168g lake city match reloads with varget

[AXEMAN]

ok, im going to a range next weekend, i have some stuff loaded up. i had a brain fart and kinda thought this out in another thread, but i am going to take some loads for development. its lake city match brass. 168g SMKs, varget. 42g/46g min/max in the book. 308. ok, i started at 42g loading 5 in a set with 0.4g steps all the way up to 44g. i may have asked this before, bear with me. they say to reduce powder when you use mil brass. 46g is max and i loaded to 44g. i know, go to pressure and then back down, but its an hour drive and i dont get to go that often. i would like to lock in the load while i am there but it will likely fall between the 0.4g steps ups i have loaded sets of. any thoughts? i am leaning towards taking my press. maybe getting bigger C clamps just in case. the tables there are concrete. anyway, that may be best. but any thoughts will be appreciated. thanks. and i have enought stuff and patience to load a string going up 0.1g at a time to fill in all the gaps all the way up to 45.5g, but remember its 46g max in commercial brass. i guess 25 more rounds wont hurt. i can ladder test them. stop when i see pressure.work the spot where they are tight... hmmm

 

[Grump]

Re: 168g lake city match reloads with varget

0.1 grain steps in powder charge is a waste, IMO. You are likely to get misleading results that are within the normal random variations of any load. ???!!!!The higher load went 12 FPS slower!!!??? With any sample less than 30 shots per load, you're really not that certain that there *is* any difference.

Here's an alternative: Go to the range with 40-60 cases sized and primed and ready to charge and seat. Then you don't need all that leverage of a regular press. Heck, you could just bolt any single-stage press or even a Dillon to one of those wooden picnic bench type seats and toss it in the vehicle instead of worrying about futzing with C-Clamps. Bring a kid to sit on the seat while you seat the bullets, or straddle the seat yourself and push the handle away from yourself...

Even better, have all of those cases charged with your middle load, so you can trickle up or take a little out for your follow-up testing at the line. A traditional wooden loading block or a nice flat piece of wood can be rubber-banded to the loading block of charged cases to keep everything put while you drive.

My latest batch of FC .308 cases holds almost exactly the same weight of water as two separate batches of military brass from two different decades. Even if you have only sized cases lying around, I suggest you check case capacities between your LC stuff and whatever you've used before, to see whether there really is a difference. Your rifle's chamber and throat just might work fine with a max charge and Lake City cases...

Finally, if you get surprised with 2900 FPS velocities and stunning accuracy with those 168s, and your barrel is less than 32 inches (not that the load is likely to be safe even with that much barrel to boost the speed...), please remember that the only "pressure sign" that we can reliably measure is velocity.

 

[AXEMAN]

Re: 168g lake city match reloads with varget

well with plenty of time on my hands, i just loaded up enough so i have 0.2g steps from 42g to 45.8g with the book showing vargets min/max at 42g/46g. and i have 30 or so 42g just to get started and warm up the barrel, sight in the scope. box test the scope and then start shooting for loads. it may be a waste, but its a long way to the range and i want to shoot as much as possible. plus its handloads, not as expensive as shooting fgmm.

as a side note, i think i am going to get about 150 rounds per pound of varget. roughly. im 24 short of 150 and i am going to try and see how much i have left, if its enough to get 24 more out of whats in there.

 

[1lnbrdg]

Re: 168g lake city match reloads with varget

1 lb of powder = 7,000 grains. It's fairly easy to divide/subtract by the weight of the charges you are using to find out how much you have left.

8 lbs of powder X 7,000=5,600 grains * 44 grain load= 1,272 loaded rounds if the figures are perfect.

About 3~4 8 lb jugs of Varget to burn a barrel out of a .308.

YMMV

 

[Niles Coyote]

Re: 168g lake city match reloads with varget

If your lake city brass is any thing like mine (LC91) you will find a sweet spot between 43gr and 44gr

Top row is 168's seated .010-.012 short of the lands, bottom row is 175's seated .010-.012 short of the lands.

 

[coldboremiracle]

Re: 168g lake city match reloads with varget

I just happend into 250 rnds of once fired LC match brass, after reading this I'm excited to put it to use.

 

[Niles Coyote]

Re: 168g lake city match reloads with varget

I like it. I use about 1.5 grains less Varget vs. Lapua and almost 2 grains less than Winchester for the same velocity/performance

 

[AXEMAN]

Re: 168g lake city match reloads with varget

niles, how do you choose? lol, only one of each of those strings is bad and then its still pretty good. which did you go with?

