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Hey, question for you Dasher guys. I shoot a 6 BR right now, but I'm thinking about switching to a Dasher. My question is, can I use my 6 BR forester mic-seater for a dasher?
thanks.
thanks.
Probably better to get a Dasher seater given the difference in shoulder angle.
Thanks Sheldon, that's what I figured but I wasn't sure.
More staball testing info
Tested 36.8gr of 6.5 staball behind the 115 dtac again today. It's about 25-30 degrees warmer today than last test. Speed was 2857 on the first test @ .015 off
Test today was @ .005 off the lands and had groups 1/2in or less every time. Todays avg speed was 2868 fps everytime for 3x 5 shot groups. First 5 shots had an sd of 9
Second 5 had an sd of 7(1 flier that was 15fps slower or I'd had sd of 2 and es of 6)
Numbers aren't bad, not varget numbers, BUT!!!.....I POWDER DROPPED ALL THESE CHARGES ON A STOCK RCBS POWDER DUMP!!!
My varget load definitely shoots a little better than this one, but I think unless I'm going to a really far range you will never see it. Well, I wont, but that's because I suck. ?? Going to get my 550 fired up next week
Tested 36.8gr of 6.5 staball behind the 115 dtac again today. It's about 25-30 degrees warmer today than last test. Speed was 2857 on the first test @ .015 off
Test today was @ .005 off the lands and had groups 1/2in or less every time. Todays avg speed was 2868 fps everytime for 3x 5 shot groups. First 5 shots had an sd of 9
Second 5 had an sd of 7(1 flier that was 15fps slower or I'd had sd of 2 and es of 6)
Numbers aren't bad, not varget numbers, BUT!!!.....I POWDER DROPPED ALL THESE CHARGES ON A STOCK RCBS POWDER DUMP!!!
My varget load definitely shoots a little better than this one, but I think unless I'm going to a really far range you will never see it. Well, I wont, but that's because I suck. ?? Going to get my 550 fired up next week
I had some ordered over Christmas. I was told mid Feb for pick up.
I asked my guy at the LGS the other day. He actually took the time to call their distributor, and told me I should have my two 8 lbs.
by mid-Feb.
Who lets you pre-order?
PV won’t
Local gun shop. It's not really a pre-order, it's more like "Hey, man. I need two 8 lb. jugs of Varget, call me when it comes in." type deal, and they order it for me. Big plus, no hazmat or shipping.
26” 1-8 Hawk Hill mtu
32.1gr Varget
108 eldm
.025 off lands
2925fps
Consistently under 3/8 moa
32.1gr Varget
108 eldm
.025 off lands
2925fps
Consistently under 3/8 moa
LRI 24" barrel 1/7 .110FB
32.5 Varget 105 hybrids .020 off 2960fps
32.5 Varget 112 match burners .020 off 2860 fps
Both used same dope at 845yards with 112 using .1 less wind
32.5 Varget 105 hybrids .020 off 2960fps
32.5 Varget 112 match burners .020 off 2860 fps
Both used same dope at 845yards with 112 using .1 less wind
What is your free bore,Jumping aboard the Dasher train (choo choo) this year and I thought I'd share my findings so far with you all:
Gun Specs
- Defiance Deviant Elite LH
- International Barrels M24 contour, 26" long
- MDT Elite Brake 3/4-24
So far I have done 350 ish rounds of FF-ing with 90-105 gr bullets, jammed 0.030", 30 gr +/- 0.3 gr of Varget, then I started load dev.
I have run the 105 Nosler RDF's at 0.040" off the lands (the 1.735" is CBTO with a custom gauge):
View attachment 7031927
The 108 ELD-M's 0.020" off the lands:
View attachment 7031930
The 32.4 gr load was highlighted because that was what I ran at a club match last weekend, but more on that later.
However, since running those two ladders, it appears that my barrel has further sped up another 50-75 ft/s as these are the numbers I got yesterday!
105 gr RDF:
View attachment 7031938
and 110 SMK:
View attachment 7031944
I hope this proves useful for anyone out thereIt looks like I will be running the 108's this season, as 105 Hybrids and the 110 SMK's are hard to find/expensive up here!
That was with the .104" FB. Now that the barrel has been shot out, we have run a reamer in there and blown it way out to see how the little dasher will do with 112's and 115's seated long.
I ran 29.7gr AR Comp & 105 hybrids at the finale, somewhere around 2925 FPS, and it worked fine but I occasionally had some sticky bolt lift. Didn’t think much of it until I tried it in the rain a couple of days ago and blew primers and locked up my bolt. Back to Varget I go!
