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Posted: 5/19/2013 3:04:37 PM EDT
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Ok,so I am hooked on trying out high power this summer. I even went so far as to talk my brother in law into letting me use his rock river national match rifle. Of course, he gets to use my .308 AR while I have his, but hey, I now have a rifle to shoot for this stuff.
I am not sure what to do about reloading for this rifle. It has a 20 inch barrel, and is 1 in 8 twist. I have plenty of 55gr Hornaday BTHP, and 55gr Hornaday SP projectiles. I have been running WC844 on these loads, but have not really gotten spectacular results yet on my own rifles. Best so far is about a 3 inch group at 100 yds. Should I work on developing a load with these components, or do I need to move to 69gr ( or heavier) projectiles and a different powder. ( I do have some varget stashed away). I have yet to work on any loads for this rifle, but I don't want to waste my time on a projectile that isn't well suited for the task ya know? |
| I had no idea what your meant by high power so I looked it up. If this is it High Power Cool! Looks just like standard Marine Corps yearly qualification course. 55 FMJ should work but if it were me and my 1/9 rifle I would use Hornady 68 gr BTHP and Varget. Get your load down to 2 MOA and you should be fine. Try to put a scope on your rifle to see how well the load works so you know if you need the improvement or the reload needs work. I think the x-ring at 300 yds is about 9 inches and the 500 is 18 inches wide, so 2 moa is good enough but check for your self. words of advise, don't make a wind adjustment at 200 yds and if you can see your pulse making the front site post jump at 500 yds your sling is too tight. Have fun! |
| I would look for a bullet with better BC like 69gr Lapua Scenar (.321 BC),69 SMK (.301), 75 A-Max (.435 BC), and Berger 75gr VLD (.447 BC), these will work a lot better than a 55g when you get to the 600yd portion of the event. For powder you might have to move to a powder like varget or cfe 223 I'm not sure if you can load the powder you have with heavier bullets. |
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your 1/8 will handle 77 gr and 80 gr bullets, the heavier bullets handle the wind a lot better
I use 77gr Sierra MK for 200 and 300 yards (at magazine leangth)(slow and rapid fire) 80 gr Sierra for 600 yards slow fire ( the 80s are made to be loaded through the ejection port one at a time ( too long for magazine ) my barrel likes them 25 thou. off lands, most of the other brands of barrels like them 10 to 15 thou. off lands I tried a varriety of powders and bullets and found my rifle likes Sierra and Varget the best (1/8 twist Bushmaster, 20" barrel) |
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'Standard' Highpower loads:
Bullet: 77smk Case: LC Powder: 24 Re-15 or 23.2 XBR-8208 Primer: Rem 7.5 or Wolf SRM Length: mag length, so 2.245 I used Re-15 for a while but now use 8208 (meters more consistently in my Lee Perfect) and Wolf primers from 200 to 600. Bullet: 80smk Case: LC Powder: 24 Re-15 Primer: Rem 7.5 or Wolf SRM Length: ogive at 0.002 off the lands I've loaded some up but never shot them at 600. They're supposed to fight the wind better. A whole doctoral thesis I once did  http://www.ar15.com/forums/t_6_42/324360_.html
<---- shoots RRA NM A2 |
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You can use 68/69 grain bullets at the 200/300 yard line without problems. Unless you have zero wind speed I wouldn't even try them at 600.
Use 80 grain SMK's, Nosler's or Hornady A-Max bullets for 600 yards depending on which one shoots the smallest groups for you in your rifle. 23.5 to 24.0 grains of Varget, or RE-15 or Viht N-140. |
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3" groups from an AR-15 at 100 yards sounds like a shooter limitation. How were those groups fired, from a solid bench with a scope or prone with a sling and iron sights...? Have you ever shot smaller groups using the same technique and equipment?
What distance will you be shooting at? I'd recommend your first few matches be 100 yard reduced course matches - they are just so much easier on the shooter while learning the match operations. If you stay at 100 yards, those bullets will be fine. If you are shooting full-course matches, get some 77gr SMK's or 75 ggr Hornady HPBT-M bullets. 24.0 gr of Varget and a Winchester SR primer and Winchester case will be just fine, even at 600 yards. The 80 SMK (same load) will do better at 600 yards than the 77 but not by much and early-on, don't bother. |
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The 69gr or 77gr sierra match king with rl15, varget, tac, or n140 is all you need for now. Load them to 2.25" (mag length).
