Load data for .308 in lake city brass?

[darb]

Interesting. everything I have read states the military brass holds has less volume, but I have not found any exactly measurements or weights with descriptions of the variances of different brass. I know everybody that loads and shoots and seems to be fine. I am at this point confident when I start reloading i'll find the right recipe. I am just curious about the different brasses. Thanks for your input re: the capacities.

[survivalshop]

Man 98, you get a new chop saw for making 300BLK brass &  you chop $hit up at the drop of a hat.    <thumbsup>

 

I weigh all my brass after cleaning , sizing & de-priming & trimming , my last batch of once fired LC had 23 @ 175 gr. weight class & 49 @ 180 gr. class. They are all close to those weights ( example 174.8 - 175.8 gr. ) 

 

I load them in separate classes that way , I have found that , on a Chronograph, if you load them the same charge, the heavier brass will always have a higher Average Velocity. Makes you wouder if some flyers are not caused by this factor .

Edited February 2, 2014 by survivalshop

[darb]

Man 98, you get a new chop saw for making 300BLK brass &  you chop $hit up at the drop of a hat.    <thumbsup>

 

I weigh all my brass after cleaning , sizing & de-priming & trimming , my last batch of once fired LC had 23 @ 175 gr. weight class & 49 @ 180 gr. class. They are all close to those weights ( example 174.8 - 175.8 gr. ) 

 

I load them in separate classes that way , I have found that , on a Chronograph, if you load them the same charge, the heavier brass will always have a higher Average Velocity. Makes you wouder if some flyers are not caused by this factor .

sounds good, thanks

[seasprite]

 

I load them in separate classes that way , I have found that , on a Chronograph, if you load them the same charge, the heavier brass will always have a higher Average Velocity. Makes you wouder if some flyers are not caused by this factor .

 

I do the same thing and I know what your saying about the flier now and then. I came across a statement on shooters forum that stated for every 1.5 gr heavier your case is to reduce your charge weight by .1 gr or the opposite for lighter cases. The reason for this is to keep barrel timing the same. I have yet to try this to see it pans out but the theory behind it sounds good to me. would like to try it but until supplies get back to a more normal state if they ever do then I might take this on and test it.    

[.338fedfan]

Thanks for the great info on case differentials.  I thought I did enough by separating by head stamp ,but know ol gramps needs to get a digital scale( please don't laugh),  since it IS the 21st century.

[Bear]

Good info in this thread. Went and checked my stash of .308, and found ~400 rounds loaded at near max (for commercial brass), but loaded in LC LR brass. Presently pulling bullets.....

[98Z5V]

Time to update this thread with new info, just so it stays pertinent. 

I picked up 1100 primed once-fired Lake City .308 cases from @dpete, and formulated a brand new load for a brand new 18.5" Mk11 gun.  I made the decision to jump to the Hornady .308 178gr ELD-X projectile, just because it's so much better than the Hornady 178gr HPBT that I was using before.  The bonus in all this is, it's the ELD-X, and works great for hunting, and slays dragons target-shooting.  It WORKS.  Running Accurate 2495 powder at 40.6 grains with a CCI 200 primer gets me 2530fps in 50* weather.  It gets me 2630fps in 105* weather. 

There are no brass issues, either at 50* or 105* - just takes two different dope charts for those extremes.  8.5 mils at 850 yards for one, 7.0 mils at 850 yards when it's superhot out... 

Edited July 29, 2020 by 98Z5V

[edgecrusher]

4 minutes ago, 98Z5V said:

Time to update this thread with new info, just so it stays pertinent. 

I picked up 1100 primed once-fired Lake City .308 cases from @dpete, and formulated a brand new load for a brand new 18.5" Mk11 gun.  I made the decision to jump to the Hornady .308 178gr ELD-X projectile, just because it's so much better than the Hornady 178gr HPBT that I was using before.  The bonus in all this is, it's the ELD-X, and works great for hunting, and slays dragons target-shooting.  It WORKS.  Running Accurate 2495 powder at 40.6 grains with a CCI 200 primer gets me 2530fps in 50* weather.  It gets me 2630fps in 105* weather. 

