Albroswift

Now in my BAR 338WM its another story, turns softpoints into a profile resembling the tip of elf shoes! Never had a good group until I went with SSTs, ELD-Xs, and recently TTSXs

The hot core speer have exposed lead, factory ammo at Sharps Rifle Co. Only thing they sell. Cycled a bunch through, no deformation. The M4 ramps are fairly gentle on that diameter.

Why would I want to do that?

Haven't shot it yet, but swapped out the gas block with a BAD titanium and painted the safety levers. not quite a match but better match then the FDE. Also scored 320 factory rounds on Gunbroker for what I think was a fair deal, 180 87gr Soft Points and 120 100gr Swine Smashers.

I like that idea. I still have one more 12.5, food for thought. Good looking build.

Sweet! Did you go 10-5/8" because you didn't like the gas block hanging off the journal with the factory location?

Just under 2 months from the Oct 14 OP...

Got it together. Digging through the box, Sharps threw in a couple boxes of 87 gr soft points. BASELINE! Sharps SS light profile 16" barrel VG6 Gamma Brake, may go with something smaller. AR15handguards 15" lightweight rail Danial Defense Tornado furniture Anderson Upper, Anderson forged 80% lower Radian Talon 45 ambi safety. Like to get levers that match the DD Stuff. CMT 2LB + 2LB 2 stage FCG AP BCG Burris Droptine 4.5-14 X 42 scope

Woohoo, Barrel showed up. Everything but the DD Tornado furniture in the shop and ready to finishing up.

Some of the brass may have quite a few cycles on it, been reloading 223 since the late 90's. I've caught a few 223 with splits as well.

Ran 250 clean cases through the press, plenty of Imperial lube inside the neck. then through the pin tumbler. 1.740 to 1.760 resulting length. A few split necks, not bad. Going to set the trimmer to 1.750 and see how many trim, then do the rest at 1.740. Loading some 80gr barnes, 87 hot core speer, and some 90 game kings. RL7 and Data2200. Carbine is pretty much built except for the barrel which should be here Wednesday Anderson upper, Anderson forged 80% lower, CMT 2lb+2lb 2 stage FCG, Raidan Talon 45 ambi safety, Toolcraft BCG, 16" lightweight profile ss barrel, VG6 comp, Daniel Defense furniture. Have a Burris Droptine 4-14 x 50 going on top.

Yeah, all good points. Offsetting that, I only reload, never buy (well, maybe if I see a case of 223 or 40 S&W on a screaming deal...) and have close to 5 gallons of commercial 223 brass, lots of good powders on the shelf, so for me ammo a big plus in the 25.45. Cheap bullets and every thing else almost free. Pile of magazines in the shop, plenty of 300 yard guns in the safe already, and wanted a light profile easy on the wallet 16" so the 25.45 is it. Maybe do a 6.5 20" next year!

Where we hunt deer (Western WA) most of our shots are pretty close. Wooded hills, valleys, ridges. Pretty much have to hunt with the muzzle up! No prone position or dope cards required. Just gotta be quiet and observant.

Going by Loaddata.com, where the 2 calibers overlap with similar bullet weights in the 85-120 gr, pretty similar velocities, 6.5 a little higher. Using Sharps data, the opposite is true (Go figure.) The 6.5 can use a bigger variety of bullets with (I would assume) better BC's, also heavier bullets, so there is an advantage there. So I went with the 25-45! Barrel is in the mail.

Picked up the Frankford pin tumbler on sale last week, first run 250 large rifle mix 308, 30-06, 338WM about maxed it out. Brass had been previously tumbled, Lubed, sized, deprimed. Ran 1-1/2 hr, not bad. Ran 250 rounds 223 (Resized to 25-45) for 2-1/2 hrs, reused the same solution, great results. Going to rig up a big screen on a box fan for drying, first couple batches laid out on a towel and ran the box fan over them. Actually had one of those Frankford separators shown above laying around, still a bit messy but like the results, especially the primer pockets. Haven't tried the method mentioned above replacing the solution 1/2 way through.

+1 on the Barnes. Have you recovered any? I just started using Barnes Bullets last year, haven't shot an Elk with one yet. Like to see what they look like. The SST's I've recovered in the past lost a lot of lead at closer ranges. BAR 338 shoots like a kitten with the help of a nice sissy pad, custom brake, and spits out a 185 gr Barnes @ 3000+fps.

Mike must be a quarter bore fan...

I've ran into a lot of used 308 COMMERCIAL brass that wouldn't hold primers. Also seems like Federal primers hold better in marginal brass then Win or CCI. Last year bought a bunch of new Starline through Diamond K and just bagging up all the old stuff. I haven't gotten to any 3x fired yet but the 2x fired were all within a couple thou of my original trim length on the 3rd loading, held primers fine, and neck tension good.

Maybe the elk around are a little tougher. Or further away. Nothing wrong with any of the guns mentioned above, everyone has their favorites, but at 400 to 800 yard elk I'll take the magnum everytime.

@Cliff R Maybe due to being soft, thick, and fired in oversized chambers, but life's to short to mess with reloading 50 YO machine gun brass! I really like the Starline brass when I order new stuff.

Put me in the belted magnum camp for elk, those critters are tough SOB's! We have killed them with everything from 308 and up, and bigger is definitely better. A well made comp and a Pachmayr Decelerator pad and the recoil is manageable.

Like to get a remote like a laser, button near your index.

Sweet

Basically I vibratory tumble twice, first overnight Grit-o-Cob and Losso, then lube with Imperial, size and deprime, clean the pockets, then couple more hrs in the tumbler to remove the lube. Thinking of getting one of the pin/liquid type drum tumblers, really like the finish results but messy. Still probably use the vibratory for the first step.

No problem, plenty of other projects. I did pay it ahead, sent a box of 38 to Festus.