M5E1 build (or “How I Learned to Stop Expecting Things to Fit or Work Correctly and Accept the Insanity That is the AR308 Platform”

Cliff R · June 28, 2020

"Thanks for the info, @Cliff R . I’ll pick up some lighter loads before I shoot this one more."

Good plan. For powder I found out nearly 50 years ago that much of the extruded IMR stuff is a little "crunchy" going thru the powder measure. Not a big deal but in the 1980's I purchased a chronograph and got an education is true velocity vs what is posted in the reloading manuals for various powder/bullet combinations. I was seeing more consistency with ball powder (and higher velocity with flat base vs boat tail bullets) and got rid of 3031, 4064, 4350 and a few others replacing them with BLC-2 and H414.....and never looked back.

That statement doesn't mean that there is anything at all wrong with any of it. Matter of fact I had some 4320 left over from a purchase decades ago and used some of it up running-in 3 of these rifles with some generic 165 grain military style boat tail bullets I had laying around. I also pushed part of a box of older Sierra 150 grain flat base soft points with it, and those shot remarkably well thru my DPMS going well under 1" at 100 yards for 5 shots.

I never did dive deeply into the velocity thing with the flat base vs boat tail designs but a slight loss there is very quickly overshadowed by improvements in flight over longer distances so I didn't dwell on it much. I was also shooting on a Military rifle and pistol team around that time so grabbing up Lake City Match 308 ammo which proved to be DEADLY accurate in my M-14 at any distance and those were boat tail bullets.

Anyhow, sorry for being so long-winded, I'm sure you'll nail down a "pet" load for it that yields good performance without excessive pressure........Cliff

Edited June 28, 2020 by Cliff R