Attachments
I believe that Alpha has a tiny bit less capacity, but not drastically different. One other thing to check is neck diameter vs chamber diameter. A friend of mine just had to neck turn 500 pieces of brass since his chamber was .271 and his neck dia was .270.
Just figured I would share this if someone was wanting a cheap, easy to load practice round. These were powder dumped rounds on dillon 550
Yep. Shows pressure earlier than lapua.
How much earlier then lapua
Anyone running Alpha consistently yet with 105s or 109s and Varget? Would like to know where you found the sweet spot without pressure. I am working mine up now and thinking 32.0-32.2 is probably where it is going to fall. If its accurate I am willing to give up speed.
It’s probably gonna be about there. I had pressure signs at 32.5. Been running GT and haven’t gone back to mess with dasher yet.
Ran Alpha Brass 32.0 Varget last weekend in Oklahoma with Berger 105s and posted single digit SDs at 2950 along with .3 groups. No pressure and it rained for half the last day.
Now that makes me excited to hear, I’ve got stuff loaded up for testing starting lower but loaded a few 32’s based on people recommendation but haven’t run them yet.
Was this the first firing or 2nd/3rd firing?
2nd firing on the brass
The 1st and 2and firings of my alpha brass were drastically different. A big velocity jump on the 2nd firing and groups changed. Bumped shoulders 2.5 thou. Put it this way, 34.4 on virgin gave me 2950ish. 1x fired ended up being 3k. Landed on 31.8 with 1x fired at 2964 with 105s and pretty decent groups. Still get random slight heavy bolt lift. Might try 31.6 and 31.7 and see how it goes. oh by the way, this is varget and 27" cut rock creek.
Lots of guys having heavy bolt issues with alpha. I had it with my dasher.
And just now, I had only 31.8 varget in 6gt virgin alpha brass.
Some were so bad I had to hit the bolt with my palm. At 31.8 (2800 or less speed).
29.75" 7twist brux
112gr match burner
Xbr 8208
Some ok groups on a new barrel. I'm stunned though by my 32.5 load.
Not the best group, but an SD of 4 @ 2987fps. Slight ejector swipe.
Agreed. Not sure I’d trust that on a wet day.
Agreed. I think I'll try the 31.5, tweak the seating depth and roll with it. SD of 7 isn't bad.
Thanks for posting and sharing load details, more people in the discussion is always good. If you don't mind I'll share a bit of constructive feedback since it seems like you're just getting familiar with the Dasher.
XBR is a faster powder, and a 112 is a heavier bullet relatively speaking. Both of those contribute to pressure, so they're not an ideal combo, you need to back charge weight off more than you would if you're running a slower powder like Varget. Even your 31.5 load sounds hot to me. My experience has been that I'd run about 1gr less XBR than Varget, and with a heavier bullet like a 112 I'd take probably another 0.5 to 1gr of powder out compared to a 105 With a 105gr bullet my personal max is 32.0-32.5 Varget. If I had to run XBR and a 112 I'd probably be around 30gr charge weight, and Quickload still puts that at close to 60k PSI. This conservative approach is for the purpose of having a gun that runs smoothly and reliably at PRS matches. Yes you can go faster, but there's a benefit to reliable easy function over speed.
Second, I would place WAY less importance on that SD number, until you're looking at groups that are all really good. Then you can use SD to help pick which one is the best.
Third, and the thing that jumped out at me is that those groups are terrible for a Dasher. Like really, really bad to the point where I would throw away a barrel if it shot like that. I'm assuming you shoot capably, so what those groups tell me is that the barrel does not like that powder/bullet combo in that area at all. Normal load development should look like some groups at 1/3 MOA, most at 1/2 MOA, a couple ugly ones at 3/4 MOA.
If you have Varget, I'd try that in the range of 31 - 31.5gr. If you want to stick with XBR I'd see what results you get in the window of 30-31gr.
If you still get groups that are 3/4 MOA or worse, it might be time to try a different bullet.
This was what I wanted to say but didn’t know how to not sound rude. My first thought was, “is that 100 yards?!”
I was thinking it was a 300-500 yard group. Dasher is SO much more capable than those groups. I would follow what Sheldon said. I’m only saying this to reiterate it so you’re not thinking he was the only one trying to pull your leg or something. Back to the bench.
