Thought I would share my SCAR 17 load workups

[sammy]

About a week ago I picked up a new SCAR 17. What an amazing rifle. Only complaint is the 16" barrel. Too short for 308 in my book but if they ever make an 18" it will be on my Christmas list.

After playing with irons for a while I decided to mount up a Vortex Viper 2.5x10 to test some loads. Since this is my only 308 and having never loaded it factory ammo was needed simply for the brass.

First up was CBC that comes in a bulk 50 round pack. It looks nice but the best groups I could muster were a very disappointing 5" (all groups are at 100 yards). This had me very concerned. Next up was PMC 147g. It shot about 3" which is still far from what I would expect.

Midway had some 155 grain Nosler BTHP and Widners had standard 147g. M80 ball. I loaded up the 155 grain bullets with Varget and the 147's with 748. About 70 degrees F no wind.

With a total of about 150 rounds through the barrel here are my results of the day.

First up are the 147g. M80 2.82 OAL Winchester primer GGG brass

44 grains 748 2400fps
44.6 grains 748 2440fps
45.6 grains 748 2490fps
46.5 grains 748 2540fps
47.2 grains 748 2560fps




Next up is the 155 grain Nosler BTHP 2.818 OAL Winchester primer Lake City cases.
The first group is 10 shots and I decided to do 5 shot groups due to time constraints.

42.3 Varget 2410fps
42.9 Varget 2450fps
43.5 Varget 2485fps
44.2 Varget 2500fps
45.1 Varget 2550fps
45.8 Varget 2610fps




Well the gun likes 45.1 Grains of Varget. It might be a fluke but I am going to load up more and see what happens.



The 147 grain bullets are disappointing. I am going to try using Hodgdon 335 and work it up.

If anyone has a recipe for the 147 grain M80's I would like to hear it.

Thanks, Sammy

 

[Walkalong]

Well the gun likes 45.1 Grains of Varget. It might be a fluke but I am going to load up more and see what happens.

If it will continue to repeat its self, you have something.

You have also proven once again how poorly FMJ shoots compared to open tip (HP, SP, etc) bullets, especially good ones.

You have some pretty big jumps in powder between loads as well. There could be something good in between two of them. I would load some more up at 45.1, as well as 45.3 and 45.5 and see what happens.

You also have room to work up past 45.8 and see if it tightens up again.

 

[Owen]

the specification for M80 ball is less than 3 minutes from a test barrel, so all of those 147gr groups look about right to me.

Trying to get the 147gr FMJs to shoot well will be a long and probably fruitless battle: those bullets just aren't intended for accuracy, they are designed to be cheap, and to withstand the stresses of being fired from a machine gun. As you've seen the Nosler 155 BTHPs are much more accurate.

 

[Walkalong]

Here is another example of FMJ vs open tip bullets. I dialed in a new scope at 50 yards last weekend. I walled the 55 Gr FMJ rounds to the the upper middle target, shot two more FMJ rounds on that target, and then shot two three shot groups. One with Hornady 52 Gr Match bullets and one with 55 Gr Hornady V-Max bullets. The difference is obvious. This was the first powder charge I tried with this powder and those bullets. 23.5 Grs.