mineralman55 Posted May 26, 2015 Report Posted May 26, 2015 (edited) Needed to start this thread again so others can live vicariously. A friend and I built an all-1955 M1 Garand with a NIW 1955 Springfield Armory barrel I found on the CMP forum. Unfortunately, It shot horribly. With the sights bottomed it shot over a foot high at 100 yds with a pattern that was worse than a shotgun blast. We looked at everything, couldn't figure out why the performance was so bad. So I gave in and bought a new Criterion M1 30-06 barrel, put it on and bam!, top notch groups right from the start. This is a shooter! Inspection of the SA barrel showed it was bent. That sucks. Lessons learned. For those interested, this is a handload, 168 Hornady BTHP, 46.4 grains of Varget, LC cases, WIN LR primers, 3.320" LOA. Oh yeah, 100 yds with a front rest only. Edited May 26, 2015 by mineralman55
survivalshop Posted May 26, 2015 Report Posted May 26, 2015 Nice , now you have a Barrel that can shoot around corners & if you bought that from someone on the CMP Forum , I would let him know or the whole Forum !
jtallen83 Posted May 27, 2015 Report Posted May 27, 2015 (edited) My just turned 14 year old Granddaughter did this with my new P716. 30 rounds, iron sights, at 50 yards. Short of pistols this was her first experience shooting iron sights( she has near 500 rounds under the the belt with my AR-10 so not her first 7.62 outing). She also went 50 for 50 on the 100 yard dueling tree with my Armalite 5.56 build, beat me and 3 other 40+ year shooters. Add this to a straight A 8th grade report card she nailed down for the year and I am one PROUD grandpa! B) Edited May 27, 2015 by jtallen83
slugger43 Posted May 27, 2015 Report Posted May 27, 2015 Ah, grandchildren. Our reward for resisting the urge to murder our teenagers! Among my six is a beautiful 16-year-old Annie Oakley who lives several states away. Rarely do we get to shoot together, but it is one of the great pleasures in life. Enjoy, all you grandpas!
jtallen83 Posted May 27, 2015 Report Posted May 27, 2015 Ah, grandchildren. Our reward for resisting the urge to murder our teenagers! So very true!
ridurall Posted May 28, 2015 Report Posted May 28, 2015 When working up a load for my first AR-10T a 1998 Armalite with a Springfield Gen.III scope on it with the .308 rectical. I worked up a load with 168 Gr. Hornady A-Max with 44 Grains of Varget that gave me .31” at 100 yards, .643” at 100 with Nosler brass and 1.23” at 200 yards which worked out to .61 MOA with Winchester brass. Out of all the different brass I’ve used I found that Federal is the most consistent for me. Last week I got very lucky and was able to purchase 1000 once fired Federal .308 brass cases for $115. That brought my price per round down to .56 cents a round for the first loading and .47 cents for every load after that. By the way I believe that 44 grains of Varget can be pretty hot in other rifles however it has no signs of too much pressure in my AR-10T or my Windham .308 AR Hunter. As always don’t take my loads as a starting point and drop 10% and work up from there. When I’m reloading I always trim my brass to size so I don’t have any problems with too much crimp pressure. image ru upload pics image post I'll cling to my God and my guns, and you can keep the "Change".
mineralman55 Posted June 8, 2015 Author Report Posted June 8, 2015 Decided to break out the AR15 just to try some more load development. I'm finding a lot of bullet/powder combos that provide acceptable accuracy (2 MOA +-), but only a few with outstanding accuracy (<=1.5 MOA+-). I always gauge the performance with iron sights, front bench rest only and 100 yds (that's just me, you might use other criteria.) Anyway, with this AR, the barrel is a 1:8 20" HBAR. The Hornady 75 BTHP never seems to get any better than this. Once I run out of others, I'm sticking with the Sierra 69 BTHP. They are just outstanding in this rifle.
jamesfnbond Posted June 8, 2015 Report Posted June 8, 2015 (edited) Here is a 100 yd three shot group I got using an FNAR 308 and hand loads with Berger 168 gr VLD's and 43.5 gr of IMR 4064 Edited June 8, 2015 by jamesfnbond
98Z5V Posted June 9, 2015 Report Posted June 9, 2015 (edited) 44gr of Varget is a decently hot load under a 168gr projectile. Get away with it while you can. It ain't a mild load, that's for damn sure. EDIT - better check your temps when you're loading it, and when you're firing it - much later. That has an effect. No way would I load that in AZ in the winter, and try to take that load out in the summer and shoot it... Edited June 9, 2015 by 98Z5V
ridurall Posted June 10, 2015 Report Posted June 10, 2015 44gr of Varget is a decently hot load under a 168gr projectile. Get away with it while you can. It ain't a mild load, that's for damn sure. EDIT - better check your temps when you're loading it, and when you're firing it - much later. That has an effect. No way would I load that in AZ in the winter, and try to take that load out in the summer and shoot it... I've been watching for signs of excessive pressure both summer and winter with zero signs. While I'd prefer a reduced charge my .308s seem to shoot best with that load for some reason. You can bet I'll be miking the base of the case after shooting this summer.
Finney Posted June 10, 2015 Report Posted June 10, 2015 155AMAX, 44gr Varget, Win. brass 200yds I dropped one. Trying for 1/2", good except for one
ridurall Posted June 11, 2015 Report Posted June 11, 2015 By the way Varget is one of the more temperature stable powders on the market. Today I was going through a lot of loads out there and I found a bunch listed as 46 grains behind 168 gr Bergers, Speer etc. For me that is too hot summer or winter but for some people it seems to give them good groups in semi auto and bolt guns. Now back to the disclaimer don't jump on the higher Varget loads. Start around 41 grains and work your way up stopping if you find signs of excessive pressure or you don't get corresponding higher velocities.
mineralman55 Posted June 11, 2015 Author Report Posted June 11, 2015 46 grains is close to optimal in a 30-06 underneath a 168 BTHP. That is waaaay too hot for a .308. This is what 46.4 grains in a 30-06 and a 168 BTHP Hornady looks like.
98Z5V Posted June 12, 2015 Report Posted June 12, 2015 By the way Varget is one of the more temperature stable powders on the market. I'm well aware of that. Long-time Varget loader - when I could find it, in the not-too-distant past. 44.0 is the max listed in the Hornady 9th edition, running that 168 at 2600fps, and that data is for 165 and 168s. I run 44.0 Varget under Hornady 150gr FMJBTs, and it's pushing the edge of flattening primers.
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