I have lurked around on this reloading forum for quite some time. I have an 18" barreled Grendel AR that is one I built on my own to my specs. In hindsight I may have gone with a 20" barrel, but this is where I find myself and I'm going to stick with it. For that reason I've been looking for a load that will get maximum velocity from a shorter than optimum length barrel. (By the way, the goal of this rifle is primarily for a couple of local long range matches per year and recreational long range target shooting.) After reading this forum I came to the conclusion that CFE223 was the powder that I wanted to use.
I loaded five rounds each at 31.0, 31.2, 31.4, and 31.6 grains under 123 gr. Nosler Custom Competition bullets with Hornady brass and CCI 450 primers. I shot the 31.0, 31.2, and 31.4 groups and all three looked like a shotgun pattern. The 31.2 was the one I expected to shoot well based on what I'd read here. It didn't shoot at all. At 31.4 pressure looked a little high. I shot only one round of 31.6 and then pulled the plug on the rest of those because the pressure was clearly too high.
At that point I was concerned that something had gone wrong with the gun since my initial sighting in with Hornady factory ammunition. I pulled out three rounds of Hornady Black and shot a 7/16" group. So the good news is that the gun still shoots. The bad news is that the loads I tried clearly don't work. I have a bunch of the NCC 123 gr. bullets. Any advise on powder and powder charges is appreciated.
I loaded five rounds each at 31.0, 31.2, 31.4, and 31.6 grains under 123 gr. Nosler Custom Competition bullets with Hornady brass and CCI 450 primers. I shot the 31.0, 31.2, and 31.4 groups and all three looked like a shotgun pattern. The 31.2 was the one I expected to shoot well based on what I'd read here. It didn't shoot at all. At 31.4 pressure looked a little high. I shot only one round of 31.6 and then pulled the plug on the rest of those because the pressure was clearly too high.
At that point I was concerned that something had gone wrong with the gun since my initial sighting in with Hornady factory ammunition. I pulled out three rounds of Hornady Black and shot a 7/16" group. So the good news is that the gun still shoots. The bad news is that the loads I tried clearly don't work. I have a bunch of the NCC 123 gr. bullets. Any advise on powder and powder charges is appreciated.
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