SmallCaliberCentral

I have been on the forum for a couple weeks now. I had a 10 to 15 mi wind yesterday which was better so did some load workup. I built a ar 15 in 204 ruger. Shilen match barrel and bolt with 1 and 9 twist. Broke the barrel in with dog town bullets and sighted in the scope. Strated load workup with cheap 34 g dog town bullets and a dime coverers the group! Next load 32 Grain v max first 4 dime covers then as powder charge gos up so does group size , Hit max load and tight group again. Next I shoot 40 grain v max 3 shots inside a dime! Finally not expecting much, final load 26 Grain Varmit Grenades. In a one and 9 twist barrel I had low expectations. Yet with the rigt charge , BINGO! 3 shots covered with a dime, Not touchinig holes like many others b, but still awsome! see it here!
http://s166.photobucket.com/albums/u109/valar5/

Looks fun! Great job and I bet you could tighten it up further.

My first range trip was today as well with my AR...30 minute drive, arrive to locked gates and "Range closed until Jan 1st" sign.

Looks like I'll be sooting in the local sandpit now.

Yes I am sure a trigger will make a big difference. Next i will tweak my best loads bye a tenth of a grain. I am shooting a stock ar trigger in this gun, need mo money hehe tis the season!

valar, I posted a comment on another thread asking a few questions about your AR set up. I hadn't seen this thread yet. You answered just about everything I wanted to know in this thread. Any idea what kind of speeds your shooting with the AR? I have heard that we lose a couple hundred feet per second due to the gas operation. I want one of these so bad! its only a matter of time.

Chris

chris_32212 I feel that I've lost fps in my AR. I'm shooting a 24" 1-12 twist barrel. Factory Hornady 40gr Vmax loads only shoot slightly over 3600fps in my gun. I am currently shooting a 39gr SBK pushed by a hot load of 27.8 H4895 and managed 3725 fps. I am happy with this load now, but when I bought the gun I had visions of getting closer to 4000 fps with a hot load. I do not want to drop to a lighter bullet to achieve more fps as I hunt coyotes with this load.

That is kind of what I expected. Thank you for the information. I may still go with an AR but i really don't want to lose any speed. I don't reload (yet) so a bolt action may be in my future. Does anybody have any information on the piston driven AR systems? Do those set ups loose less bullet velocity than the traditional gas operated system? Seems like it might... Anyway, thanks again.

Chris

I did some reading and found a forum thread that suggests the piston systems actually lose velocity to the gas systems. probably not worth reading as it isn't backed by any facts but here it is. It also talks about the piston systems being less accurate. Definately a downer for me.

http://www.thehighroad.org/showthread.php?t=260737

Chris I do not have a chrono. so I cant answer your question. I hope to have one bye spring. I currently halted my load workup as it is so cold testing and I can shoot inside a dime now. I will do tenth grain load increments and test when weather gets warm. Hopefully I will have a chrono bye then. At this point she shoots excellent and I am focusing on killing coyotes!