seasprite

I know you probably checked this already but are they seated all the way so the anvil is seated in priming compound? Maybe try cleaning the primer pocket to see if there is a difference. I personally never clean my pockets on pistol brass but I guess if the carbon thick enough on the edges where the anvil legs go it might cause a problem just guessing though. I've never used Rem primers before so I don't have any experience with them but I've never had any problems with WLP, CCI, or Tula

Got to watch Tom Knapp today boy I wish I could shoot a shotgun half as good as he can. CZ & Savage were out there today letting people try out there products so the range was closed for general shooting today but I did get to shoot some handguns and shotguns from CZ along with some bolt action rifles from Savage. Can't tell you guy's the models I shot there were to many to keep track. I will tell you the Savage .308 with the acushot trigger shot pretty good they had the targets sat up at 75 yards. and I managed put up .75" group with some Remington 180gr hunting loads. It looks like Wed. before I can get out and test my reloads I'm going to take the chronograph this time so I can get some numbers up for us.

Well on Sat. Tom Knapp is going to be at Lake City range for a show what a way to kick off my vacation. Go watch a world class shotgun shooter, try some of the different firearms that some different manufacturers are suppose to bring and possibly wrap up this load. :2nd: If anybody lives in the KCMO area it starts at 10:00am if you want to show up.

Will locktite work on that <lmao>

The one target on the top row thats 3rd from the left only shows 2 holes I want to convince my self that I sent 2 of the 3 rounds through the same hole but the only evidence I have is the carbon ring is darker and the hole looks to be slightly stretched so I decided to give my self some piece of mind and include the 2.817 in my next test :cookoo:. They were all loaded the same PPU brass, Winchester primers and 47.9gr of CFE223. I plan to shoot a lot more here in a another week I will be on vacation so hopefully I,ll get this load dialed in along with a good feel for the trigger.

My trigger came in yesterday so I got to go try it out today <thumbsup>. The trigger is great glad I went with the Geissele SSA the difference is like night and day just wish my shooting was better going to chalk it up to getting use to this trigger. I did my next step in finding my loads but I'm going to have to retry a couple to make sure its not me getting used to the trigger so here is the target pics for this portion of the test. I,m thinking of loading up 5 rounds each at 2.790 & 2.800 & 2.810 and see if I can get the groups to tighten up. If I can't I'm going to dump this load and try the lesser charge of 47.1 with different seating lengths to see what happens. Survivalshop whats your thoughts on this try to work it a little more or dump it?

I say smack that finger with a hammer not enough to break it just enough that the throbbing pain will tell them not to do that again :o. Just hunting and paper for me so this trigger should do thanks survivalshop

Yep its definitely affordable I ended up picking up a case for $300.00 at a gun show a couple of months ago it groups about 2moa and I believe it temp sensitive the groups seem to get tighter as temp went up 1.5moa at 90* vs. 2moa at 60*. After I'm done with my load development for my 168gr Amax I'm going to try messing with the seating depth to see if I can get some more consistency out this ammo. This batch of ammo I got seems to be on the short side 2.78-2.789 so I decided to decrease seating depth from 2.790-2.820 in .005 increments. If you reload save the brass it seems to be pretty good for reloading. Have fun it good plinking ammo.

Well it looks like its going to be another week before I can get out and do some testing :'(. I tried to polish the sear on my stock trigger and took it to far >:( ended up failing trigger reset and bump test. On a bright note though I did find a Geissele SSA at midway for $180.00 <thumbsup>. After reading about the 4.5lbs two stage trigger I couldn't resist. I'm glad you like yours survivalshop but why do you think this trigger would not be good in the field <dontknow> even in there description they tout it as a good field trigger.

Thanks guy's, now all I need to do is paint or blue the washers and be done with it. Thanks for the links Robocop I was wondering if something was out there already. The washers were $1.15 from Lowes and the swivel stud was a couple bucks from the fun shop and about 20min to make.

4-5lbs sounds really good to me like you I want to use it for field and paper or what ever else I get a chance to shoot at. ;D As far as my weighing of the powder its done by hand for now well mostly I use my powder measure to get close then trickle it by hand the rest of the way until I get this load developed. Now the only problem is it going to be at least 2 weeks before I can get out again >:(. On a side note I finished loading my seating depth test rounds. Started at 2.820 (max for my pmags) down to 2.795 reducing by .003 each time. I did find out the DPMS mags can take a longer COL of 2.840. Might be something I play with later if this load doesn't work with the pmag length.

I wanted to put a bi-pod on my Oracle but didn't know if there was any after market products for it so I made up my own with some fender washers and a machine threaded swivel stud. So if you want to mount a bi-pod you can try this.

The more I shoot this rifle the more I want to do something to this trigger especially the creep that it has. Thinking about trying to stone the sear & hammer hook and see what that does just don't want to go to far with it. I have polished my trigger a couple of other firearms I have, but this is a new platform for me so not a 100% sure I want to mess with it yet. As far as the hand guard goes that will probably be the last thing I change on this rifle. The bi-pod I set as close to the receiver as possible to keep as much pressure off the barrel as possible. Is it working <dontknow> don't really have a clue other than the groups seem to get better the more I shoot ;) Maybe we'll discover how good this rifle is together with a little tuning and more practice <thumbsup>.

I can't wait to make up some new rounds with my OCW and very the length to see if it tightens up thats the next step in the OCW method of developing a load. After that I was thinking of trying different primers to see what happens. I do have chronograph my brother currently has to check his loads I plan on getting back today so in a week or two I should have some numbers to go with this load. As far as the trigger goes its a stock DPMS trigger it definitely needs some work on it, would like to shave 2-3lbs. off it. Forgot to mention my barrel is not free floated yet. Wounder how much of a difference that will make on the group sizes as well?

