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I wasn't going to buy it but I couldn't resist. I got the ruger American ranch rifle in 300 blk. at Fin Feather and Fur. for $399 + tx
What i'd like to learn is; what is a good powder and load to lightly push a lead gas check boolit that is 160 -170 gr.?
I want to have a nice plinking round that doesn't lead up the barrel. I use the alox+one step johnsons lube.
I'm running 9.5 grs of AA#9 under several different cast boolits.
it does well for accurate light but quality shooting rounds.
for an even lighter load 3.5-4.0grs of something like 700-x or red-dot will get you just over stability. [and it's super quiet]
but you don't need a gas check for that speed.
IMR 4198 will push most any rifle boolit
I use H-110 for a full load with a gas checked 150 gr FN; I use Red Dot with my plain base 140 gr FN. Remington M SEVEN Micro 1:7"
Tag to follow. This is on my list of projects, I have a Remington 700SA with a AAC barrel And am hoping to find a load with a 100/120 grain powder coated bullet.
I use H-110 for under 150gr and 1680 for 150+ grains. I'm mostly using the NOE version of 311414 GC and find that 1680 give slightly better accuracy.
Loren
4227 under a 180 or a 208 will function the AR rifles with the short gas tube, and shoots well in the bolt guns too.
the 208's at sub sonic takes 10 grs and the 180's at about 1500 fps takes 15grs.
1500 fps is about what I get with the AA#9 load above.
it works under 120gr cast boolits for a bit more speed but shoots quite well, the 165's are a bit more accurate off the bench.
a word of caution in the AAC barrels.
they are tightly chambered and cut off Lake City brass is too thick to use a 310 diameter cast boolit.
it causes too much tightness in the neck area.
using brass by SSA, pro-grade, and some of the other makers which is thinner will work with the 310 diameter.
save the LC brass for the copper coated .308 stuff, or be prepared to cut case necks thinner.
I shoot a bunch of 311-291's over fast powder at subsonic speed in my Handi, supressed. 3-4grns of fast powder is what you seek. I've used 700x, red dot and bullseye. These run sub 1000fps and as slow as 850fps. I currently use 700x as it seems the most bulky of the powders I have. They are much more quiet and efficient than the magnum powders like a1680, aa9, 2400, h110 and lil gun.
Runfiverun, thanks for the advice... 98% of my blackout brass is converted LC. I have not had a chance to shoot any cast yet, but that would make sense as to why it did not want to chamber the cast rounds I loaded in it (been too busy to dig into it, so it has been in the safe for a while). I have an RCBS neck turner so I will play with that and see if it helps. I will just keep my 700 brass separate from my AR fired brass. The major draw to 300 BLK was its versatility from light weight plinking ammo to match grade heavy subsonics.
I may look into having the rifle rechambered with a wider throat, but if I opened up the throat to optimize for cast would it be detrimental to the jacketed accuracy?
Quote:
Originally Posted by runfiverun
Runfiverun is right on the money here. A friends AAC barrel caused me no end of headaches with high pressures for loads that were proven and safe in a dozen other 300's. My measurements validate this tight barrel assessment.Quote:
Originally Posted by runfiverun
Just FYI, the most entertaining cast boolit plinking load I have for 300 BLK bolts is using either the 90 gr Hornady XTP or the 115 grain Bayou Bullets Hi-Tek coated boolits with about 4 grains of Trailboss. It is so quiet you can easily hear the firing pin vibrate upon discharge. The ear-to-ear grins from adults is priceless. Plus, in water testing, the XTP fully expands and I imagine would wreak havoc on small game, although I haven't tried it yet. Accuracy of either setup is about 2 MOA, so mediocre in the accuracy department. Lots of fun though.
it could affect the accuracy, but another .001 or so wouldn't hurt if you use the thicker brass.
I'd just [and did] buy thinner brass.
the 110gr hornady V-max and especially the 110gr varmageddon by nosler is stellarly accurate on top of 17.5 grs of AA-4100/Enforcer or 2400 [it doesn't seem to matter which powder I use] that amount is good enough to smack golf balls at 100 yds and stuff like rabbits or rock chucks are almost gimme's at 200.
the jacketed rounds do just fine in the LC brass but It gives me a neck clearance bordering on bench rest specs.
GOD how I wish I had tolerances like this in some of my other rifles..
but it will absolutely choke on stuff the wife's ruger will run like butter unless I keep the cases separated and pay attention to that neck clearance.
I bought a big container of 1-k brass guy's converted LC stuff and split it between the two rifles.
700 for the ruger and 300 for the AAC
the AAC's LC brass gets jacketed loads only, the Rugers get whatever.
the other cast loads are in the other brands of cases [SSA] expensive but good.
[pro-grade] just as good at half the price, and a new one I forget the name of, I bought just for the AAC.
I leave the cases in the storage boxes and I write Ruger and AAC on the box with magic marker.
for the cast loads I use the .309 neck expander from my x39 die set this opens the cases enough and I flair by using the through powder funnel from my 30 carbine on my Dillon 550.
when loading on single stage I use the 30 carbine spud from the 3 die steel set to open the case mouths once again.
I used some store bought 165 cast boolit for 30-30 & 4.5 grains of Unique in my AAC Micro seven for awhile, can't remember the OAL. They were right at 1000fps & made one ragged hole a 50m. With the suppressor all you heard was 'click ..... thump'
I'm loading .310 cast in cut down LC cases and I'm not having any problems with the rounds chambering in the ruger American or the no name ar upper that I bought and fixed up thanks to some of the fellers here. I taper crimp lightly and they measure out 1 to 2 thou wider than factory Rem. ammo.
the rugers are a good value.
I like their stocks and how easy they are when it comes to taking just about anything cast meant for a 30 cal rifle.
they give up some accuracy for that ease of use but once you do a little measuring and find the right boolit they will turn in some spectacular groups.
As far as loads go, do you have ANY reloading manuals? From there is the information I would use.
I'm within arms reach of about 25-30 of them right now.
I could walk in the reloading room and pick from another 20 or so.
out of that amount I bet 3 of them have 300 B.O./300 whisper data.