There are no brass issues, either at 50* or 105* - just takes two different dope charts for those extremes.  8.5 mils at 850 yards for one, 7.0 mils at 850 yards when it's superhot out... 

Interesting. Do you think that is powder specific or across the board? I have some varget to load up and once my my smk I’ll be loading those eldx you rave about

[98Z5V]

7 minutes ago, edgecrusher said:

Interesting. Do you think that is powder specific or across the board? I have some varget to load up and once my my smk I’ll be loading those eldx you rave about

Has to be powder specific, but that's suppoed to be a temp-stable powder, too.  Which makes me wonder...   That's just one wild temp range extreme to deal with, and the biggest change is the Relative Pressure - not directly the Barometric Pressure, but the Relative Pressure, from the temperature change. 

After seeing that - and I couldn't get the 18 Grendel on the 850 target at 105*...   and that's Accurate 2520 powder...  I stopped on the Grendel, but I stayed after it on the Mk11 gun. 

I'll get a powder that's supposed to be completely temp stable - even if I don't have one sitting here, and I'll specifically test this.  It's gonna take me 6 months to do it, completely, but I'll get my hot-weather data before August is over, while it's still hot-as-fuk here.  I'll shoot that same load again on an early January morning, 2021...  

Edited July 29, 2020 by 98Z5V

[edgecrusher]

👍. I ask because we have temp swings like nobody’s business. -15 to 100 plus. 

[98Z5V]

26 minutes ago, edgecrusher said:

👍. I ask because we have temp swings like nobody’s business. -15 to 100 plus. 

I'll find out, brother.  You know for a fact that I'm gonna get to the bottom of this.   1.5 mils of difference at 850 yards is HUGE!  50* to 105* is huge, too.  And it's in the Relative Pressure...  "Station Pressure" in my Kestrel... 

Sam at Panhandle Precision explains this much better than I can...   Kudos to Sam. 

GunWerks blows this out, too, in a written article - but he breaks it down to Density Altitude.  DA is a combination of pressure, temp, and humidity, into one number - and it's an important number:

https://www.gunwerks.com/blog/long-range-pursuit-2/post/shooting-under-pressure-22

Edited July 29, 2020 by 98Z5V

[Radioactive]

That’s why I switched to rl 16 for powder. Supposedly very temp stable. I have not played with it much yet still trying to find a load my 260 likes but was going to switch my 243 ai over as well since I’m getting pretty severe impact swings with the load I had for it. And I’m going to use boron nitride coated bullets in it as well. I’ll keep playing with it when I get time. I don’t shoot as often as I want to and not near as often as some of you guys do. The results come slower from my end.

https://www.thetruthaboutguns.com/powder-review-alliant-rl-16/

[Radioactive]

I was only referring to temp difference the density altitude or relative pressure obviously didn’t change for the posted test only the temp of the load. I don’t think any powder will be able to control the bullet flight changes due to those changes but if we could get at least a stable burn rate and resulting velocity stability before it gets spit out the end then the da can be better predicted for its effects.

[Sisco]

It would be nice if we could get the military data from their tests for their Long Distance sniper rounds. After Iraq they switched powder at least once in the M118LR, due to temperature induced variations. I believe they went to RL15 from Varget. That was quite some time ago.

[Radioactive]

1 hour ago, Sisco said:

It would be nice if we could get the military data from their tests for their Long Distance sniper rounds. After Iraq they switched powder at least once in the M118LR, due to temperature induced variations. I believe they went to RL15 from Varget. That was quite some time ago.

Don’t we know a guy that might know a guy?

