winter at South Jersey Shooting Club. And the 69gr SMK would be a great bullet for that range. But I feel like the slower velocities will be felt a lot more.

  18. Posted

    Well, I learned quite a bit today. Went to Range 14, got myself a membership ($60 for a year? 3 visits and it's paid for itself). Set up my new Competition Electronics ProChrono DLX as directed. And off I went.

    I'll tell you what, I really learned a lot about how much the RAR's short barrel length (16") affects velocity. My Lee scale's calibration was still good (0 read 0, 25 read 25). Velocities were just 200-300 lower than what Sierra claims based off their test rifles. Fired some Wolf Gold 55gr just for comparison and that was 300fps slower than what Wolf claims. It's one thing to hear about barrel length affecting velocities but actually testing it and seeing the results yourself is really cool. Interesting link I was just reading: https://www.chuckhawks.com/rifle_barrel.htm

    No max or overpressured loads were used in today's testing. Just modest loads slightly above minimum. Velocities ranged from 2450-2700 depending on power and load. And that sounds slow as hell to me. But the accuracy was there. Not so much with the Win 748 powder. But I had a few 5 round groups around 0.7-0.72" and managed a 0.61" grouping with H335 for a 69gr SMK.

    So am I thrilled with these velocities that don't touch Sierra's listed velocities? No, but the fact is my barrel is about 8" shorter than what they test with. But am I happy with getting standard deviations as low as 13-20 fps and tight groups at 100 yards with a headwind of about 10mph? Hell yes. It's a short, budget hunting rifle. It's not meant for competition. But dear God is my setup with it fun as hell.

    • Like 1

  19. Posted

    20 minutes ago, Pizza Bob said:

    A lot of load data was arrived at by simply examining the fired cases for pressure signs. Data in some of the newer manuals is arrived at using a pressure transducer. I believe that Speer made that change starting with Speer #9. This accounts for some of large differences we see from the older manuals to the latest ones.

    you should always start low and work up while checking for pressure signs.

    Adios,

    Pizza Bob

    Ah, amazing how far technology has gone. That's how I would do it. Combust a small amount, say 6-7 grains worth, in a bomb calorimeter hooked up to a pressure transducer.

  20. Posted

    So, interesting thing happened tonight while I was sizing and trimming brass for future use. Looked at the page for 52gr 223 in my Sierra 6th Edition. Max load for H335 is listed as 24.0gr. In the 5th edition, it's listed as 27.6gr with their accuracy load listed as H335 26.9gr.

    What would cause such a drastic difference?

  21. Posted

    Interesting. I've got both Hornady's latest manual and Sierra's 6th edition that recently came out. I've been choosing based on whose bullet I've been using.

    One thing else I've definitely noticed is that you also have to check which rifle they used. Twist rates and barrel lengths are often drastically different from mine. Plus I'm using a 5.56 chamber instead of .223 which shouldn't make a huge difference but still.

    I guess I'll have to start looking at the consensus loads and start lower. Then if I have to go higher, just slowly work up and look for signs of too much pressure.

    Still excited to break out my new chrono. Need to get to an outdoor range so I can use it. But if I'm going to travel over an hour to Range 14, I gotta make it worth it.

  22. Posted

    1 hour ago, JC_68Westy said:

    Hodgdon does not list a 52gr on their site, but it does list a max for both 50gr and 53gr at 26gr of powder @52,000CUP. You are playing with fore exceeding 26gr of H335.

    So Hodgdon lists their powder at 26gr max.

    Sierra tested it on their bullet and says 27.6 is max.

    Hornady for their bullet lists 25.4gr.

    Barnes is 25.8gr.

    Nosler 26gr.

    Speer 24.5gr

    Very interesting how they all differ and how Sierra is noticeably higher than the rest.

  23. Posted

    10 hours ago, carl_g said:

    Why are you using h335 with such a light bullet? H335 is supposed to be used to mimic military loads. And starting at 26+ grains is over max recommended charge  from Hodgson's load data.

     

    Sierra lists 27.6 as max load for 52gr SMK.

    As for why H335, because it's a versatile powder that works well for my 52gr, 69gr or 77gr SMK or for my 55gr Hornandy FMJBTs.

  24. Posted

    45 minutes ago, USRifle30Cal said:

    ...ok......everything you typed had max in it...... 

     

    Never mind......i am done....  gud luck....

     

    Sheesh.....  

     

    As a side note...you have 100's of years of experience here and you are nothing but combative...

     

    ..from a funny meme....

     

    I have neither the time nor the crayons to explain this more to you....

    I posted one thing about how I wish I could use an instrument at work to determine how much pressure each different powder produces so I could figure out the true max load so I wouldn't ever hit it. That doesn't mean I'm just going for it. You took that and ran with it assuming I'm aiming for max every time.

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