Darn COVID. . . 

Ordered annealer almost 4 weeks ago now.  Projected lead time when I ordered was 1-2 weeks.  Not a huge deal as not really urgent.  However, update was that the supplier has a bunch of annealers are waiting on one part.  A part that they had ordered many weeks ago, but supply issues due to COVID.  :kickcan:

Founds some sales on some boolits though. 

heads

Ordered a Forster Co-ax over the weekend.  The expected lead time is 21-30 days, at least at the vendor I ordered from.  It had been tracking as 3-4 month lead times, then recently updated to less and days were counting down on the vendor's website.  So I am assuming that the vendor is expecting a shipment in.  I emailed Forster on the lead times on their website, but it seems like they aren't giving timelines and are focusing on fulfilling orders with their vendors. 

Ordered a Forster Co-ax over the weekend.  The expected lead time is 21-30 days, at least at the vendor I ordered from.  It had been tracking as 3-4 month lead times, then recently updated to less and days were counting down on the vendor's website.  So I am assuming that the vendor is expecting a shipment in.  I emailed Forster on the lead times on their website, but it seems like they aren't giving timelines and are focusing on fulfilling orders with their vendors.

nice

Annealeez shipped today.  Seems like they finally got their part supply issue resolved, at least for this batch. 

When I ordered, the website indicated anticipated lead time 1-2 weeks, which went to 2-3 weeks after I placed the order.  So overall not bad with a 5 week to ship. 

Good timing as I am about to start load development now that I have Lapua brass in, and also the Berger boolits I wanted on the way.  I'll still need to load up the Lapua brass for initial round of testing.  I had initially planned on fire forming at least a batch of brass, probably 50 or so for initial powder charge testing.  However, now I'm thinking I'm just going to dive straight in to the powder charge weight testing.  I'm currently planning on starting with Varget and 8208.  From what I've been researching, I'm leaving toward just starting the testing with the new brass, as opposed to after fire forming.  My gun is a factory chamber/barrel in 308 (not wildcat caliber). 

Have all of the components in.  I'll continuing the search for more powder and primers, but I'm definitely ok to get started. 

Annealeez shipped today.  Seems like they finally got their part supply issue resolved, at least for this batch. 

When I ordered, the website indicated anticipated lead time 1-2 weeks, which went to 2-3 weeks after I placed the order.  So overall not bad with a 5 week to ship. 

Good timing as I am about to start load development now that I have Lapua brass in, and also the Berger boolits I wanted on the way.  I'll still need to load up the Lapua brass for initial round of testing.  I had initially planned on fire forming at least a batch of brass, probably 50 or so for initial powder charge testing.  However, now I'm thinking I'm just going to dive straight in to the powder charge weight testing.  I'm currently planning on starting with Varget and 8208.  From what I've been researching, I'm leaving toward just starting the testing with the new brass, as opposed to after fire forming.  My gun is a factory chamber/barrel in 308 (not wildcat caliber). 

Have all of the components in.  I'll continuing the search for more powder and primers, but I'm definitely ok to get started.

heads

Have any of you had a new barrel chambered to replace an existing rifle/caliber?  Did you have the chamber dimension, including freebore, "fit" to a specific boolit?  Or did you target a range of boolits?

I'm at least a few months from seriously pursing a "next rifle", but leading idea is custom action and barrel for .308.  Right now, I'm in the 168-175 gr range, with potentially going into the 185-200 gr range.  All would fit with the generous freebore in my current factory action rifle, but I would rather have the chambering closer to the 168-175 gr boolits. 

I am in the research phases of this.  Still have plenty of life in my current rifle and plenty of growing to do with my reloading learning process.  I think I will be getting there eventually.  With the lead times in some of the custom actions in the 3-4 month range, I want to start the process ahead of time. 

If I'm not careful, I'll be going down the AR path with two different precision rifles going concurrently.     

Have any of you had a new barrel chambered to replace an existing rifle/caliber?  Did you have the chamber dimension, including freebore, "fit" to a specific boolit?  Or did you target a range of boolits?

