NF1E

Retirement is wonderful. Building, shooting , loading and reasonably good health. Yabba Dabba Doo! Whatta Hobby!

Re: Changing bullet types for the season. Will be using 46 gn of Varget with the 135 Sierra fb for awhile. Shot a few 100 yd 10 rnd grps rapid fire this morning using one of my M14 type rifles off a bipod checking for consistency with barrel heating. We are good to go. Upper left was 9 shots cold clean bore with scope correction for the one hit in the X. Rest were just fun for the moment. The lone shot on the center bull was with another rifle I am working on. Whatta Hobby!

Loaded up 1 range box of 100 yesterday with 46 gn of Varget +- .02 gn which is the weight of 1 kernal. Using the RCBS Matchmaster makes this task almost too simple. Today is dedicated to 22 rf. Got some old 40x buddies coming over to my range. I will be shooting a CZ-457 with 21" Lilja barrel and giving them a run for their money. Last match with a CX-457 with a 16.5" barrel I left them in the dust. Should be even better today. Of course they blamed their lack of quality ammo for their losses. Typical. Blame everything but the trigger monkey. Rifle and a few test groups after re-barreling. I think she is ready. Whatta Hobby!

Now, that's funny. The .5 gn is just to get in the ball park my friend. From there much more refinements gets done over a period of time including bullet jump. If you noticed, this is for an M14 type semi auto and .5 moa average is more than acceptable for most shooters. I am replacing a custom 136 gn fb that has worked well for me for years but is no longer available. The Sierra 135 fb varmint are widely available. Whatta Hobby!

In the process of working up a usable load for Sierra 135 gn fb varminters for one of my rifles. Bula Defense Systems M14 type XM21 version 1 ser #3. Heavy Bula barrel with the rest of the parts from Bula except for Trigger which is Shootingsight EBR with lightened hammer. Chassis is JAE with 1 turn on the barrel tensioner. Scope is a Night Force ATACR 5-25 on TPS med rings. Ammo is hand loaded using MEN berdan cases freshly annealed, TULA KV-7.62 N primers igniting Varget. Starting load on ladder is 45gn up to 47.5gn in 1/2 gn increments. Target one is for sighters with 5 rnds of MEN surplus on the center to warm things up, then 2 sighters from each different load as the morning progressed. Ambient temp is 45 degs with a light breeze. 2nd target is for the 10 rnd groups at 100 yds. Barrel was allowed to cool down to the point my hand could hold onto it forward of the gas system. Dry Otis patches were pulled through barrel between changing loads. Notice the obvious on the 46 gn load. 1 moa max spread with a average of under .5 moa for 10 rnds at 100 yds. Even the poorest group had an average of under 1 moa. Worst spread was 2 moa with the 47 gn load. Whatta Hobby!

Finished priming 400. Ready to load. Looks like I will be using Sierra 135 gn hollow point fb varminters. Now to go through the record cards and find which powder and load worked the best. Whatta Hobby!

Happy as a clam with my M5 upper and lower once the folks here turned the light switch on for me. Whatta Hobby!

As far as I am concerned the German berdan brass in the best darn brass for precision reloading and longevity of the cases. Most difficult part today is finding the proper KV-7.62N berdan primers. Whatta Hobby!

Nice rainy windy day so I am hanging out in the playroom prepping a 500 rnd batch of MEN 7.61 x 51 German surplus berdan brass on it's 3rd loading. 1. Deprimed 2. Annealed 3. Sized 4. Wet tumbled with SS pins. 5. Run through the dryer. Last group of 150 is in the dryer now. In a couple of hours it can come out and get run through the Giraud trimmer. Should be ready for priming and loading in the morning if we have crappy weather again. Open ammo can is for cooling the brass after annealing. Whatta Hobby!

You betcha. Life is too short to spend time looking for anything. Load , shoot, repeat.

