Developing a working 62 gr Gold Dot clone load

[sjoliat]

I wish I could score a keg of WC844 but I think those days are over.

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http://www.patsreloading.com/patsrel...ategory=Powder
I don't know how current his page is but it looks like he has it

[Leonidas24]

Leondas24,
Had you had a chance to test any other powders? Any pics of the groups?

The CFE 223 seems to work the best out of the three powders I have tried thus far.
I didn't want to clutter your thread so I started one with my results. I was surprised the TAC doesn't work well in SBR's.

There's a test target in the garage somewhere with test groups on it, I'll have to find it to take pics. I wasn't thoroughly impressed with CFE considering the amount of powder needed to get the bullets up to speed, 2932 avg with 25.8 gr of TAC is great because TAC is my go-to for 77 gr SMK's (24.3gr) and Hornady 55 gr FMJ's (24.5gr) -- it's almost the perfect ball powder for any/everything.

[Eric D.]

Leonidas - What is it you don't like about TAC in your SBR? I'm going to theorize that since TAC is a slightly slower burning power it's not the ideal choice for a short barrel? I have a bunch of it and I've had decent results with 62 gr ss109 bullets. Haven't tried it with anything lighter - I've read it's better suited for heavier projectiles.

I have some of the Nosler 64 BSBs and CFE223 and 8208 XBR I'm going to start with. Very interested in coming up with a good load for these bullets.

[robtx]

I guess a lot of folks think the same way! I've been working on the same bullet with XBR and AR Comp. They aren't as accurate as my 60NBT, but that might not even be a fair comparison. Both seem to work about the same with 2MOA @ 100 with LC16, BR4s, 24.5GR in my 11.5 and 2 x 14.5s. Same load the 60NBT's run 1-1.25" across the same rifles.

I ended up sorting by weight because of flyers in my strings which I couldn't pin down. I found that about 1 in 25-50 was way out of whack and that seemed to have helped. I just built up a new 18 Faxon HB and need to revisit with it. What might be of interest is that I found that these bullets don't like to be seated long, my logs show things like 2.245 OAL were 3.8" @ 100.

If anyone is really interested I can post some more detailed logs of my adventure, I keep all groups during load workup...even the bad ones. I weed out called flyers, but it also means a re-shoot of the string...I'm not easy on myself :-)

[Leonidas24]

Leonidas - What is it you don't like about TAC in your SBR? I'm going to theorize that since TAC is a slightly slower burning power it's not the ideal choice for a short barrel? I have a bunch of it and I've had decent results with 62 gr ss109 bullets. Haven't tried it with anything lighter - I've read it's better suited for heavier projectiles.

I have some of the Nosler 64 BSBs and CFE223 and 8208 XBR I'm going to start with. Very interested in coming up with a good load for these bullets.

It's only one barrel I've used on this SBR, but my normal load of 24.5 gr TAC under a Hornady 55gr FMJ would not cycle out of a BA 11.5" govt, with the adjustable gas block in place. For it, I dropped my charge weight down to 24.0 gr and it began cycling fine. I ended up selling off that barrel since I didn't have a lot of rounds through it and replacing it with an old 14.5" CHF barrel that was lying around.

[Leonidas24]

I happened to forget targets the day we went out to do accuracy testing with this load, and ended up using a shot up USPSA target found in the range shed. While 25.4 yielded a tighter group I wanted to push this a a little faster, 2900fps was the target velocity, and ultimately settled on 25.8. It wasnt until later that I was able to run the load over the magnetospeed, and realize 25.8 hit the target velocity. The 25.8gr group had an extreme spread of 1.75" at 100 yds.

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[purple_yota27565]

I know you where looking for more ball powders but I'm running the 62 gr bonded over 25.5 grs of varget but I don't have my notes in front of me so I'm not 100% on that. LC brass with cci 400. Getting about moa out of my psa pencil barrel upper.

[Eric D.]

I'll take some pics of brass and targets from my most recent loads and post when I get a chance. With the 64 gr nosler bsb, mixed brass and wolf srm's I went as high as 26.6 gr CFE223 and 23.6 8208 XBR without any issues. 80 degrees F ambient. No chrono data. The only thing I don't like about the cfe is that it makes my brass eject forward. This was my first time using the XBR and I liked it. It doesn't stink like some other powders do.

[Leonidas24]

I'll take some pics of brass and targets from my most recent loads and post when I get a chance. With the 64 gr nosler bsb, mixed brass and wolf srm's I went as high as 26.6 gr CFE223 and 23.6 8208 XBR without any issues. 80 degrees F ambient. No chrono data. The only thing I don't like about the cfe is that it makes my brass eject forward. This was my first time using the XBR and I liked it. It doesn't stink like some other powders do.

I'd like to go back through and retest 8208 XBR with the Nosler bullet. Current load I'm using for that is virgin primed LC12 brass with 23.1 gr 8208 XBR and the Nosler 64 gr BSB. Velocity out of a 14.5" bbl was right around 2750 if I remember right, but according to Hodgdon's online data source I think 23.2 was listed as max at the time for the closest comparable bullet (63 gr Sierra softpoint.) If you're shooting 23.6 gr of 8208 XBR without pressure signs that's awesome.

[Eric D.]

Shooting from 50 yards at 1x magnification. I'm not a stickler for groups and all that so take it for what you will. Noticeable POI shift from my M855 zero. Also was trying out a new Surefire warden so maybe that made a difference. Top left is 23.2gr XBR, top right is 23.4gr XBR and center is 23.6 gr XBR.

I was working with markm's info on 23.5 gr XBR being used for a 5.56 pressure load w/ 77gr bullets and wanted to work my way up and see how high I could go. I may even go a little higher. Some of the brass shows mild ejector swiping but some of it was also pre-existing being once fired factory 5.56 loads. Nothing crazy going on with the primers.

IMG_2656.jpgIMG_2658.jpgIMG_2659.jpgIMG_2660.jpg

It sucks that there's so little data available for real 5.56 loads in real 5.56 chambers. What data there is is based on the ~62k psi figure for M855A1. I don't want to go that high I just want data that makes 55k in a real 5.56 chamber.