Thinking about an AR-10

[grubbylabs]

Any one ever try cast boolits in one? If so how did it work out for you?

[rays308]

Been shooting cast in AR-10s since before Y2K.

My 20 and 24 inch have tighter bores than my carbines.
Lee 160 rn has worked well in all.

Lyman 311332 is good if you can find one that is round, otherwise you have alot of work to do to get it to feed reliably.

I have just started casting a new Lee 170gr rfn that shows promise, its nose is .301 and popped out of the mold at .311. I size to .309. Got 30rnds loaded and need to get to the range with the 20 inch.

If I use a longer bore rider, I have to size the nose down to .300 in the longer barrels.

I use alox to tumble lube. I haven't had any leading issues. In faster loads I have coated the inside of my flash hider silver. Doesn't seem to effect anything though.

Powders I've used with cast:
3031 Easy recoil
H4831SC Almost a push back instead of recoil
4064
varget
748 Easy flow.
4895
H335 Another one that flows well.
4227 A little too fast burn rate in my IMO.

I will be working with BLC-2 and 5744 this summer.

I shoot my ar-10s ALOT so powder flow is important to me.

I've tried with dacron and without. I didn't see any difference other than a little higher pressure and speed. I don't go to the trouble.

Reading the long sticky by BruceB on the M1A is a great starting point. You will still have lots of work to do on your own though. AR-10 and M1 are 2 similar yet, different machines.

I'll never go back to the mouse guns that everyone wants to get in bigger calibers now. Sold all mine years ago.
A 180gr cast at 1800fps has more energy than a .223 55gr at 3200fps. And 300yds is deffinatly in reach.

20rnds 160 gr with gas check, Win LR primer and 748 powder is about $4.00

Hope this helps
Ray

[grubbylabs]

Thanks Ray that is what I was looking for. Now I really can't wait to get one. What do you have and how do you like it? If you were to buy one tomorrow what would you get and why?

[crawfobj]

Great post Ray. An AR-10 (or equivalent) is on my list too. What kind of velocities are you pushing your boolits to?

[rays308]

The first one was an A4 back in 99. 20in barrel with a muzzle break.
Back when mags were hard to come by and M14 mags had to be altered.

Since then its been a couple of carbines and a 24in free floated. All Armalites(Eagle Arms). Mostly to stay with a standard. I'm sure other brands are as good or better.

I like them all. I have trouble deciding which one to take out to play with. I have been told by my local female expert that I will likely ware them out just handling them.
She must be right, I just had Ruger rebuild my 25yr old Redhawk. Trigger Mechanism wore out.

The only mod I've done is to update the mag release latch for the newer mag design.

All my AR-10s are flat tops. I can put anything on them without hassle. I thought about one of the 1913 forearms for cool factor but, I can't get my hair to comb back anyway.

Add RX7 to the powders list also. I went back through my targets last night, figured I had forgotten something.

A good load book is a $7 copy of Loadbooks USA 308 Winchester. It has more AR-10 usable cast recipes than the New Lyman cast handbook, plus lots of jword loads.

In order to get the gas pressure up enough to fully function the action you'll typically be pushing 1700 to 1800 fps. Beyond that you can go as high as a full power jword load if you want, just watch for leading.

I've been thinking of getting another 20in. with standard forarm furniture. Its as accurate as the 24in out to 500yds and not as pricey. Flat top of course.
It will be that or a 4in redhawk in 44mag. choices choices.

Have fun
Ray

[grubbylabs]

Have you had any luck with full power cast loads? I am so pleased with what I am casting that I see no need to by a jacked bullet again so long as I can get the boolit to do what I want. If I can get a cast 308 to perform well out to 500 yards and be a good animal stopper out to about 350 or so I would probably never buy another jacketed one again.

[mpmarty]

+1 for 308 / 7.62 Nato in semi auto rifles. My favorite is a Saiga with a sixteen inch barrel and a flash hider / brake screwed on the end. Nice shooter and little or no recoil. Now if I could take the time to do a bit of grinding I'll bet the trigger slap would stop too.

[rays308]

Sure, I've done full power with cast. Sometimes I cheat a little.

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=29731&stc=1&d=1298332313

I've heat treated too. I got several bent boolits so, I've stopped that.

Water dropped wheel weights seem to do fine. The only effect I've seen is the inside of the flash hider gets painted silver if I run a bunch of rounds down a hot barrel.

Me and a couple of buds have shot way farther than 500yds with 180gr cast moving about 2200fps. I've had to adjust my front sight post to keep the rear on the 4ft X 4ft plywood. I can't say exactly how far it was but the 12in target was a small dot on top of the front post. The odometer on the ATV went just at or over 4 tenths.

Most people don't think about it but, back in the day, grandpa did this with his 30-30 and black powder.

Ray

[trickyasafox]

a bit off topic- but del-ton is supposed to be releasing a 308AR this year, hopefully in the second quarter. Should take Pmags and the CProducts ones. Might be an affordable 308 for those of us looking.

[rays308]

Not off topic at all. I think the topic would be better served as 308 cast in autos.

BruceB did a ton of great work in this area with his M1A. If you bought an M1A tomorrow you would still have alot of work to do for your rifle. They're all a little different. I spent all last summer working up a load for my latest CAR.

The Lee 160gr is my all around bullet. I have heavier loads for each AR that will out do it but none of those are a good fit for the others. I have a 200gr Lee that works well in the CARs but won't let the bolt close on the long barrels. The nose riding portion is too large at .302

I have a 180gr pointy that does well in the long barrels but gives mediocre results in the CARs. Nose is too small at .298

I'd bet there are folks on this board that shoot cast in FN-FALs.

I just stuck with armalite cause they were the only ones making AR-10s when I bought the first one. They have been a solid machine for me.

I honestly don't know what will interchange between the brands.

I think there are several AR-10 options these days.
Remington, DPMS, ASA, Knights, soon maybe del-ton and probably a couple others.

There's also other 308 autos available that could fit the 308 cast loadings.
I think Remington made a 740 or 760 that was auto. I had the pump in 30-06 for a couple months.

The main idea is use medium to slow burning powders to get the pressure up at the gas port so the action will work.

Get the gun you want and let the fun begin.

Being sensably careful of course.

Ray