I did shoot the 55s, and 75s back to back. 55’s did 1.75" POI-POA right where I wanted it appox 1.5" high centered. Last group, 75’s… first 2 shots 7" high .5" apart, 2nd 2 shots 3.75" high .6" apart, 5th shot was 2" high, and 2" left. This at 100 yds. That’s pretty bad.
It was about 70, and calm.
I couldn’t detect any movement in the scope, or the barrel, also the 55s shot fine.
I had loaded all the bullets previously, I’ll probably pull some down and check them.
The barrel was pretty clean, and I cleaned it again when I got home. Very little copper came out.
I was trying to be as consistent as I could on my hold. I was shooting off a bench, and a rest with sandbags. I was trying hard not to put any downward pressure on the rifle since the barrel isn’t floated. Again the 55s shot fine.
I put these together for long range 3gun, past 250 yds. The targets are fairly large. This is first time in a year I have sat at a bench, and shot for accuracy since I developed the load. Glad I did. I think I’ll look into some Noslers, or Sierras.
I was reluctant to try the 69 grain SMKs because I never read that many good things about them. But Pappabear bought a bunch, so we ran them. And they’ve been great long range bullets.
I have found that the 69gr SMK’s to be very accurate out of most of my AR’s. Matter of fact I haven’t found a more accurate round for my 18" Stealth. I haven’t run them past 300yds but inside 300 they have been fantastic.
It seems that this round got lost in the mix with all of the 75-77gr stuff that is so often raved about on the web…
Yeah, that’s kinda my point, it got lost when the neatest, newest, bestest ever started to gain in popularity. That’s not taking away from some of the great new cartridges, it just stole the thunder of what is still a great round for precision…
Thinking back a few months ago I was having a hard time hitting a half IPSC steel at 250, I had to aim at the bottom of target to hit it with these 75’s. Now I know why.
I’m thinking that as the throat on this barrel has worn over time that it can no longer handle the large boattails on the 75’s, this is just a theory though.
I have a BCM 16" with a much fresher barrel I’m going to try these in, just waiting for a new scope.
So far Hornady brand ammo has been the best in both my 308 and 223. It’s a very close second in the 22mag. Even my 1911 likes Hornady. I’m actually surprised to hear negativity towards Hornady.
Perhaps it is the rifle, maybe the loads or maybe it’s just the shooter. You know we are all entitled having a bad day now and then.
Anyway I hope you narrow it down and make the necessary corrections to get back in the swing of things.
The cannelure is especially important if you will be shooting such ammo out of a belt-fed, full auto open bolt weapon. Crimped primers are also recommended.
The loss of accuarcy is a worthwhile trade off for safety with a belt fed open bolt squad auto.
If you are 100% sure you won’t be shooting such a gun with your reloads, you would probably be happier with the accuracy of non-cannelured bullets.
i’ve been using the 75gr hornadys with very satisfactory results with 24.0 tac and more recently 8208. just ran a comparison this past weekend using 77 sierras and 75 hornadys with both tac/8208, playing with seating depths and primers. also between older batch 75’s and fresh batch of 600/same lot. interesting thing with new batch is ogival measurement with newer batch of 600 rounds-required seating out .010 to remain at 2.240" overall, maybe just another cause of variability of results for some with hornady’s, if you have the tool to measure same.
all said, they still shot well, with both tac and 8208, but i’ve got another batch of 77 sierras, 77 noslers and 70vld’s coming in order to keep this process going. also picked up another couple lbs of 8208, as it really seems to want to shoot in a couple of different combos. have varget, h4895 and rl15 to round it out, but last week’s results with rl15 were not anything to shout about. all above in 18" noveske spr, 3x9 swfa and atlas bipod…and all 10 shot groups.
So are there any quality, value-priced factory ammo that is accurate?
I took out a new BCM BFH upper to shoot it for groups using 69 gr. Prvi Match and was pretty happy with the results. The formal 10 shot group was just under 1.5" at 100 yards. This was using a front sandbag, on a bench, using a standard DD trigger, and a Nikon M223 3-12x SF on 12x.
I did the same thing with 75 gr. Hornady TAP Training and got a 10 round group right around 2.25". It was kind of a letdown as I was hoping for a bit more from this round. Guess you can’t pay for a “training” round and get stellar accuracy.
I might try again as I was getting tired, and this stupid couple who set up right next to me, shooting a .22LR, was whining about how they could “feel the blast on their insides” (HaHa, thanks to the Battlecomp). Freakn range was crowded this past Monday. Usually, I go there and there might be one other person and I’m at peace. This time cease fires were being called every 15-20 minutes.
Oh, and 55 gr. PMC Bronze FMJ yielded 2.5" groups.
Crap. We shot our 69grain recipe against the 75s today and the 75s won.
We did groups at 200 yards with full value wind 4-6mph according to Pappabear’s kestrel. Fired through a WOA AR with a 10 power duplex reticle scope.
They were both sub MOA, but the 75s had the Best group of 5 at just over an inch with 4 of the holes about touching… pics when Pappabear sends them to me.