I'm at least a few months from seriously pursing a "next rifle", but leading idea is custom action and barrel for .308.  Right now, I'm in the 168-175 gr range, with potentially going into the 185-200 gr range.  All would fit with the generous freebore in my current factory action rifle, but I would rather have the chambering closer to the 168-175 gr boolits. 

I am in the research phases of this.  Still have plenty of life in my current rifle and plenty of growing to do with my reloading learning process.  I think I will be getting there eventually.  With the lead times in some of the custom actions in the 3-4 month range, I want to start the process ahead of time. 

If I'm not careful, I'll be going down the AR path with two different precision rifles going concurrently.   

My custom target rifle is chambered in "95 Palma"  which has a very short freebore to accommodate 155 grain projectiles.  I have used deep seated 308 boolits from 155 to 185.  Of course the large bullets take up a lot of room for powder, so heavy projectiles can't be driven as fast.  The chamber shoots lights out with 155 grain SMK tipped, and even better with 168 Berger hybrids. 

All that being said. I don't chase the lands and am happy to be jumping bullets 20 or 30 thou


Talking about one puka @ 100yards and head of golf tees at 300

My custom target rifle is chambered in "95 Palma"  which has a very short freebore to accommodate 155 grain projectiles.  I have used deep seated 308 boolits from 155 to 185.  Of course the large bullets take up a lot of room for powder, so heavy projectiles can't be driven as fast.  The chamber shoots lights out with 155 grain SMK tipped, and even better with 168 Berger hybrids. 

All that being said. I don't chase the lands and am happy to be jumping bullets 20 or 30 thou


Talking about one puka @ 100yards and head of golf tees at 300

Pics or video, or it didn't happen.    

I just got a bunch of Berger 168 gr hybrids and 175 gr target boolits in to test with.  The 168 grs are hard to find, so I have less of those.  I mean I can find them in stock at some places, but at about 20-25% premium.  I am ok with waiting on the suppliers with better pricing to get their stock in.

I am planning on varying seating depths for sure, but will be starting with mag length and shorter.  I am ok with going beyond mag length, but probably not until later.  I almost bought a bunch of the Berger 185 hybrids and 200.20x, but the "less room and lower velocity" is what kept me from going there, at least not yet.  For now, I've decided to stick with the 168 - 175 gr range since I've been testing with SMK 175 gr.  For now, I'm jumping "lots of" thous. . . 

Pics or video, or it didn't happen.    

I just got a bunch of Berger 168 gr hybrids and 175 gr target boolits in to test with.  The 168 grs are hard to find, so I have less of those.  I mean I can find them in stock at some places, but at about 20-25% premium.  I am ok with waiting on the suppliers with better pricing to get their stock in.

I am planning on varying seating depths for sure, but will be starting with mag length and shorter.  I am ok with going beyond mag length, but probably not until later.  I almost bought a bunch of the Berger 185 hybrids and 200.20x, but the "less room and lower velocity" is what kept me from going there, at least not yet.  For now, I've decided to stick with the 168 - 175 gr range since I've been testing with SMK 175 gr.  For now, I'm jumping "lots of" thous. . . 

I can vouch. I pulled targets for him and the tees exploded.

I can vouch. I pulled targets for him and the tees exploded.

What about your targets?

But seriously, a golf ball is challenging enough at 300, let alone a tee. I remember when there ware folks ball on that deer at around 250-270 when they had fun stuff at Koko Head.

We shoot different disciplines and rifles. My service rifle is not setup like Heavies.

Pics or video, or it didn't happen.    

I just got a bunch of Berger 168 gr hybrids and 175 gr target boolits in to test with.  The 168 grs are hard to find, so I have less of those.  I mean I can find them in stock at some places, but at about 20-25% premium.  I am ok with waiting on the suppliers with better pricing to get their stock in.

I am planning on varying seating depths for sure, but will be starting with mag length and shorter.  I am ok with going beyond mag length, but probably not until later.  I almost bought a bunch of the Berger 185 hybrids and 200.20x, but the "less room and lower velocity" is what kept me from going there, at least not yet.  For now, I've decided to stick with the 168 - 175 gr range since I've been testing with SMK 175 gr.  For now, I'm jumping "lots of" thous. . . 

