Smokecloud

Yes, but I mostly switch from M1a which is a semi auto that favors slightly reduced loads, to my bolt gun that I tailor loads for. You can copy Federal Gold Medal Match loads and they will run fair in most any gun, but if you want cutting edge performance, every one of those guns will like something a little different.

I think there would be a huge market for a PRS-L version between the LR guys and the Hunting folks, and yes, a 300 WM would be a great caliber if the platform supports it. I emailed Ruger directly and threw them my pitch, maybe if enough of us did that, it would become a reality. My biggest love of that rifle setup, is the ability to change barrels, especially with the barrel burning calibers so many LR shooters love.

I like WST for light to medium loads, but prefer the WSF for Major, it runs quite a bit lower PSI at 169 than WST. It shoots very soft compared to TG. I have run the WSF in light to medium loads and it shoots fine, but at lower velocities, I see larger variances in velocity, it seems to like being run hotter out of my guns.

Ok, not yet, but for some reason, this keeps crossing my mind. Ruger has hit a homerun with their short action PRS, but now how about the rest of LR shooting world. I would pre-order one today if they offered it in 6.5x284. If you already have the short version, would you buy the long version as a second gun? Or, if you have been holding out, would a long action PRS push you over the line and finally make you order one? What caliber would you chose.

I had discovered the hotglue trick and that really was a turning point, well that and finally getting a good quality wad under it. Originally I had slugs keyholing at all velocities from 980 up to 1450fps. Drove me crazy and I simply gave up on it for about a year. Finally was able to get something other than claybuster wads and took another look at the recovered slugs, the skirts were giving way under pressure, so I started water quenching them, which cured the crumpling, but it was still shredding the wads, I tried nitro cards, and improved the results, but not completely and was running out of room inside my stack, so I tried my luck with the glue filled base, then razor blade off the excess. Once I got a winner, I loaded about 500 of them. I wanted a stockpile that would last the summer. Most matches are 5-10 slugs, but I have shot in the Ironman a couple of years and its pretty easy to shoot 150-200 slugs in 3 days, probably less since I installed adjustable turkey sights. The majority of the plates were out between 60-90 yards. I didn't shoot it last year, so I still have my stockpile and haven't had time to play with more slug development. I will try reducing my loads in the future. I was going to shoot for 1200fps if they are still stable at 90 and providing accuracy. From memory, I think I was running 28 gr of Longshot, a trimmed Federal S4 wad in a Gray AA hull. If your still getting good accuracy and stability at 1100fps, would you mind sharing your data.

I typically shoot factory ammo in MG's for the same reason, if it KB's, I have a shot at getting the factory to pay for the gun. If I do run reloads, they are my own and I pretty much do a match prep on each round and double check the powder charges prior to seating the bullet.

50 yards is where most slugs stop grouping well. You really need to stretch them out to see how they really perform. I like tinkering with rolling my own slugs and have spent quite a bit of time getting my 525 Lymans to shoot well. My current problem is that I have a good combo going with them, but they are labor intensive to make, but they shoot about 6" groups at 90 yards out of a smoothbore shotgun with a rifled choke tube, but at a price, they are running 1350fps, which still kicks a fair bit. If you are doing a slug heavy 3gun match, your shoulder might not be the same color at the end. I have considered trying my luck with the Lyman .678 round ball at around 900-1000fps for matches that have close targets. The round ball is about the easiest to cast and put together. I have done some work with the 1oz Lee, but I never tried the 7/8oz.

I have been casting my own bullets for a few years now, there was a bit of a learning curve, but its kind of a fun event to do. I got tired of the mess of various bullet lubes and stumbled across the Shake and Bake powder coating method over on the castboolits forum, I ordered up a couple pounds of powder from "Smoke" who is a moderator over there and started playing with powder coating. its all tedious work, but its rewarding to me. I mostly use them for practice rounds, but I have gotten consistent enough that I have started using them in matches from time to time. My biggest problem is that I shoot more than I have time to cast. Most of my cast and powder coated bullets typically run about 50fps faster than anything else with the same powder charge, there is zero smoke and no fouling. And as long as my wife doesn't run the stopwatch from the time I start a smelt tell the time that I size the coated bullet, they are always cost effective to me. Truthfully though, I wouldn't make them for someone else for less than they could buy factory bullets for. I currently cast for 9mm, 40sw, 45acp, 300blk and 12ga slugs, and a fishing weight or two.

Thanks for all the replies. I had already ordered two of the Lee universal decapping dies, and the Lee EZ Xpander to go in one of them. I was going to run one of the decap dies on the loading head to clean/clear media from the flash holes. They should be here tomorrow or Monday and hopefully I can get on with using this setup, im excited about finally going progressive with some rifle stuff.

have started setting up my 650 to run 223. Two new tool heads, one for brass prep and one for reloading. Started playing with my .223 trim die, set up the headspace properly and expected the I.D. of the neck to be tight, from reading other posts here, but wow. My inside neck diameter is running between .2145 to .215 depending on the brass. I have ordered a neck expander rod, should have it in a couple of days, that should open them back up to .223. I guess I'm a little concerned about how much im working the brass. I was expecting .219 to .220. Should I be concerned? Should I contact Dillon about this specific die? Or is this more normal than I realize. I am really not up for trying to hone out a $50 die.

