350 Legend and H110 Reloading Help

[ThermalWedgie]

Run a harder alloy and powder coat.

My original Lee 200gr bullets were fairly hard and powder coated, but still had a tendency to become damaged. My current alloy for my NOE bullets is powder coated and quite hard, I used a displacement reaction with copper sulfate and zinc to add ~0.5% copper to it. On top of that, they are also water quenched both after casting and after powder coating. I haven't tried this with the Lee bullets yet, as the NOE design has proven to work quite well.

[tomme boy]

You need to remeasure your barrel. I highly doubt it is 0.354" You must use a piece of pure or as near it to use to slug the barrel.

[ThermalWedgie]

When I slugged my bore, I only had WW alloy available, perhaps that's why. I'll give it a try with near pure lead when I get a chance.

I'm also curious on what method everyone is using to achieve a proper crimp with their loads? I'm currently using a 9mm taper crimp die to close any belling, and I need a finished case mouth diameter of ~0.375" to reliably chamber and drop free in my rifle. I'm curious if this crimping method is not providing adequate resistance to initiate combustion. However, my neck tension is quite high with my oversized bullets.

[cwlongshot]

May or may not be even needed experiment.

But for just removing that bell, I also use and like a tapered crimp die. I use a stand alone, from CH tools. I sometimes tighten the die a bit for a little more crimp too. I have also used the FCD but only LIGHTLY, but as a rule as you say, neck tension is higher as dia is more then factory bullets already.

CW

[mehavey]

Taper Crimp: Simply my resizing die, lightly screwed into the press three turns to take the mouth down to 0.378/9"
Sooooooooo simple... a cave-dwelling 350 handloader can do it.

[ThermalWedgie]

As an update: I got the chance to run the new test loads. I restarted my ladder down to 20, 20.5, and 21 grains. This range of charge weight seems to have fixed my (probable) overpressure issues. I didn't go this low in charge weight with my first ladder, due to my internal ballistics calculater predicting insufficient pressure.

This is clearly not the case in reality. Each load reliably cycled the action, and I can infer fairly complete combustion from lack of any significant carbon fouling. I suppose this is another good reason to own a chronograph. 20.5 grains achieved consistent 1.5in groups at 130 yards.

As a side note, I just received the Lee collet style crimp die and loaded a few cartridges with it. Thus far, I like it better than taper crimping, as it is mostly insensitive to differences of a few thousandths between casing lengths. It was fairly simple to adjust it to de-flare and apply mild crimp pressure, while maintaining headspace. The true results will come when I fire them.

[cwlongshot]

Its been told to me on many occasion. QL isnt accurate on straight wall cases.

I have repeatedly found this to be exactly true & with multiple powders as well.

Still love it, just as with all data start low and work up slowly.

CW

[mehavey]

Start QL w/ a medium pressure load and a chronograph.
Based on chronograph results, adjust Burn Rate (Ba) to match.
Use that modified Ba/Burn Rate to estimate/judge effective pressure, and proceed.

[mattri]

[QUOTE=lar45;4988764]I'm a little late to the discussion, sorry.
As far as H110/296 goes, Would it be worth trying 4227? 4227 has a similar burn rate, maybe slightly slower, but it is bulkier so you'll get more case fill.

+1 4227 works great n my BCA upper, very accurate with no feeding/extraction/pressure issues.

[P Flados]

FYI, in my 357AR, I had a similar pattern with "occasional" primers looking like a load was "too hot". This happened with multiple powders. With H110, this happened pretty close to the load in the OP.

Backing off the charges just enough to get consistent OK looking primers was my solution.

For me the problem was occurring around one or two grains below what others were reporting as OK in their guns.

[tomme boy]

I am done with the Legend in a AR. After taking a load out to get some data at 200 yds yesterday I was blowing primers on just about all of the ones I shot. These were shot originally in 90* weather. It was 56* when they were blowing the primers. This was with Lilgun, but H110 acts strangely as well. As you can see in this thread.

I went home and pulled the rest of the bullets and they were all exactly what I had them loaded at. I never have other powders out while loading so no chance of messing up.

I do have a ruger Ranch in 350L on order to pick up this coming week. This cartridge just behave very strangely in the AR platform. I don't see the problems in the bolt gun I see in AR guns.

[44Blam]

I am done with the Legend in a AR. After taking a load out to get some data at 200 yds yesterday I was blowing primers on just about all of the ones I shot. These were shot originally in 90* weather. It was 56* when they were blowing the primers. This was with Lilgun, but H110 acts strangely as well. As you can see in this thread.

I went home and pulled the rest of the bullets and they were all exactly what I had them loaded at. I never have other powders out while loading so no chance of messing up.

I do have a ruger Ranch in 350L on order to pick up this coming week. This cartridge just behave very strangely in the AR platform. I don't see the problems in the bolt gun I see in AR guns.

It's not the platform, its the powders.

I shot a bunch of W296 and AA1FS (same [pretty much] same also as H110) in my AR chambered in 350 Legend and everything was fine, but I never got good consistent velocities. One day, I started blowing primers IN A MATCH. I knew these powders were space sensitive but I thought, well Hodgdon has loads for it... And all the cool kids are doing it too...

I'm now shooting Norma 200 for my 180s and gonna start in on some Alliant 2400 for my 125s. I KNOW Alliant 2400 is not space sensitive. I've shot way downloaded 44 mag and even 45-70 with it.

[mehavey]

It's not the platform, its the powders.

^^^^^ THIS ^^^^^

Guess which are the only two powers that have caused unexpected "problems"

[ThermalWedgie]

Another update:
I got a hold of the Lee collet-style crimp die, it seems to be of the same function as Lee's rifle factory crimp dies (just with a different name). I'm currently using a Lee Auto Breech Lock progressive, and setting up the crimp die while accounting for shell plate deflection proved to be a bit of a challenge. Once adjusted, the die provides a nice crimp at the case mouth that is insensitive to normal variances in case length, an issue that I was having with my taper crimp die.

As I've set it, it crimps tightly into the first driving band of my cast bullet while maintaining plenty of case mouth for headspace. I'm certain that it is sizing down this first driving band, but it doesn't seem to matter as the diameter is still larger than that of the bore. As a side note, it seems like this crimp style is going to necessitate regular annealing to prevent stress failure of the case mouth.

I got a chance to run these crimped loads, using 20.7 grains of H110, CCI 400 primers, and the 190 grain NOE bullet. Accuracy was excellent at ~130 yards with 1.5" groups. All loads cycled 100% in my rifle. Most importantly, all casings appeared perfect with no pressure signs and no stretching. I get the feeling that with a strong crimp like this, fill volume is irrelevant as the crimp provides plenty of resistance to initiate combustion.

As a side note to anyone interested, I've had success modifying 30 round Lancer 300 BLK magazines. It's a pain to slowly sand down the interior and to maintain a very slight front rib for anti-tilt function. However, these magazines hold 29 rounds and function as they should.

[P Flados]

Your load development effort sounds good so far.

As a double check, you should look for an opportunity to fire off some cold rounds to check that ignition stays reliable. My issues with H110 ignition seemed much worse below 50 degf.

And my congrats on getting a modified 30 round mag to work. My 357AR mag started out as a 20 round Pmag.