Here's a 10 round group, if I remember correctly,  of the 155 load after sighting into the X ring. 

This was about 4 years ago when I tuned that load...


Don't have one of the golf tees, lol. It tears up the target. 🤣


Ren is a much better shooter than I am.  Prone off a bipod and bag only has you concentrating on a few of the base fundamentals.  More of a wind reading game after you have all your equipment dialed in.  Position shooting is much more demanding on all aspects of riflery.


Can't find my test target pic for the 168's. I think it's on my old computer.

Here's a 10 round group, if I remember correctly,  of the 155 load after sighting into the X ring. 

This was about 4 years ago when I tuned that load...


Don't have one of the golf tees, lol. It tears up the target. 🤣


Ren is a much better shooter than I am.  Prone off a bipod and bag only has you concentrating on a few of the base fundamentals.  More of a wind reading game after you have all your equipment dialed in.  Position shooting is much more demanding on all aspects of riflery.


Can't find my test target pic for the 168's. I think it's on my old computer.

Nice! 

Yeah, I was just teasing you and Ren.  I understand, or think I do, about the challenges of shooting service rifle.  When I first got into ARs, I was going to put together one to try shooting at Puuloa, but never got around to it.  That was around the time I had to take care of a family member with health problems, so I wasn't shooting much at that time.  By the time I got the shooting bug back, more training opportunities opened up locally, so got consumed with that.  I have shot some improvised shooting positions in some of those classes, but not anywhere near competition standards.  Then there's also the mental and stress aspects of competition shooting.  I have one buddy who is awesome if you give him all the time needed to make an accurate shot, even at distance.  Put him on a timer or head to head against someone, all mess up.   

Now that I'm back into shooting longer range, I have become more appreciative about wind reading.  I wish we had better variety of ranges to practice on.  The ranges that I am able to shoot at have limited wind indicators.  I mean there are some and I have to learn to read what is available, but the terrain also adds another dimension to those dynamics.  All fun, mostly. 

Annealer arrived yesterday, finally.  Good timing as I've started to load up the initial loads with Lapua brass. 

Have most of the updated loading equipment in now.  Added a PMA Tool expander mandrel.  It measured out as 0.3065 on the calipers, so right around where I wanted it.  I used it on the initial pass of loading for the new Lapua brass and did notice a good amount of resistance when running the mandrel.  Will see if that changes once this set of brass gets through the sizing process, where I have a Redding S-type sizing die with a range of bushings. 

I have my seating die set at maxing out the COAL at "max mag length".  Then will go from there.  That's probably a couple of steps in the future, but in the plans.   

Was able to get in some range time this past weekend.  I still have to look at the data closer, but seeing progress. 

I am transitioning to Lapua brass and implementing the dies that I bought specifically to be able to have more refined sizing and boolit seating.  Another adjustment is implementation of an expander mandrel to get more consistent neck tension.  I have a PMA Tool expander mandrel and die body.  The mandrel calipered out to 0.03065. 

I changed out the trigger to a TriggerTech Special 2-stage.  I really like this trigger.  Not that the Geissele was bad, just wasn't quite what I wanted.  I'll have to tweak the trigger pull, or get used to it, but overall it was great.  I noticed that on my digital trigger pull gauge that the spread of the TriggerTech was much less. 

Some highlights from this past weekends range session:
1) Have noticed the SD in the test batches seemed to have done down when compared to previous tests with the same boolit and powder charge, but different brass and boolit seating depth.  I had one SD down to 2.4.  I'll have to compare the before and after implementing the expander mandrel, but from what I recall, all of the SDs were lower. 
2) I had gone with boolit seating depth to get the COAL able to fit in my Accurate Mag mags.  They have a little bit more space than my Magpul mags.  I assumed that that was the controlling dimension.  Noticed the second round in the mag would hang up.  I tried to check to see if the rounds were getting hung up inside the mag, but that was fine.  Anyways, when I got home, I noticed that there's a slight lip below the feed ramp where the mag body hits a "stop".  The lip has a very slight overhang over the mag front lip, which catches the tip of the boolit.  So I will have to reduce the seating depth a bit and try again.  I am planning on doing seating depth tests and going toward the 2.800" COAL, but I do want to do the powder charge testing on the max length.  So a little bit of tweaking to go.