Alrighty guy's got out today for some more testing and I found my lower and upper charge weights for this CFE 223 powder and the A-Max bullets plus I mounted a bi-pod on my Oracle using a machine thread swivel stud and fender washers ground down to hold it in place since there is no place to mount them on these hand guards. On to the target pics now <thumbsup> [img width=810 height=607]http://i897.photobucket.com/albums/ac176/seasprite/DPMS/DSCF0322.jpg [img width=810 height=607]http://i897.photobucket.com/albums/ac176/seasprite/DPMS/DSCF0323.jpg Sorry my charge weights are a little hard to read if you guy's have trouble seeing them let me know and I'll edit this post so you can tell what they are. As for my OCW at the lower node the groups measured at 7/8" for 47.0gr & 47.2gr for an OCW of 47.1gr but the 47.4 looks good to just the POI is a little farther off than the other 2 targets. My upper node came in 47.8gr & 48.0gr for an OCW 47.9gr the group at 47.8 was 1" and at 48 was 1.25". Going to try to develop the upper node by changing seating depth now. All shooting was done at 100 yards. So what do you think?

Started my OCW on my DPMS Oracle today found what might be my low and high nodes but I need to go back out and verify before I can say for sure. Started at 46.6gr and ended at 48.2gr because at 48.8 primer was cratered and recoil impulse was very sharp. I'm using ppu brass with WLP primers with a COL of 2.815. My lower node seems to be around 47.3gr and my upper node 48.2gr. My next step is going to be loading from 48.4 on down to 47.3 by reducing the charge .2gr at a time. I'll update this post when I get back to the range hopefully get some pics of some targets then. MAN IT WAS FUN TO SHOOT TODAY :)

I ran some PPU 175gr match ammo across the my chronograph this past weekend to get a grasp on how this thing works since I never used one before and wanted to try it before I run my reloads across it. I ran two strings of 5 shots each and here is the results. 16" DPMS Oracle 1. 2398 (cold bore with oil still in the bore forgot to wipe it out) 2. 2352 3. 2326 ES 72 4. 2349 SD26 5. 2352 avg 2355 2nd string 1. 2408 2. 2375 ES33 3. 2375 SD13 4. 2375 5. 2375 avg 2381 I'm highly suspicious of the 2nd string but each shot was recorded and being new to chroneis don't know if I should believe it or not. <dontknow> Got the BC for this bullet and went to Hornady's web site and did a drop chart haven't had time to test it out though. Did an avg velocity of 2385 and here are the results. muzzle -2.5 50yrd's -0.4 100 0 200 -4.6 300 -17.4 400 -39.8 500 -73.4 Thought this might help some of us 16" barrel owners.

This is what I'm thinking that you developed a gas leak some ware also check your gas block for tightness and leaks and are the gas rings staggered?

I here yea there its 45 min from my place so I don't go very often. I know Midway & Graph & sons is 2 hours to the east and Powder Valley is 2 hours to the west would love to be able to just drive to these places and pick up my supplies but I guess not :'( On a side note I decided to use Dan Newberry's OCW method of development it took a while to wrap my head around this method but finally got an understanding on what he's doing besides I only have 100 yards to work with at the local range I was hoping for next weekend but my wife's birthday is next weekend so the wait continues its driving me :cookoo:

Cabelas, they have a sale going on 10% off on all in stock powders. I took the last 2 one pound bottles they had in the Kansas City store. There primers are on sale also picked up a 1000 win large rifle for $30.00

Well I got all the stuff I needed to start working up loads for my Oracle <thumbsup>. Had to make a few changes though I couldn't find any Power Pro locally so I went second choice which is CFE 223 along with Hornady 168gr A max and Winchester primers. Having second thoughts on my primer choice though when I seated them it didn't take much effort to seat them. (forgot that win primers run small compared to others) After sizing and case prep on my PPU brass I check case capacity verses fed cases and found that PPU held an average .2gr less than the Fed. cases so I reduced my charges by that amount instead of starting at 46.6 I started at 46.4 and ended .2 under max. Then seated them to 2.815 COL with a light crimp 1/2 turn on the lee factory crimp die. thats all for now, a friend from church is going to let me barrow his crony so I can get some speeds from this 16" barrel it might be a week or so for the results.

I'm going to start reloading for my Oracle when I get all my stuff together for bottle neck cartridges. Currently I reload for my .45 & 9mm, I have my dies and trimmer for the .308 just need to get some case lube and some components then I should be able to work up some loads. I think I pretty much decided on Alliant Power Pro 2000 for a powder to start with and PPU brass still haven't decided on bullet or primers yet. So I'll be keeping an eye on this thread <munch>

Thanks 392 heminut thats the info I was looking for.

Hey Mike welcome I'm a new Oracle owner to and also want to free float my front handguard so let me know what you decide to do. I'm still not sure on everything thats all involved in doing the job since this is my first AR style rifle but I'm learning as I'm reading here. One question I have my self is the front handguard retainer does it just slip off after you take the flash hider and gas block off or is it part of the gas block ? <dontknow> I've only put 60 rounds through mine so far did the break in that DPMS recommends made for long day at the range but was fun until my scope came loose in the rings forgot to put loctite on the threads. :-[ but all is better now and I just picked up 500 rounds of PPU ammo in 175gr match will see what Serbia considers match ammo. Lets see her don't hide her from us here is mine.

I just picked up some PPU 175gr match my self hope my gun likes it but its going to be 2 weeks before I can get to the range and see :( If you get a chance to get out before me let me know how you like it and I'll do the same. For what its worth I read that people like the brass for reloading so thats a plus for me I plan on starting to reload for my DPMS after I get the dies and other tools I'll need for rifle cartridges currently I only reload for handguns.