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OCW CFE223 & 168gr A-Max


seasprite

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I'm sorry to hear that, seasprite. I bet hot day had a part in that. I shoot crummy groups and I figure most of that is me, though. This summer so far has been pretty mild & comfortable here in the SF Bay Area, we hardly ever use the AC in the house, very unusual, there has been a few waves of heat. Now that I said that it will probably get hot.

I'm thinking of getting a scope for the range so I can see much better just what the heck I'm trying to shoot at. I should just do it. Thinking of the SWFA SS 16x42 fixed for $299. Or maybe the 12x42  <dontknow>

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Well I just can't except it that the 2.815 seating depth load is no good all test before this one show this load should be good to go so I went ahead and checked a box of 20 that I had loaded up. found that the col varied by .007" What the heck. So I started checking things to see what was going on. Found that some of my rims were bent from early extraction & causing the variance in my seating depth. I went ahead and loaded 20 rounds of known good brass so I'll see if things improve. I also started my 47.1gr seating depth test I've got about half of my test rounds done so maybe this weekend we'll find out how things are progressing. 

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  • 2 weeks later...

Started testing the 47.1gr of CFE 223 yesterday everything was going good until I got to the 2.800 seating depth. I ended up busting my extractor  >:( so that ended my day right there. I called DPMS and they said they would mail one out to me  <thumbsup> so now I need to know why this happened so it doesn't happen again. I'm thinking that I'm over gassed and the bolt is unlocking early when there is still to much pressure in the cartridge for it to properly extract. The reason I say this is my ejection is at 1:00 to 2:00 o'clock and some of my cartridge rims are bent. Now I need to know the best way to solve this issue, I,m thinking of going with a heavy buffer to increase the lock time. I'm going to start a separate thread on this so here is the pics had some major set back on 2 of my rounds dew to the FTE issue since they had no place to go with the spent casing still in the chamber. 

post-1747-136297279035_thumb.jpg

post-1747-136297279041_thumb.jpg

post-1747-13629727905_thumb.jpg

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Yep, seasprite I still need to update my thread. I went the other day to the range. I had alot of that going on with the ejector pulling back on the case with seemingly too much force, rims being bent back a smidge on new Winchester brass. Can't use that brass anymore obviously. I think for my rifle there is too much pressure going on. I have slash's CAR 10 XH buffer too and adjustable gas block that I did try adjusting down with no luck. I think if I want to keep trying with this powder and the 168 gn I need to reduce the load, do a milder OCW.

However I did bring a batch for a OCW test using the 178 grain A-Max. Interestingly I did not encounter this rim bending issue with these loads. The primers looked better too, a little cratering on some of the 168 batch.

But everything looked fine with this 178 Amax and CFE223 batch, including some groups. I used a starting load of 44.4 grains of CFE223 under the 178 Amax and I ended at 46.2. I have no chrono data, unfortunately.

At 44.7 gns CFE there was a 1.12" group. At 45 gn it was a little over 2" maybe one was a flyer. I'm going to work on this load.

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  • 2 weeks later...

That's good  <thumbsup>

I at present have just finished lots of brass prep and am starting to load CFE + 178 A-Max. I bought 2# of CFE223 the other day. Wish me luck my brother.

<thumbsup> Good luck brother. Going to try this coming weekend my self. I repaired the rounds that had set back. I'm hoping the three remaining 2.800 rounds continue where the other 2 shots did when I had the malfunction.

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How does your chamber look inside , if its rough (notorious for some DPMS rifles ) it could be holding the fired case in too long .

The extractor was probably weak , it happens  when you mass produce them .

Whats with the set back rounds , whats the story on those , neck tension, do you use any kind of crimp , too long of COL & they jammed into the barrel extension ?

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How does your chamber look inside , if its rough (notorious for some DPMS rifles ) it could be holding the fired case in too long .

The extractor was probably weak , it happens  when you mass produce them .