I used to shoot a lot of pins about.....well, a long time ago. SW 45acp revolver with full moons, but 231 was my staple. Loading them on the higher end seemed to be the norm, most shot 200swc because of the sharp edges, if you got off of center a little bit, the sharp edges grabbed the pin a little easier and were more forgiving. You really don't need high horsepower to clear them though, there is a sweet spot in the center that an average 9mm will clear them clean off the table every time. Anyone here remember the old "PinGrabbers" wicked bullets with a sawtooth pattern around the rim of the hollow point.

Thanks for sharing that info Doug, I have never seen a 20 rd box mag for a bolt gun, I will have to look into one.

my first year at the Ironman, I took my .308 bolt gun, its an older Remington 700 PSS with the standard 4 round non-drop free magazine. I didn't know what to expect, but had my dope sorted out to 800 before showing up. What I didn't expect was staging the gun empty and loading on the clock initially. It took me a very long time to click ammo into the ejection port before engaging the 550 yard targets. Got my hits fine, but when I had to load after hitting the 2nd target once, I realized I was at a huge disadvantage with my current setup. I didn't make it past the 550 yard targets, shooting them 3x each before my time ran out. I didn't manage to setup another gun for the next year, so I didn't even take it. Even with a box mag bolt gun, you are still only going to have 10 rds in each mag and will need at least 15 if you don't miss, meaning that you will still have to reload on the clock. The only way to have enough ammo in the gun, is to have a platform that will give you at least 20 rds to start. That means you need a semi-auto. Your follow up shots will be 2x as fast to boot. I plan on building another LR gun someday for that match and will probably go with .308, if for nothing else, because its likely you will leave the brass behind. .308 brass is pretty much a no cost to me, but 6.5 CM are expensive to throw away. Besides, a .308 will do everything you need out of a semi out to 900, even with a shorter barrel.

I have had pretty good results from H4895 with 77gr bullets. Yes, full stick powder, but I load them all on a single stage press and the powder charge is handled by my RCBS electronic dispenser. The powder charge is ready for the next case by the time im done seating the bullet on the current case. I have a little of the 8208XBR, but haven't tried it in .223 because the PSI ratings for that powder were higher than H4895 and Varget for the same velocities. The 8208XBR is magically stable powder though that produces very consistent velocities in .308

I have been playing with 5.0 gr of WSF at 1.165 for my STI, shooting 180gr Cast bullets that I powder coat. They are averaging 900 fps, I thought it felt like Titegroup at 800fps, the WSF shoots soft. Looking at the PSI difference between the two powders makes me like the WSF even more. I have 9 lbs of it, I think im going to run it for a while and give it a good test, so far I really like it. This load is for 3gun stuff and if I need to bump it up to make major for USPSA, I think 5.3 gets me there barely. I will have to watch the temp sensitivity though and figure out what is a good year round load that will keep me at Major.

had my Saker 7.62 before the Omega was introduced. I run it on 3 different calibers on 4 different rifles. I think im going to invest in a direct thread mount for it just to play with to shorten it and lighten it a couple of ounces. My next center fire rifle can will probably be an Omega. My first couple of items were Form 4 to me as an individual, but there are so many restrictions on what you can and cant do with your items, I decided to set up a trust with my brother and dad. We can swap cans for a week for testing and its not an issue. Its also nice if I leave town for a few days, I can take the items on the trust over to one of their houses and store it in their safe until I get back. All of the choices of the suppressors mentioned here, are really the top of what is available. Specwar, Saker, Thunderbeast, Omega, etc. They really are apples to apples. The choice you make is personal and what YOU decide you want in a can, is what will make it the right can for you. Things that make one can better than another simply comes down to what is important to you. If the absolute lowest DB is what your aiming for, or the lightest can, the shortest can, the most versatile can. DB ratings are one way to compare how well they work, but don't forget that two suppressors can have the same DB rating and still sound different due to tone.

Bought my 650 from BE. If I were in the market for a 1050, there wouldn't be any second thoughts.

