m1a+varget+200gr

[Colorado4wheel]

I have been shooting h4895 with 28grs with some success. I don't know if Varget is even worth trying? I have 8lbs of Varget. Thought I might give it a try. 26gr of H4895 was weak and didn't cycle the gun. After 27gr it works well. Wondering about Varget. It would seem from looking in the Lee manual that I can expect about the same from Varget. Any wisdom you all would like to share?

[DeanWinchester]

I just tried Varget under a 311299 (200g) in my bolt action.
I did a ladder test of the entire range listed in Lyman's manual for that boolit. My best load I would give it a c+ or maybe a b- nothing spectacular. At fifty yards my best group was around 2 1/2 inches.
I'm going back to AA2015.

[Colorado4wheel]

I am doing way better then that with iron sights on my m1a and 4895. I wish powder was easier to get. I would order a bunch of different stuff just to try.

[Doc Highwall]

Colorado4wheel, read the stickies in the military section by BruceB for loads on your M1A, he did a great job.

[Colorado4wheel]

I read the stickies a long time ago.

[Larry Gibson]

Varget may work with that 200 gr cast in your M1A. Just have to try it and see. Varget is a bit slower burning than 4895 and needs a bit higher psi before it burns efficiently. Suggest you start at 26 gr, use a 1/2 - 3/4 gr Dacron filler and work up to determine accuracy capability.

Larry Gibson

[45-70bpcr]

31.0 Varget with the 200 grn. 311299 has been my cast M1a load for some time. Accuracy is good and Function has been 100%. Oddly my J load of 40.0 Varget and the nosler 168 CC I was shooting would fail to eject about 20% of the time??

[Colorado4wheel]

Varget may work with that 200 gr cast in your M1A. Just have to try it and see. Varget is a bit slower burning than 4895 and needs a bit higher psi before it burns efficiently. Suggest you start at 26 gr, use a 1/2 - 3/4 gr Dacron filler and work up to determine accuracy capability.

Larry Gibson

I have never used a Dacron filler. How do I do this? Got a link you like to explain it to me? How important is an equal size cut? That would seem to be the hard part.

[Larry Gibson]

I have never used a Dacron filler. How do I do this? Got a link you like to explain it to me? How important is an equal size cut? That would seem to be the hard part.

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/show...use-of-fillers

Post #4 in particular but there is a lot of useful info in the thread. Any questions don't hesitate to ask.

Larry Gibson

[Colorado4wheel]

Thanks. I knew you would know where to go.

[Larry Gibson]

Thanks. I knew you would know where to go.

I've been told where that is a couple times

Larry Gibson

[jr86]

I ve been playing with cast in my m14 andm1 garand for a couple months now. I am using range scrap and found the most important thing for accuracy was increasing the lead hardness, so I add 1lb of solder to 19lbs of lead. Using a lee 309-200gr boolit with a gas check and 28gr of varget + dacron filler 0.5" cube (I just eyeball it) = under 2" group at 100 yards for me. My m14 is norinco 18.6" barrel with 10x scope. I shoot groups on my own time, no waiting around. With this combo I believe the boolit is going very slow because I get 22" drop at 200 yards from a 100 zero. The powder won't burn completely without the dacron and it rarely engages the bolt hold with this load.

Can't wait to hear of your results.

[340six]

I shipped some 200 grain NOE 311365 to four guys one ran test with a thing-a-mabob on his computer both loads shot well in all 4 guns with 4 differant guys plus me so thats 5.
The load was 34 grains H-4895 one of the guys had none! So used IMR-4865 said it still shot very well and clean but was a little hotter
The loads out shot the mil surplus CMP stuff ys get and was more pleasant to shoot

[340six]

heres the long info he gave me from his quick book loads
Using 2.28” COL, and your cases have 68 grains of overflow capacity or if they have 70 grains of overflow capacity (numbers in the range I've run into with Garands), the pressure difference will be about 4.6% or about 22,494 psi vs. 21,459 psi peak, respectively, and 6775 psi and 6756 psi gas port pressure, 0r about 0.3% difference, respectively (expansion as the bullet goes down the barrel tends to even remaining pressure out). The velocity difference calculated is then 1925 fps vs. 1901 fps from a perfect bore with .0734 in² cross-sectional area. If you get your hands on a chronograph and measure velocity, I can then adjust the QL parameters to deduce what is closer to actual pressure in your gun based on the velocity it actually gets. That will compensate for how tight or loose your gun actually is.
It looks to me like the 311356 is about a 4 caliber ogive radius so it's about 0.6" of total ogive length. That .305" diameter is a tight fitting slightly over-bore section in a .311 groove barrel, and is probably meant to be perfectly happy jammed into the lands for good starting alignment. So you could probably seat it out pretty far to see if that improves accuracy.
If you use that forward lube groove as a crimp groove, you will seat to about 3.22"-3.23" COL, from the drawing. Leaving the front groove exposed, I'd expect to seat to around 3.300" when throat contact occurs in a tight match chamber, but I don't know your gun's chamber and throat, so YMMV. Those seating depths get you 22,557 psi and 1920 fps, and 21,869 psi and 1902 fps, respectively, in the QL calculator.
I looked through the powder tables to see if any powder will do any better for you with your bullet. It looked like Accurate 4064 fills the case best without under-burning. 36 grains. 20570 psi peak, 6577 psi at the gas port, and 1900 fps, even. It fills the case almost 70%, where 34 grains of H4895 only has about 60% fill. Unfortunately, this doesn't mean it will actually perform better in the real world, where H4895 may still do better. Using a magnum primer could benefit you with that low load density. With a lot of extra space to pressurize, they can often bring about better MV consistency.
If you've looked at Chris Long's theory (I still don't know your actual velocity, so I can't adjust) 34.2 grains of H4895 would hit a sweet spot, and 35.1 grains of Varget would hit the same sweet spot, but with maybe 20 fps lower velocity. QuickLOAD shows the peak pressure being the same within 500 psi for the two, with the Varget being a little lower. The Varget gives slightly more gas port pressure.
If you go to match the peak pressures of your existing load of 34 grain of H4895, it is equaled by 35.2 grains of Varget. The velocity difference is then only around 14 fps different (1887 fps vs. 1902 fps) but the barrel time is shorter for Varget so it will exit in a different part of the barrel vibrations movement. Nonetheless, you may find an accuracy advantage in shorter barrel time. Just have to try it to see.
When I changed the OAL to what is shown in the pictures he ran some new #'s and says
Your pressures are too low for a seating depth difference of a tenth or two to cause trouble. You have enough extra space that you're just changing pressure by 1000 psi or so.
Nick

Thanks Nick As you can see he has a load that is very close to the 4895 one but with Varget
I also ended up not lubing the front band and used it as a crimp groove and that put the ogive where it should be for little to no bullet jump




they did get a slight crimp after that last pic was taken

[340six]

I also tried a different OAL to see what was better the longer one was as it had less jump. The first ones were just that first ones i tried and made better

[b] URL BELOW is a slide show of my Garand[/b
http://s234.photobucket.com/user/fas...ideshow/Garand