AR Goal: 1" Group @ 200 Yards

BTShooter

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Minuteman
Dec 30, 2019
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I've been doing some load development over the past few weeks with a goal of getting a 1" or less group at 200 yards from a mag-fed stock RRA 20" Varmint upper. This is the max distance at the club I belong to. I came pretty close this past weekend with a 1.3" group (outside edge to outside edge). It was a bit breezy that day and I wonder if I might have hit the goal on a calmer day. The load was 77 SMKs on 23.5 g of Varget. LC brass and Remington 7.5 BR primers. OAL at 2.26. I just ordered a couple of ACS mags that should let me seat a little closer to the lands. Anyone else had luck with doing that?

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Are you shooting from a sled or a bipod and a rear bag? How crazy are you getting with your reloading? Weighing and sorting brass and bullets? Flash hole work? Meplat work? Cutting kernels of powder?
 
I'm using a bipod and rear squeeze bag. As for the rest of your questions, it's all no. But those are good thoughts that I may try. I don't think I'll be shooting this weekend (I was told not to make plans for Father's Day), but I may get in some time at the reloading bench. I'm not far from the goal now, so anyone of those efforts could do it. All of them may yield some very cool groups.
 
If one has a razor blade on their reloading bench and uses it frequently to slice powder - they are in a whole nuther class of anal retentive - like BR retentive.

Best of luck.

What do you use to measure your powder? I've been using the RCBS charge master combo with an MK Machining insert to better trickle the powder. I'm guessing there's something more accurate I could use?
 
I've been doing some load development over the past few weeks with a goal of getting a 1" or less group at 200 yards from a mag-fed stock RRA 20" Varmint upper. This is the max distance at the club I belong to. I came pretty close this past weekend with a 1.3" group (outside edge to outside edge). It was a bit breezy that day and I wonder if I might have hit the goal on a calmer day. The load was 77 SMKs on 23.5 g of Varget. LC brass and Remington 7.5 BR primers. OAL at 2.26. I just ordered a couple of ACS mags that should let me seat a little closer to the lands. Anyone else had luck with doing that?

I'm not a reloader, so I'm not much help with that aspect. But, certainly 1" is possible with the AR platform and even FACTORY ammo. :)

My 15 year old daughter (name redacted from the image) did this with my precision AR-15 (specs below) at 200 yards. Ammo was Federal Gold Medal Match 77-gr SMK.

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A buddy of mine built this for me.
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What do you use to measure your powder? I've been using the RCBS charge master combo with an MK Machining insert to better trickle the powder. I'm guessing there's something more accurate I could use?

Autotrickler with a fx120i. It’s a $1200 set up. Weight sorting your brass can help. Annealing can help also depending on how many times you are reloading each case
 
If you are measuring 1.3 outside edge to outside edge that is actual a 1.06 group. You would subtract the diameter of the bullet to get a center to center measurement.
also shoot early in the morning when there is no wind. Doesn’t take much to push a 77gr bullet 1/4 inch at 200.
 
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What do you use to measure your powder? I've been using the RCBS charge master combo with an MK Machining insert to better trickle the powder. I'm guessing there's something more accurate I could use?
Electro-magnetic force restoration scale instead of typical strain gauge. My son was getting a SD of 4 in larger calibers like 8 x 57JS. .02gn resolution.
https://www.oldwillknottscales.com/and-fz-120i.html has calibration weight built in,
https://www.oldwillknottscales.com/and-fx-120i.html does not...
 
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