 

[Niles Coyote]

Re: 168g lake city match reloads with varget

That was my last time out. Today I finished loading 168smk's with 43.7gr and 175smk's with 43.3gr and plan is to try these at 300y. Which is about as far as I can go for now.

 

[bjay]

Re: 168g lake city match reloads with varget

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: Niles Coyote</div><div class="ubbcode-body">That was my last time out. Today I finished loading 168smk's with 43.7gr and 175smk's with 43.3gr and plan is to try these at 300y. Which is about as far as I can go for now.</div></div>
share results pls im thinking about trying this on my 5R

 

[bjay]

Re: 168g lake city match reloads with varget

Niles whats the OAL on your loads?

 

[Niles Coyote]

Re: 168g lake city match reloads with varget

I made it out for round 2, this time 300 yards. I was dealing with 8 to 12 mph winds and gusts, mostly from 10 to 11 o’clock. Because of the hills, valley and multiple tree lines I was shooting through the wind was having a whirlpool and lift effect. After the first group of four (it was going to be a 5 shot group but a ground hog got in the way of that one while I was on my way out to set things up…), I readjusted my scope for 1 ¼ moa left wind and down a full moa from my previous drop data at 300.

Charges were 1/10th grain increases between 43.1 and 43.7 grains of varget with HBn coated 175 smk’s loaded .011 from the lands in Lake City 91 brass and neck turned just cleaning off the high spots.

The rifle is a Remington 700 rebarreled by rock creek barrels, 11.27 twist in m40/m24 contour. Rifle was bedded with devcon in a manners stock by me.

So with all that said, what do the groups look like? Target dots are 1"

I fully believe the wind was the cause for most of the horizontal patterning. But even still the longest group (bottom of target)was 2.33” edge to edge 2.022 ctc for .64moa total. Vertically the smallest group (middle left)was .812”edge to edge/.504ctc for .16 moa, that was with 43.5grains. The load I had settled on before this was the smallest horizontally and in third place height wise(top row 2nd in from left), for a total group size of .306 moa (.964 wide/.673 tall measured ctc). So where to go from here… I think I will stick with the 43.3 for now and test 43.3, 43.5 and 43.6 again when winds are more favorable.

 

[bjay]

Re: 168g lake city match reloads with varget

i would stick with 43.3

its pretty concistent from 100 yard..try it to 400

 

[colt933]

Re: 168g lake city match reloads with varget

I think some guys here are referring to regular LC brass while other are referring to LC match brass. They are different - match generally has more capacity.

 

[Niles Coyote]

Re: 168g lake city match reloads with varget

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: bjay</div><div class="ubbcode-body">i would stick with 43.3

its pretty concistent from 100 yard..try it to 400 </div></div>

I shot out to 1000 today… I was so “in the zone” getting things ready to go I forgot my ear plugs, camera and sun screen. So no pics this time around, I did make an extra stop for ear plugs but didn’t think of the sun screen until a few hours after I got home and noticed, hmmm, my arms and neck are red and on fire. Oh well. To say I had fun is an understatement!

I ran two 308’s, one shooting my neck turned loads and while it cooled, the other shooting the Lake City ammo. I was very pleased with both. I’ve got this old Leupold that I’ve been thinking about getting rid of because it’s a old VX-III that is so old it has the foot ball mil’s and M3 adjustments on the elevation dial. The dial is calibrated for a 190 grain 30-06 load. I found a use for it now! It tracks the 173 grain boat tail FMJ that the LC ammo has in it perfectly all the way to 900 and was about 1 moa low at 1000, which very likely could be the weather at that distance. I was on the steel 20” gongs almost every shot out to 700 yards. Those that missed were due to wind changes, I’d be holding .9 mils one minute then things would change and I’d have to hold 1.5 mils. Ah what fun.

Now too the neck turned LC brass, 175smk and varget 43.3 vs. 43.6 loads. 5 shot groups at 600 were holding at 7” groups with 4 to 5 inches of vertical and the wind died down for my 700 yard group, it posted a nice round 5.25 inch group. The 43.6 printed 6.75” at 600 and 10” at 700 with a lot of vertical. Judging by my come ups the 43.3 load is traveling around 2620 and 43.6 around 2650. All around, not bad for my first time past 500 yards. Now I just need a spotter so I can keep my head down and not have to keep turkey necking. Oh Honey?!? Ya right…