Home Forums Hunting & Shooting AR and Tactical Rifles Next ? Primers, Bullets and Powders

Thanks all for the help on the PMC brass. Now I need help with the rest of the components.

Loads are for a colt LE 6920. I have cci 450 mag primers. There was not much of a choice here as shelves are bare.

Bullets are even rarer, but I'll wait it out. These will be for hunting pigs mostly. Your suggestions?

Powder is still available. Your choices?

I guess while I have your attention, I have a leupold 3 X 9 sitting around that I'm thinking of adding. These eyes ain't what they used to be. Rings and mounts ??

Thanks gentlemen for your patience and guidence through this new endeavor for me.

BP...

Tac or Varget or RL15

Some flavor of Barnes tsx or ttsx bullets. Weight is your choice. If not that partition, I think they are 60s? 63 sierra semi point worked well for us over the years on hogs and was reasonable.
Though I've shot a boat load with 75 bthps.

Rings and mounts are a personal thing... White Oak Riser for me and the right set of rings beyond that, typically medium of your brand. If not low.

Varget or Tac with the Nosler 60 gr Partition

W748/BLC2/varget/Exterminator/Tac/benchmark.

FYI 748 is REALLY temp sensitive in our TX summers.... BTDT and seen some nasty pressures with it years ago in competitions... I would take that off my list first.

It gets hot in your part of Tx.??

Thanks for the heads up. I have a few lbs. of varget and a good supply of R15. I'll start there.

BP...

I have a gun built with a J&T 1/7 CL upper. I've managed 0.6" @ 100yds with 60gr Horn. SP over 23.0gr of H335 in RP cases.

After shooting a couple hundred various FMJ (factory and handloads), I had been trying to come to terms with the fact that it was just gonna be a sprayer. The SPs made all the difference in the world!

If you have magnum primers, you need to use the low end of the recommended loads. Mag primers give you about 200 fps faster. You don't want excessive pressure.

If you are just getting started. The Lyman Reloading Handbook is best for beginners. It lists various brands of powders and recommended minimum and maximum loads for various bullets. I have been reloading about 5 years and I still use it all the time.

I have never seen magnum primers give anywhere close to 200fps on any load. In fact, I see hardly any difference in most loads, none in many.

I like H335 in 5.56

prezactly and in my 6.8 the opposite is true. I get 30 fps less with tbe mags both cci

Yep, it alwyas pays to pay attention as you work a load up, but in 223 I've used exclusively small rifle mags and top end competition loads, IE pretty much max loads....

What I have seen change with primers and same load a lot though, you can double or triple group sizes OR cut them in half.

Jeff

BTW if anything other than head shooting the big ones, think about bullet strength....

Vs speed driven.. IE I'd driven a ballistic tip through the shields of a 300 pounder from a 7.62x39 before. But its going so slow it doesn't blow up...

TSX types can be your best friend, but typically from hogs expect not much blood trail... even my BT kill had very little but was easy to find anyway.

+1

I can agree that primers can make a big difference in all kinds of ways. I have (usually) found that the win primers are by far the hottest, fed 2nd, and cci coolest. I never used any rem or cheddite or wolf so can't say on those. Seems my most accurate and consistent loads come from the Federals, though. I know not scientific, but sometimes you just get a gut feeling and confidence from something and it is hard to change.

I killed a 220 pound sow with a 75 grain swift scirocco 2 over 23.5 grains of TAC, WW brass Fed 205 primers. Shot in the shoulder dropped on the spot about 30-40 yards I did not measure it.

The scope is surely fine for the rifle, I know from personal experience that a good mount will hold zero even if the rifle is dropped on concrete. The larue lt104 is expensive but you will never regret your purchase.

Magnum primers are a good thing in AR rifles. The harder cups won't give you the worry of a slam fire like other primers can.

I get over 3100fps out of my 16" barrel when pushing a 60-65gr bullet when I use AA2230 and CCI450 primers.

FWIW all we've run lately in the last 10 years or so is M41s. Not just because they are made for the AR, but because they are also very accurate in our loads.