Back felt better, so I hit the range this morning, eager to try out the
New chronograph and my two new reloads. What I did not take into account was a very nasty wind. 20 mph gusting to 40, and swirling around the range. I took myAR10T carbine, and my AR10A4 rifle. My reloads were, as mentioned elsewhere, 168gr SMK's BTHP and 175gr. BTHP SMK's. Both loaded with 42 gr RE15, half in Lake City brass, and half in M80 brass. All with Winchester large rifle primers.
I set up the Chrony, and had a tough time keeping it upright in the wind.
I was able to fire five rounds of Factory M118LR and found a 150 ft per second spread, from 2774 fps to 2924 fps in the carbine. I was also able to chrony the 168 gr reloads with an average of 2692 fps in the carbine, before the wind defeated me and I packed the chrony away.
For the carbine, i don't have M118 control group pictured, but it was two inches high of the bullseye, and roughly two inches across, which in this wind was all that could be expected.
When I went to shoot the 175's I had already put the chrony away, but only shot two shots in the carbine. Inspection of the primers should flattening, and as I was alone, and there is no cell coverage at the range, I decided to forego shooting anymore. Pictured below is one of them with a fired M118 case for comparison.
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Cases were not bulged or deformed, so I may try them under controlled conditions.
When I tried the 168 gr reloads, there was no sign of primer flattening, so I went ahead. As the wind was bad, I made no attempt to fine tune the scopes on the rifles, and as you can see the carbine shot 2 inches high at 100 yards with all loads. Below is the best group at 100 yards with the AR10T carbine.
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As you can see it was a six shot group with no malfunctions.
I next took out the AR10 A4 rifle and fired a control group with the M118LR, which is below.
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Nothing special, but I can't complain with that brutal wind. Obviously the scope is better zeroed in on the rifle.
Then I shot a number of five shot groups with the 168's in the AR 10 rifle, a representative one which is below.
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All and all I am very pleased with the performance of the 168's in those brutal wind conditions, and the rifle especially liked them. And a special thanks to Texaslongshot for recommending that load, it's a keeper.
The 175's I will need to decide whether to pull the bullets and start over, although I think the remaining 48 could be safely shot, but I think they are a little closer to the limit, especially in the m80 brass. Any opinions on that?
I will end with a couple pics of my '10's.
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