Whats with the set back rounds , whats the story on those , neck tension, do you use any kind of crimp , too long of COL & they jammed into the barrel extension ?

Far as I know the chamber is fine from what I can actually see. Is there a way to tell if the chamber is gripping the brass to much?

I'm hoping this isn't a common problem with the extractor does anybody make one thats of better quality? Plus I would also like to put together an emegancy spare part kit wich will include an extractor plus what other parts would you include in a kit? <dontknow>

As far as the set back goes thats from the broken extractor. The spent brass was left in the chamber when the bolt cycled, so the new round had no place to go but right into the back of the previous fired round. I imagine that when the bolt comes forward it has some force behind it with the mass and spring tension pushing it. 

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Got to finish up my testing on Sat. and lets say my results were less than what I expected but part of that might of been I couldn't hold the gun stable no matter what I did I'm going to retest the 2.815" and the 2.795".

I have question on horizontal stringing is that caused by trigger control basically operator error and not the load itself?

post-1747-13629728054_thumb.jpg

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Horizontal = trigger control, or loose scope mounts, usually.

Thanks 98Z5V, helped me decide on testing the 2.795" again. I'm going with the nut behind the trigger excuse. 3 of the shots were under an inch along with one wide right and one wide left. I know the one the went left was me just wasn't sure of the one that went right.

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seasprite, I was reading here thru your thread again. How long is your barrel? Can't find where you say so....

Thanks!!

Its an 16" 1-10 twist DPMS barrel.

Won't get back to testing for 2-3 weeks because I'm going to install the PRI low profile adjustable gas block and set it to cycle the 175gr Privi ammo that I have. I also need to pick up some more bullets. Last time at the range I couldn't believe my luck and scored around 150 pieces of .308 brass mainly Remington and Winchester along with some Lake City. Normaly the only thing I find in the range buckets is steel cases for the .308 so I'll probably be processing this brass for a few days to.

Later NoFail

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  • 1 month later...

Alrighty guy's this is going to be my last post for this load workup I did some retesting and found that with PPU brass 47.9gr of CFE 223 and the 168gr A-Max with a C.O.L. of 2.790" is the best combination for my rifle. After I put the adjustable gas block on all presure signs went away from over gassing and early extraction and my brass and primers look great. Its been fun doing this load workup with you guy's and all the help you have provided through this THANKS  <thumbsup>.

DPMS Oracle with SSA trigger

PPU Brass

CCI Large Rifle Primers

CFE 223  47.9gr 

Horndy 168gr A-Max

C.O.L. 2.790"

Velocity 2650fps

SD  9fps

And here's today's target pic. <thumbsup>

post-1747-13629728307_thumb.jpg

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Thanks guy's, It was defiantly a long road on this load but I think a lot of it was my overgasing giving the indication of high pressure so I'd thought I'd take a couple of pics to show the difference in the the brass.

As you can see in the first pic everything to indicate an over pressure load.
ejector swipe
cratered and flattened primer
bent rim
along with throwing my brass at the 1:00-1:30 position.
DSCF0371.jpg

Now here's the after,I put the adjustable gas block on and tuned it. All signs of high pressure are gone and the load for the 2 cases was the same.
DSCF0372.jpg

I think the next load I'm going to develop will be the 178gr A-Max but I'm going to enjoy the fruits of my labor for now and possibly due some upgrades to the rifle.
 

Edited by seasprite
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  • 4 months later...

Well I managed to get out today and shot some of these 168gr loads over the chrony today so this should clear up whether CFE 223 is temp. sensitive or not and the verdict is yes.

6/6/12

temp 85*

avg vel. 2642

6/30/12

temp 100*

avg vel. 2655

7/11/12

temp 95*

avg vel 2663

3/9/13

temp 55*

avg vel 2605

So I would say for every degree of change you'll get 1 fps change. I ran 14 rounds across the chrony this time and my SD was still 10 so its a consistent load even with the temp. change.

 

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