AR-10 Cast!!!

[theTastyCat]

Gotcha, popper - I've made it this far messing around with pistols to not need antimony - I guess I need to see if I can find some!! I'm sure there's resources here elsewhere that will help me in my quest. I will happily pursue a lighter boolit! that Lee 160-gr. mold is looking better and better.

[cbrick]

My Master Shooting Crony is set up at the limit of cable supplied. IICC, it's at least 18 feet, if not more. Without a blast shield, all you get is ERROR readings. Cbrick brought over his deluxe chronograph, a PACT, I think. Same difference! The blast on this carbine is worse than my 338W Magnum!! Rick can feel the blast, sitting behind and off to the side. Eventually, I 'll chronograph "my load" but for now, I'm concentrating on attaining that perfect combination. Winelover

Actually it's an Oehler.

His rifle has some of the worst muzzle blast I've seen, even at 15 feet the start screen registers nothing but muzzle blast. No choice but to shoot through a blast shield which makes grouping very difficult.

Rick

[xacex]

I am going to jump in this thread. Just finished a LR 308 rifle, and have never loaded 308 cast outside of 300 blackout, 54R,x39, and 06. I would like to see what the Mihec 311410 does with 308. a 130 grain boolit will be hard to get slow enough to not obliterate yet cycle the action. If I cant get it to cycle I may be able to use a AR15 buffer spring to get it to work. So far I have got 2180 fps out of the blackout with this boolit, and it does just fine, but if I can get it going a little faster with the 1/10 twist, and better accuracy with 18" vs 16" I will be happy.

[winelover]

My very first foray into cast for an AR was with donated 138 grain Leadhead spitzer boolits. The results were, what pushed me forward. Not stellar accuracy but then I didn't expect that with commercial cast. At that time, I was using both AA 5744 and SR 4759 for load development.

AA 5744 would reliably cycle the action, in the neighborhood of 26 grains, but by then the groups were starting to open up.

The starting charge for SR 4759, was 20 grains, and it gave 1 3/4" groups but wouldn't cycle the action. I quit at 27 grains, still wouldn't cycle, and I was getting shotgun patterns.

Since then, I've moved on to slower powders and heavier boolits.


Winelover

[xacex]

I have been looking for some data to push the NOE 311-247 to the limit in the 308. The only data I have found with a bullet of that weight is listed in the Lee manual. It lists a load of IMR 4350 pushing a 250 grain bullet to a speed just over 2000FPS. I would rather use Varget, or H4895 which I have more of now, but that was all I could find for the powders I have. That data suggest that the PSI is approximately 56K which should cycle a 308 AR with gusto.

[theTastyCat]

Dang, popper - that is incredibly encouraging! I'm about to load some 168s in front of some H4895 - if you don't mind sharing, approximately how much powder got you there? I'm going to start safe but would love to know where you ended up.

[theTastyCat]

Gotcha - sorry, it's been a while! FINALLY got to load up today - they sure are pretty! Taking 10% off my Lee manual loads for 165 j-words, I loaded a few each of 37.0, 37.2, 37.4 up to 39. Have a few left over to push the envelope! This is incredibly exciting - I may actually be able to shoot all the .308 I want!!!! Man, what casting and PC has made possible...amazing. Once I get .308 figured out, it's on to .338 Spectre and 357SIG!! This is great. Something about being able to craft the most crucial part of the round oneself is incredibly satisfying; now if I could just find easy lead now that WWs are largely useless

[bruce drake]

Resurrecting this old thread as well. I just finished building an AR10 (DPMS/PSA pattern) with a 20" 308win barrel and I'm waiting for the bolt carrier group to come in the mail sometime this week or the next.

I hope to get out to the range shortly after that to see what I can do for operable loads based off this thread and my previous loads for my CETME. I intend to try several 30 caliber bullets as well. I have the following 30/31 caliber molds to experiment with:

Lyman/Ideal (all sized at .310)
311359 (115gr spitzer gas-checked)
311410 (130gr spitzer bevel base)
311413 (169gr spitzer gas-checked)
314299 (200gr round-nose gas check)

LEE (all sized to .310)
150gr FN gas-check
160gr Spitzer gas-check
185gr RN gas-check
200gr RN gas-check

I just realized that I have a ton of boolit molds! Well hopefully one or two of them will proved me an accurate load to punch paper with.

Bruce