The annealer came in, so I'm pretty close to complete with everything for the whole process that I envisioned.  I will likely do another round of initial testing with new Lapua brass and then get into the powder charge testing for the combo that I decide on.  Right now, it's between 8208, Varget, 4064, and H4895 for powders, and between Berger 168 gr and 175 gr.  Sucks that the Berger 168 gr are way harder to find than the 175s.  I have some 168s and there are a couple of vendors with them in stock, but around 30%+ higher prices.  So I am trying to hold off until other vendors get some in stock. 

Weird. I've tested loads with SDs all over the place but the load still grouped well. Maybe it's because of my cheap Shooting Chrony. As an Asian person armed with an abacus I decided not to pursue load testing any further. After borescoping my barrels something is kicking in...

looking back at exploding golf tees - it was a reminder to wear eye pro even in the pits

Weird. I've tested loads with SDs all over the place but the load still grouped well. Maybe it's because of my cheap Shooting Chrony. As an Asian person armed with an abacus I decided not to pursue load testing any further. After borescoping my barrels something is kicking in...

looking back at exploding golf tees - it was a reminder to wear eye pro even in the pits

Yeah.  I will have to look at my notes, but in the initial testing with Varget and 8208, the lowest SD didn't correspond to the best group.  But that was early on and too many human variables to say either way.  I mean, I'm still there, but just noticed that the SD from same test loads before expander mandrel were higher across the board. 

I'm afraid to see what my Rem 700 barrel looks like.  When I get around to a new gun or barrel, I'll check it out.  Bartlein has def caught my attention.  If it wasn't for registration situation here, I'd likely have ordered a new action already. 

Was getting ready for what OAL I needed to pull back to in order to facilitate functioning via magazines.  I thought I would have more space to try longer, but looking closer at the lip at the feedramp, I don't think I have much space beyond 2.800ish.  With the Accurate Mag body itself, I have quite a bit of space, but didn't notice the lip at the feedramp until I was at the range for some load testing and noticed that the rounds were hanging up. 

So slight change of plan.  First will be either proceed with 175 SMK or Berger 175 gr LRBT and maintain COAL of 2.800" and get best load via different powders and powder charges.  Once I have a load for with magazine feeding, I'll move onto "non-constrained" with single feeding.  I'll have to look at options more, but I was initially thinking of Berger 168 gr hybrids.  That boolit seems to have an great blend of lighter weight to maintain velocity and high BC.  I mean I can still load the 168s to 2.800", but been hearing that's going against the main intent of the 168 hybrid design.  I had also looked into 185 gr and higher, which my chamber can accommodate, but the velocities on those would suffer. 

Was getting ready for what OAL I needed to pull back to in order to facilitate functioning via magazines. I thought I would have more space to try longer, but looking closer at the lip at the feedramp, I don't think I have much space beyond 2.800ish.  With the Accurate Mag body itself, I have quite a bit of space, but didn't notice the lip at the feedramp until I was at the range for some load testing and noticed that the rounds were hanging up. 

So slight change of plan.  First will be either proceed with 175 SMK or Berger 175 gr LRBT and maintain COAL of 2.800" and get best load via different powders and powder charges.  Once I have a load for with magazine feeding, I'll move onto "non-constrained" with single feeding.  I'll have to look at options more, but I was initially thinking of Berger 168 gr hybrids.  That boolit seems to have an great blend of lighter weight to maintain velocity and high BC.  I mean I can still load the 168s to 2.800", but been hearing that's going against the main intent of the 168 hybrid design.  I had also looked into 185 gr and higher, which my chamber can accommodate, but the velocities on those would suffer.

that's not what she said...

that's not what she said...

That's some interesting "she"s that you talk to then. . .