I just put my Dasher together a few weeks ago. I am using new Lapua brass with a false shoulder and 0.010" jump with 105 Hybrids, CCI 450s, and 30g Varget. It's built on a Zermatt Origin with a 26" Proof 1-7.5" twist prefit with a Timney Calvin Elite. The top left group has a sight adjustment (wasn't too good even before that though), and a magazine failure . The others are after I had a few rounds down range to get used to the new setup. The 1/3 minute group was the final one that I fired that day. All are 100 yards. I ended up tweaking my adj cheek riser for a better weld afterwards and also tweaked my trigger fit some. But as-is, I am really impressed with the "standard," fire forming load with no development. When guys say that they shoot well enough to take to a match, they aren't kidding! I am intending to switch to IMR4166 for actual Dasher loads as I've been able to find a decent supply of it. I don't have a whole bunch of Varget left.
. The others are after I had a few rounds down range to get used to the new setup. The 1/3 minute group was the final one that I fired that day. All are 100 yards. I ended up tweaking my adj cheek riser for a better weld afterwards and also tweaked my trigger fit some. But as-is, I am really impressed with the "standard," fire forming load with no development. When guys say that they shoot well enough to take to a match, they aren't kidding! I am intending to switch to IMR4166 for actual Dasher loads as I've been able to find a decent supply of it. I don't have a whole bunch of Varget left. How many rounds on the barrel?I just put my Dasher together a few weeks ago. I am using new Lapua brass with a false shoulder and 0.010" jump with 105 Hybrids, CCI 450s, and 30g Varget. It's built on a Zermatt Origin with a 26" Proof 1-7.5" twist prefit with a Timney Calvin Elite. The top left group has a sight adjustment (wasn't too good even before that though), and a magazine failure
Only 46 right now. I haven't checked velocity yet since they were just FF loads. I think I will as soon as I can get out again though just to see if it speeds up any over the next couple hundred rounds. I have exactly 257 more cases to fireform. I was planning on forming them all before I started real load development with Dasher cases, but I think I may do both simultaneously now.
Gotcha. It’ll jump up in velocity and the groups will improve. No point in doing load development until after it’s broken in. Get through fire forming and then do it. But it’s starting in a good place for sure.
Yeah, good point. It probably wouldn't make any sense to try to do any development until it's broken in more. For as well as it's shooting already, I will be 100% satisfied for the next 250 rounds of the same. Once it's all said and done, I'll be thrilled if I can get it to shoot consistently in the .3-.4s at 100. From what I'm seeing with these first few, it shouldn't be too difficult at all. I'm not looking to split hairs and have benchrest accuracy. I just want a safe, consistent load that will do better than a half minute as long as I do my part.
Guys looking for alpha brass info, it looks and measures great, my neck clearance looks like .0025 a bit tight. what are the experiences? yes i have hit the search key and will start a few grains low to work up as the brass does not have quite the capacity. just don't want to be chasing my tail if the neck is too tight to start with.
thanks
Idahoorion
thanks
Idahoorion
A couple of thoughts.
Are you sure it has less capacity? are you checking virgin lapua capacity vs virgin alpha or is the lapua already fired or resized?
My only experience with the Alpha Dasher brass is I picked up 4 pieces off the ground at last years PRS finale. It had just come out and I decided I would try these 4 pieces to see how they stacked up against Lapua. The test I ran was very simple. I loaded my exact same load in the Alpha brass that I load as my standard Dasher load in my Lapua brass. I waited for a nice day and shot 5 shots with the Lapua brass at a clean plate at 825 yards. All 5 shots of Lapua stacked into about a 5" group. I then chambered and fired all 4 Alpha Dasher brass with the same point of aim. All 4 rounds loaded with the Alpha brass went into the same group without increasing its size. Not an extensive test, but I was impressed. I mixed the 4 pieces of Alpha brass in with the rest of my brass and have been running it ever since. I haven't noticed any issues with my small sample size.
I’ve run 100+ pieces of virgin alpha brass with the same recipe as lapua and have had fantastic results. I’ll have to see if the sd’s shrink on the second time around.
105 Hybrids over varget @60 degrees and DA1625
31.8=2919 sd10
32.0=2943 sd12
32.2=2971 sd6
105 Hybrids over varget @60 degrees and DA1625
31.8=2919 sd10
32.0=2943 sd12
32.2=2971 sd6
Mordamer, embarrassed to say maybe I ought to measure. I have read that it is a bit less but have not verified it for myself. I will be loading and testing it
but just looking for a heads up for what maybe coming. What I have measured is the case neck brass is thicker, extremely consistent, at .001 or less measuring with a sinclair thickness gauge.
thanks
idahoorion
but just looking for a heads up for what maybe coming. What I have measured is the case neck brass is thicker, extremely consistent, at .001 or less measuring with a sinclair thickness gauge.
thanks
idahoorion
