AR progress with casting and reloading .223/556

[oldandslow]

Greetings casters, 5/2/13

Like many others I've had trouble getting bullets for my .223/556 AR. I finally ordered a five banger 70 grain NOE .225 mold when they became available and casted away. Once the mold got really hot it poured out quality boolits in great quantities.

Next step was seeing at what powder loads the action would cycle. Having only 4064 powder (which worked well with my 65 grain FMJ's) I started loading. Rifle is a LMT CQB carbine with 16" barrel with flash hider. Twist is 1:7. Standard carbine buffer and spring used.

20 grains 4064- velocity 1934 ft/sec. Action cycle seemed anemic/mild but it cycled the next round OK.
21 grains- velocity 2032 ft/sec. Cycled well.
22 grains- velocity 2183 ft/sec. Cycled well.

Accuracy ran 3/8ths to 1" groups at 25 yards. I still need to do more load development for max speed and accuracy.

Case prep- trim to 1.750", chamfer inner neck, M-die plus slight flair in mouth, no crimp.
COAL- anything longer than 2.200" resulted in nose deformity with loading from the mag. 2.190" seemed
good with no nose deformity. Even at this short COAL the nose would show some lands-contact with
extraction of an unfired cartridge.

Boolit prep- dropped at 0.2248-2255". Boolit weights at 72.2 plus/minus 0.1 grains. Alloy is WW plus 2%tin. Gas check seated and push through sized to 0.2252". Water dropped-heat treated to BHN 15. Pan lubed.

Barrel and bolt showed no leading (but only used 9 test rounds so far).

So far so good but it's sure a lot of work for each round. I've found good info here from others on the use of cast boolits in their AR's too. I'll keep working and if there are any suggestions I can certainly use them.

best wishes- oldandslow

[cstrickland]

O&S thhanks for the post. I myself and starting the endevor to cast for the 223 in an AR, and to see the current threads with others experience is helpful. I would think you should be able to imporve accuracy over time and working with different powders. What is your culling proceedure for your final casts ?? I had a thread on 223 molds and started talking to forum member runFiverun, and he relayed to me how much he scrutinizes his cull, down to weighing every bullet to the tenth of a grain I believe. I see you are sizing to .225 did you slug your barrel to determine that size, or did you just pick that diameter for sizing ??

thanks
charlie

[Jal5]

I am using that same mold and have to weigh each boolit separating them out by tenth of a grain. Still working up a load using H335 for my DPMS 1:9 twist AR. I need to get to the range more but life is getting in the way!

[cstrickland]

I am using that same mold and have to weigh each boolit separating them out by tenth of a grain. Still working up a load using H335 for my DPMS 1:9 twist AR. I need to get to the range more but life is getting in the way!

Jal5 where about in eastern ohio are you ??

[Friends call me Pac]

I have an AR & a rem 700 in 556/223 so I wanted to get a mould that would cast a bullet suitable for each. I ended up with a NOE saeco clone (60 gr RN). Out of my AR I use 15.5 gr of H4895. The rifle cycles fine & the brass piles up about 5 feet past my right shoulder. I was only shooting at 50 yards because at this point I was trying to get the rifle to cycle & once I figured that problem out then I would work on accuracy.

This is my last 7 rounds with that load in my AR. I was shooting with peep & post.

http://i214.photobucket.com/albums/cc157/pactac/100_0638_opt-1_zps2fdd7cf7.jpg (http://s214.photobucket.com/user/pactac/media/100_0638_opt-1_zps2fdd7cf7.jpg.html)

In the Rem 700 I started with 8.6 gr of 2400 per my Lyman manual and got this.

http://i214.photobucket.com/albums/cc157/pactac/100_0639_opt_zps95ff78f4.jpg (http://s214.photobucket.com/user/pactac/media/100_0639_opt_zps95ff78f4.jpg.html)

I continued working the load but 8.6 was the best I ever got for a group. I'm thinking maybe the twist isn't right for a 60 gr bullet & might need to try something a bit lighter. Deffinately still have some work to do but that is part of the game.

I also read the .223 loading pages in Castpics but my sorting is a bit more relaxed. If the bullet looks good it gets loaded. Wrinkles or some other flaw readily seen goes back into the pot. I guess I might be using 70% of the bullets I pour on average. I have had that average down to 50% with my first batch. I haven't weighed any of them yet but that is probably a smart thing to do concerning the Remington. Being new to casting I am less concerned with pinpoint accuracy. I am actually more concerned with seeing if the darn things fly at this point. I do plan to work on accuracy now that I have the bullets hitting the target. My lead is Lyman #2, water dropped & aged a couple of weeks. I tried tumble lube with 45-45-10 and also pan lubed. Groups were about the same either way. Leading was very slight in the Rem 700 & the AR looked about the same as before I started shooting. I fired 50 rounds in each rifle.

[Calamity Jake]

Weigh sort them 22's to max .02 grain, groups will improve greatly, also look at using a dacron filler to keep the powder
against the primer.

[dverna]

If I have to sort to .02 gr., it is not worth the effort. I am on a group buy for a 5.56 NATO mold but am now considering canceling the order. When things get back to normal I will buy another 5000 military 55 gr bullets for "fun" ammo. At least that stuff will group into 2 MOA without much effort.

Maybe shooting cast out of an AR is best done with one of the larger calibers.

[cstrickland]

If I have to sort to .02 gr., it is not worth the effort. I am on a group buy for a 5.56 NATO mold but am now considering canceling the order. When things get back to normal I will buy another 5000 military 55 gr bullets for "fun" ammo. At least that stuff will group into 2 MOA without much effort.

Maybe shooting cast out of an AR is best done with one of the larger calibers.

I have not cast nor shot any yet but from what I gather ( and i could be wrong) the only time you need to get that meticulous is when you are after top velocity and accuracy. I have seen several people mention they shoot in the 2300 FPS area with out sorting , except for weeding out bad casts. couple of videos on you tube about it

[grampa243]

i would only weigh out the bullets if you are looking for bullseye accuracy or the smallest groups.

if you are having fun with plates and/or action [3 gun type] shooting load em if they look good.

MOA woodchuck is good when it comes to cheap cast boolits. if you want better all you have to do is put in more time.

[runfiverun]

I think you are better off putting in the effort.

[grampa243]

I think you are better off putting in the effort.

I believe you are right R5R. I weigh my round balls to within +/- .2 grains for shooting in my hawkins.

but if you are shooting an AR at handgun ranges i'm not sure it would be a good trade off when volume is more to the point.