I played with this quite a bit trying to make low recoil slug loads, from 525gr Lyman slugs that I was casting and some Lee 12g slugs. Each powder has its own feel for sure and the lower PSI seemed to correlate to lower recoil, but it wasn't apples to apples. I have not experimented with shot loads that much though, only multiple slug loads for a few years. I found that most of the powders ran dirtier at lower levels and when I got to the bottom of the book loads, and slightly under, I had a few that did not ignite, I got the big PFFOOOT, which the primer shot everything clear of the barrel, except a lot of un-ignited gunpowder all over the action and barrel. The wad and slug cleared the barrel with enough force to knock the crap out of my Chrono. Thankfully I was putting a plastic Tupperware bowl in front of it to prevent the powder speckling that the screen received the first couple of rounds. Didn't break anything. I didn't think it was possible to have a primer ignite and not light the powder, but I had it happen again the following day with another powder when I was pushing the lower limits. I asked questions about this over on a casting forum and they confirmed it happens sometimes. I still scratch my head over it. I tried the 4756 and the 7625, Bluedot and several others. I ended up settling on Longshot, it wasn't as light of a load as I wanted, but gave stellar performance in the range I was looking for. For shot loads, some of the softest I tried was with Green Dot, but again, my testing is limited with shot.

im not sure I understand why anyone would want to drive a 10mm at mediocre 40 velocities. I got into a 10mm so that I could have a performance level above my 40's at safer pressure levels. Brass is expensive for the 10 and I don't shoot it like I do any of my 40 guns. If low 900's is what your after, perhaps a 40sw barrel for your 10mm would be a good purchase, then you could run the 40 ammo in the heavier gun, which would help reduce recoil further.

Ok, dug up my newest Hornady manual, now these are for 200gr Jacketed bullets. they list 1.260 as Max COL Powder start velocity max velocity Unique 5.3gr 850 6.4 1000 PowerPistol 6.0 850 7.6 1050 IMR 800x 6.0 850 8.1 1050 Bluedot 6.9 850 9.4 1150 Longshot 5.7 850 7.3 1050 there is also Data for Herco, V 3n37, IMR SR-4756, HS6, AA #5, 7 &9. I can tell you that Longshot is a great powder in 10mm, meters great, gives solid repeatable numbers and is probably one of the 4 best powders for 10mm along with Accurate #9, Bluedot and 800x. The Hornady manual 90% of the time is very conservative, but once in a while its on the money. Remember this is for Jacketed Data, not Cast Bullets and my experience with the Powder coating is that no matter what charge you run them at, they will run about 50fps faster than data for cast or jacketed, the powder coating is slippery stuff.

800x is good powder if you want velocity, as it produces faster FPS readings with the same pressure levels as other powders, but it really shines in the upper end. I don't plan on loading mine any hotter, but several of the companies that load to nuclear levels use 800x as I'm learning. Loaded at lower velocities, its supposed to have wider variances from velocity from shot to shot. One thing that people hate is how large the flakes are, it really has the largest flakes of powder I have ever played with, but I don't load or shoot very high volume in 10mm, so it all goes across my single stage and every powder charge is measured on my auto powder dispensing digital scale. I didn't have any pressure signs at all with the 800x at 1240-1250 with the Hornady's, but started to see pressure signs about 1210fps with BlueDot in my particular gun, which is a newer GenIV Glock 20

Not sure if that request for load data was for me or the other guys. But for my 300blk, the Sierra 125 TNT's, im running between 2.050 to 2.060 COL, 18.0gr of H110. Out of my 8" Noveske bbl, my chrono tells me their running average about 1985fps. I ran them at 18.5 and with the soft batch of CCI400s, I started seeing cratering on the primer around 2010fps. My brother runs them at 19.0 in a 9" AAC at closer to 2100fps with no issues. They work fairly well on rock chucks and coyotes. My chamber is shorter than my bro's AAC, he gets away with 2.100 COL easily.

Ooohhhh, I definitely have to try some of those, thanks for the tip

sorry I haven't shot any 200gr bullets in my 10mm, but I have pretty much settled on two loads for my Gen4. for my new Starline Brass, I run 9.0gr of 800x under a Hornady 180gr XTP, which according to my chrono is giving about 1250fps. I also cast Lee 180gr truncated cone, standard lube grove bullets and powder coat them and have been having great success with 10.0 gr of Bluedot that average about 1170-1180fps on the chrono. I run the XTPs through virgin brass, then they go to my plinker pile and I reload them with the PC Lee's, so far I have as many as 6 reloadings on the cases, without any splits. There is a lot of Data over on the 10mm forums, lots of pasting of factory load data and reloading manual pages.

I recently ordered some Speer 125gr TNT in 500 bulk pack. They are working well in my 300blk and are considerably cheaper than most alternatives. I have seen Hornady, and Speer110's in stock from time to time over the last 2 weeks at Powder Valley Inc, Midsouth shooters supply, Wideners, and lastly Midwayusa, but the Speers were about $10 per 500 more than the other 3. Its the beginning of Varmint season, so these light weight bullets have been hard to come by, just check often. PV was in stock for about 3 days. Speer also has a 110 HP that has a huge cavity, surprisingly the 20 that I have tested in my 300blk have fed, but they are short. the standard Speer 130gr HP has the same size hole, but a lot longer bullet profile, they just cost about $28 per 100. The Speer 125gr TNT HP have a small opening, but a long profile, flat base, they work well all around and if you watch, you can find them for about $100 per 500 bulk pack. Noslers work well, but cost twice as much. The sierra 125gr plastic tips work well, but again, pricey. the 110gr Barnes are stupid expensive and come in 50 boxes. Any of these should work fine in a .308 bolt gun, but your mileage will vary if your shooting an AR10