First attempt at reloading

[pdsmith505]

This last weekend I made my first attempt at reloading for my 20" AR-15. I essentially inherited my grandfather's Dillon 550B setup. I wanted to load some 77gr Sierra Match Kings and see whether my gun could benefit from the heavier bullets or not.

Overall, I'd say it was a success. Of 80 rounds, I had two FTL's that I suspect were caused by the OAL being right on the edge of the magazine length and two FTF's where the primers simply didn't go off. The FTL's were dented severely by the bolt on the wall of the case and I wasn't comfortable trying to shoot them.

I also wanted to try a range of charges using both Varget and TAC to work up a good load for the gun. Based on the results, I'm going to work around the higher TAC charges.

All loads used CCI 400 small rifle primers.

TAC 100 yards, 5 rounds each:

Varget 100 yards, 5 rounds each:

300 yards with the remaining rounds (Usually 5, but 23.0 TAC only had two, and 23.5 Varget had 4) walking down to mark each group:

Don't mind the placement as I wasn't too concerned about correcting the scope, just the group size.

 

[Hardtarget]

It does look like your gun likes the Tac and the 77gr bullets.
A little more on the rifle. Twist rate, scope, ect. How your gun is set up in general. I just like to see how the different guns are made.

Good shooting!

Mark

 

[pdsmith505]

It's a 20" CHF 1:7 A2 profile Palmetto State Armory barrel, shooting through a 30 cal suppressor (picture prior to finishing the can). Has a Leupold Mark AR Mod 1 4-12x40 on top.

 

[moxie]

Very nice shooting!

Curious, what's an FTL? Is that the same as a failure to chamber?

 

[wally247]

Nice looking rifle. Keep feeding it with that 23.9 Tac load and you shouldn't have a problem hitting what you're aiming at.

 

[pdsmith505]

I called it a Failure to Load... chamber is more appropriate I suppose.

I've got another set of loads ready for this weekend ranging from 23.6 to 24.1 of TAC in 0.1gr increments.

 

[moxie]

Thanks!

 

[Potatohead]

Good shootin, though Im not sure I would consider 4 failures a "success". At least you fessed up though.


And Im not trying to imply that all Ive ever experienced was perfection.

 

[Nature Boy]

Well done! I'm also starting to reload for the first time. Will eventually get to my AR but the M1A/M14 is too much fun.

And nice rig!

 

[pdsmith505]

Eh. 4 failures out of 80, 5%. Sure, it's not six sigma by any means, but I was able to identify the causes and correct them for the next go-round. Not to mention being able to close in on a good load for this gun.

I have no doubt that if I had been loading shorter bullets, the 3 that didn't feed would have. As for the failure to fire, judging by the price tags, these primers are older than I am.