I've shot the 53gr match kings and they work well at 200-300 but are terrible at 600. I don't think you will see much advantage with the 77s over the 69s at this stage though so just load what you can get your hands on. Make sure you bring a mat, sling, etc. I would also ask to pull targets first so you can talk with the others in the pit and watch how the match goes. Good luck! |
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Have fun!
for 55 hornady fmj's and WC844 I have used up to 26 grains in LC cases. work up to this of course. This should do better than 2" at 100 yds easily. The hornady fmj's are pretty good in the accuracy department. Much better than other brands of the same style. If you are only shooting in local club matches at 100 and 200 yards this bullet will do fine. I'd call it approaching match quality and would hold the 10 ring if not the X ring. If you're shooting a full course you could get by shooting 77 Noslers/sierras or 75 Hornadys for the whole course to keep it simple, instead of having to keep your ammo straight shooting a short line load, a rapids load and a 600 yard load. |
| I have RRA Wylde chamber 1:8, 16" barrel. The Hornady 55 BT (H2267, a "bulk" bullet) gives me 1-1.5 MOA at 300 yds. with 23 Gr H322. The Hornady 53 gr Match (H2250) is consistent 1 MOA at 300 yds. with 23 gr H322. Also 68 gr Match Hornady (H2278) gives 1 MOA at 300 with 22.5 gr H322. These also work for my RRA Wylde chamber in 1:9 20" barrel. Have also used H335 but not as good as H322. |
| Are you going to be shooting a reduced course or the full 600 yards? If you're shooting everything at 100 or 200 yards with reduced targets, your bullet choices open up. If you're going to be going to 300 and 600, you're going to want to start using heavier stuff. |
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Thanks a lot for the input eveyone I really appreciate it.
Where I will be shooting, they got to 300 yds, then shoot reduced for 600. I think I am going to try to work up some 75's, a buddy has some he will trade me. I may even try to work up a load with my 55's as well, and see what works for me. |
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Quoted:
Thanks a lot for the input eveyone I really appreciate it. Where I will be shooting, they got to 300 yds, then shoot reduced for 600. I think I am going to try to work up some 75's, a buddy has some he will trade me. I may even try to work up a load with my 55's as well, and see what works for me. Yes, the 75's will work well at 300 yards. The 50 grainers will also work but you will be at a slight disadvantage due to wind drift. |
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Quoted:
Thanks a lot for the input eveyone I really appreciate it. Where I will be shooting, they got to 300 yds, then shoot reduced for 600. I think I am going to try to work up some 75's, a buddy has some he will trade me. I may even try to work up a load with my 55's as well, and see what works for me. I'd be happy with 68/69's too for 300. On a light wind day the 55's could be pressed into work but yea, you'll likely lose some points if the wind picks up. |
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Quoted:
Thanks a lot for the input eveyone I really appreciate it. Where I will be shooting, they got to 300 yds, then shoot reduced for 600. I think I am going to try to work up some 75's, a buddy has some he will trade me. I may even try to work up a load with my 55's as well, and see what works for me. Sir, while I can't add much to what has already been posted I will make a few comments. As you can see from the responses posted so far there's a wide choice available. For shooters that compete "across the course" ie: 200/300/600 the most popular combination for 200/300 is the Sierra HPBT 77gr bullet with either Varget, RL-15 or my preference N540. The 69gr SMK is a close second but I stopped reloading that bullet just for the sake of simplicity. Why carry three different loads for across the course when two is more than adequate. For 600yd most competitors opt for a higher BC bullet such as the 80gr Sierra or a VLD. My choice for 600 is the Berger 80gr. VLD. The BC is much higher with VLDs than the SMK the terminal velocity at 600 is significant. To put it as simply as I can the faster your bullet looses velocity as it travels down range the greater the effect range conditions will have on your bullet and the point of impact on target. I remember one response to a similar question on the highpower forum was "the wind has less time to screw with your bullet"! For reduced course matches almost any bullet choice that you can extract MOA accuracy from will suffice. When you consider the "X" ring of the MR31 target is less than one MOA you'll realize that in order to score well you need to aim to place all your shots inside the ten ring, preferably the X ring. My recommendation is to start with the reduced course matches to hone your skills and learn the limitations of the rifle you are using. Once your skills are adequate to recognize the short comings of the rifle you can built a better rifle and move up to across the course to learn how to read the conditions. Additionally, look into buying a good spotting scope to see the conditions and mirage across the course. One thing to remember when or if you decide to try VLD bullets. Seating depth will vary with the throat of your rifle. Experiment with seating depth with your rifle to determine what depth works best. Some VLD bullets shoot best when seated INTO the lands by some distance. HTH, 7zero1. |
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