I've been looking for a bullet to reload that will shoot relatively well out of my 1:7 16" AR barrel, won't beat up my steel, and won't break the bank. I had a ton of 55gr bullets FMJBT, but they shot like crap, so I got rid of those. 77gr SMKs shoot great out of this AR, but they're somewhat pricey for plinking at 100 yards. M855 isn't cheap nowadays, doesn't group very well, and makes me sad when I go downrange and see what it's done to my AR500.
Enter the Nosler Varmageddon! At about $15 per box of 100, they seemed worth a shot. I loaded them up in once fired Remington brass (all fired in this AR, primer pockets squared with the RCBS reamer, .003" bump in an RCBS X-die, and trimmed to 1.740" with an RCBS Trim Pro 2), loaded to 2.18" OAL per the Nosler manual, crimped with a Lee FCD.
I got a little heavy handed on the crimp a few times, and some of the bullets were noticeably deformed... the Nosler bullets are rather soft, I haven't been able to deform Sierra and Hornady HPBTs like I have the Noslers.
Next to a 75 gr Hornady HPBT round... the Hornady loads shot pretty poorly, guess I'm sticking to 77gr SMKs for match grade ammo.
100 yard groups
So, 24 & 24.5 grains of Varget seems to have the least vertical spread. The horizontal spread is probably poor trigger control on my part. I'm going to load up some more and see how I do at 200 yards. Hopefully with tweaking and practice, I can tighten the groups up more. Since the book load sets the OAL at 2.18", I have room to play with seating depth too and see how that affects things.
Longer seating means more case capacity, means I should add a little more powder? I learned last week with my .308 AR that under-charging a case will lead to cases jammed in the chamber.
Enter the Nosler Varmageddon! At about $15 per box of 100, they seemed worth a shot. I loaded them up in once fired Remington brass (all fired in this AR, primer pockets squared with the RCBS reamer, .003" bump in an RCBS X-die, and trimmed to 1.740" with an RCBS Trim Pro 2), loaded to 2.18" OAL per the Nosler manual, crimped with a Lee FCD.
I got a little heavy handed on the crimp a few times, and some of the bullets were noticeably deformed... the Nosler bullets are rather soft, I haven't been able to deform Sierra and Hornady HPBTs like I have the Noslers.
Next to a 75 gr Hornady HPBT round... the Hornady loads shot pretty poorly, guess I'm sticking to 77gr SMKs for match grade ammo.
100 yard groups
So, 24 & 24.5 grains of Varget seems to have the least vertical spread. The horizontal spread is probably poor trigger control on my part. I'm going to load up some more and see how I do at 200 yards. Hopefully with tweaking and practice, I can tighten the groups up more. Since the book load sets the OAL at 2.18", I have room to play with seating depth too and see how that affects things.
Longer seating means more case capacity, means I should add a little more powder? I learned last week with my .308 AR that under-charging a case will lead to cases jammed in the chamber.
