Shook the cobwebs off my Grendel

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  • KillerMedic

    Shook the cobwebs off my Grendel

    Had a good day at the range Sunday. I practiced for Camp Perry in rapid sitting and rapid prone with the Service Rifle. Then I proof tested and checked zero on a friends Springfield '03-A3. Man was that a hoot. LC M2 ball driving that steel buttplate into the shoulder and ringing the steel gongs from 300 out to 500yds. It was a manly moment...lol! Then it was time to break out the Grendel.

    Since starting shooting Highpower Service Rifle and F-Class the Grendel SASS (22" Lothar Walther barrel) basically sat gathering cobwebs. I really wanted to shoot the Grendel in F-Class but was just not getting the accuracy needed. My Savage 110-FP .308 was shooting better groups so it became my 600yd and 1000yd gun. The Grendel SASS has been a challenge for me. It just has not had the accuracy I expected from my premium barrel. It would spit out anywhere from 3 moa groups (5 shot) to a best of just over .8 moa from 100 to 300 yds. Well I decided to try again and I loaded up some new test ammo. It was still having issues. Groups were still sporadic, then I got to my load of 123 AMAX and 28.5gr 8208XBR. It grouped well but DAMN....it was blowing every 4th or 5th primer! But it was 2-3x fired Wolf Brass so hmmmm. I about had my fill for the day.

    So in my frustration I broke out a box of old unmarked handloads I brought to blast for the brass. I added 2 MOA elevation to get a clean piece of target. Four shots in at 200yds and I could not see my second and fourth shots and thought "man this ammo needs a pattern board." Then I saw the 5th shot tight with the first. Then 6 was in there and and I had a moment of WTF?!?!? So I got the target and I could not see shots 2 and 4 because they were part of shot #1 and 3's holes. I had 6 shots in .620 inches at 200yds for .310 MOA!!! WooHoo! But wait, I found a load my rifle likes and I have NO FREAKING IDEA what it is!!!! I don't know how to recreate this ammo. So off to the workshop to disassemble a round. I measured the case and it was headspaced -.004. The 123 AMAX was seated .010 into the lands. And I had 30.3gr of AA2520 in an AA/Lapua case. I know it is AA2520 because I only have two ball powders, and TAC is smaller with more flat grains. I am still trying to figure out what primer I had at the time these would have been loaded. This must be ammo I made up and never tested. And I learned a lesson.....make sure you document the loads and do so in a way you don't seperate that info from the ammo box.

    Now to load some more and see if it can shoot like this consistently.



    Medic...out!

  • #2
    Thanks for the info. I have been shooting the 123's over 2520, but just loaded some 123 SMK's and 123 AMAX over 2520 to take to the range tomorrow.

    Good luck at Perry. We'll have a contingency of Louisiana boys up there again this year!

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