[98Z5V]

15 hours ago, Radioactive said:

That’s why I switched to rl 16 for powder. Supposedly very temp stable. I have not played with it much yet still trying to find a load my 260 likes

I'm running RL-22 for my .260 Rem, and it LOVES that powder.  Grab a pound of that and play around.  From a 20" barrel, I'm getting 2650fps with Hornady 147 ELD-M projos.  43.0 grains was my most accurate charge, before I started seeing pressure signs, before the next accuracy node that I would have hit.  

5 hours ago, Sisco said:

It would be nice if we could get the military data from their tests for their Long Distance sniper rounds. After Iraq they switched powder at least once in the M118LR, due to temperature induced variations. I believe they went to RL15 from Varget. That was quite some time ago.

I know for positive that they switched over to RL-15 for the Mk 262 loaded ammo.  That was the Mk 262 Mod 1 change.  I think I remember hearing about that for the M118LR revisions, too, after they discovered it on the 5.56 heavies.  I'll go back through the power point slides  from Doc Roberts, about that. 

[Sisco]

26 minutes ago, 98Z5V said:

I'm running RL-22 for my .260 Rem, and it LOVES that powder.  Grab a pound of that and play around.  From a 20" barrel, I'm getting 2650fps with Hornady 147 ELD-M projos.  43.0 grains was my most accurate charge, before I started seeing pressure signs, before the next accuracy node that I would have hit.  

I know for positive that they switched over to RL-15 for the Mk 262 loaded ammo.  That was the Mk 262 Mod 1 change.  I think I remember hearing about that for the M118LR revisions, too, after they discovered it on the 5.56 heavies.  I'll go back through the power point slides  from Doc Roberts, about that. 

I really like RL15. A tad bit faster burning then Varget, hence a lower pressure curve. I believe 4895 has an even lower pressure curve, just not that familiar with it. If I was loading max for my M1A I would probably switch to it just to protect the operating rod, but I really never load to the Max. And in the direct impingement AR10’s it doesn’t matter quite so much.

[98Z5V]

34 minutes ago, Sisco said:

I really like RL15. A tad bit faster burning then Varget, hence a lower pressure curve.

I was a Varget-only guy before 2012.  Once Sandy Hook happened - I kid you not - Varget disappeared, and I had to find a suitable replacement.  I found RL-15.  I've never turned back.  It was my .308 Heavy-load powder, until recently.  It's still my 5.56 Heavy-load powder, and that won't change.  My 5.56 loads are dialed for my 18" guns, and they're badass.

I recently switched up my .308 Heavy-load powder at the same time I switched projectiles.  Before, I was only loading the Hornady 178gr HPBT Match projectile.  I've switched over to the Hornady 178 ELD-X for all my precision .308 Win loads now, and forever.  It's a far superior projectile.  With that, my powder changed to Accurate 2495.  I couldn't be happier. 

[Sisco]

5 hours ago, 98Z5V said:

I was a Varget-only guy before 2012.  Once Sandy Hook happened - I kid you not - Varget disappeared, and I had to find a suitable replacement.  I found RL-15.  I've never turned back.  It was my .308 Heavy-load powder, until recently.  It's still my 5.56 Heavy-load powder, and that won't change.  My 5.56 loads are dialed for my 18" guns, and they're badass.

I recently switched up my .308 Heavy-load powder at the same time I switched projectiles.  Before, I was only loading the Hornady 178gr HPBT Match projectile.  I've switched over to the Hornady 178 ELD-X for all my precision .308 Win loads now, and forever.  It's a far superior projectile.  With that, my powder changed to Accurate 2495.  I couldn't be happier. 

Almost the same thing happened to me in 2012. I got back into reloading and I scored on 7 pounds of RL15. Liked it so much I stuck with it. Might have to look at Accurate 2495. I have gone to the Hornady AMAX projectile from Sierra SMK’s and the results so far, are really impressive. I could only get the 168 grn AMAX, but with RL15 in my M1A with 11.25 twist the groups are excellent. Next time out I will try the AR10 Standard rifle with 11.25 twist. I can see though I am going to become a hoarder with these AMAX until they are plentiful.