What would be cruel would be to post photos of the rest of the stash. This was just to show some of the outdated prices. The majority of my stuff is in 50 cal ammo cans and there are no prices on them. Whatta Hobby!

Taking inventory of some of my primer stash this morning. Thought ya'll might get a kick out of some of the prices. Good thing the buggers don't go bad if stored properly. Been a long time since I bought individual 1K boxes of primers. Whatta Hobby!

Here is another for your viewing pleasure. This is Bula Forge and Machine XM21 , pre Bula Defense Systems. This is the early one with the removable rail. Again mostly Bula parts in a JAE chassis. Ultra Heavy Barrel, Shootingsight EBR trigger with lightened hammer. Atlas type bipod from China. Scope is another Night Force. This one is the ATACR 5-25. Last photo shows BF&M XM21 version and BDS XM21 side by side for comparison. The rifle in the JAE chassis is a consistent sub .75 moa shooter with 136 gn FB bullets over 45 gn of Varget in German surplus berdan primed cases. Whatta Hobby!

Thanks, I have been nailing these things together for decades. I wanted to thank you guys again for your assistance getting my .308 AR type purring. Whatta Hobby!

Happy Spring. Full cleaning and touch ups on one of my rifles. This is Bula Defense Systems XM21 ser #3. Bula barrel is a NM med weight 22" 1/10, trigger group is Bula as is the bolt and op rod. This is my " God Bless America" special bedded in a McMillian M3A stock with Atlas bipod and USGI cotton sling. Scope is Night Force BEAST. Finished a full cleaning last night and epoxied the hand guard with Loctite EA 11C to the unitized,by me, Bula gas system . Whatta Hobby!

Well, that photo is 11 years old and I am sure the shirt is even older. Taken on Kauai while goofing off.

Youse guys is da bestus!

Didn't pay much attention, or don't remember coils or buffer weight other that they were what was recommended. I do remember that I needed to close my agb half way because it was overgased and has run great with all ammos tried from 110gn to 175 without a hickup since.

Listed to this guy, he's the bee's knees of this type of rifle. Whatta Hobby!

Couldn't have done it, in such a short time, without the help of you fine gentlemen. Now that it's working well it's time to go back to my M14s for a rest. Whatta Hobby!

Thanks again to the gurus on this forum. I have been enjoying this rifle and found after adding the agb and setting it open 8 out of 15 clicks, the rifle handles ammo from 110 gn handloads to 175 gn FGGM without a problem. I do shoot mostly the 136 gn fb. Whatta Hobby!

Well, got out for the first time with a .308 since my hand surgery. Feels good to be back at it. Not the best grouping in town, but haven't really done a ladder for the M5/M110 yet. I was using 136 gn fb for this target after the junk Hornady 150s in the photo above. Man are those lousy. best I could do was 1.5 moa and not consistent. The 136 fb at least were fairly consistent even if not particularly tight. Whatta Hobby!

Loaded up a few Mags for my M-5 .308 using the Magula loader. What a neat tool. Also found that the lock on P-mag covers are not for me. Pinched the heck out of one finger snapping the darn thing on. All in all a great tool for loading a super magazine. Whatta Hobby!

Any I will be returning to the RCBS universal, on the right, as soon as my hand is back in shape. Rgr on the feel. With the Spring shooting season on the horizon, I had to come up with a solution for a few thousand primers in the meantime. Looks like the Forster bonanza is going to be my solution. Rugged and the feel is there and no special shell holder needed. Used to shoot 5-10k of .308 annually but I have gone the precision route and cut my ammo consumption in half. Whatta Hobby!

Since my right hand has taken some time off for healing, I have been listening to guys recommendations for other types of priming tools. So far the Forster seems to be well made, smoother and does not require any additional shell holders. The RCBS is rugged but involves more movements to prime. The Lee is not bad, but a little flimsy for my liking. I want to do a few hundred more priming operations before I make a decision which I like best. Going to be very hard to beat the RCBS universal hand primer for overall ease of operations. Whatta Hobby!