I have an Oly .223 AR-15 1:9 stainless and am trying to find a good boolit and load for varmint & target. Going to Wyoming antelope hunting tomorrow, so range time is not an option though I know I should do it. Bringing the AR for some prairie poodles post-goat.
I have some once fired PMC brass (working with it, seems surprisingly consistent, and the neck mouths are tougher than Winchester through the polisher and trimmer. Annealed necks and all that.). Thought I would start with Varget, full length resize the PMC, and tried to find 68gr. Hornady BTHPs but could only find 60gr. VMax handy in town.
Hornady's book is MUCH more conservative than Hodgdon's site on loads. So I thought I would start in the middle of Hodgdon - only to discover I could NOT get the full charge of Varget in the case?! It was not shown as compressed until you hit the max. I ended up loading some at 24gr. and even then there was just a tiny bit of crunching seating the boolit from time to time, but they are not compressed.
What is going on here? Are the PMCs particularly thick walled, like military or something? If so I am glad I picked 24gr.!
By the way, Varget meters surprisingly consistent, I was surprised, having used W760 up to now loading .300WSM. Varget metered better!
Sincerely yours, n00b with dumb questions. But at least I searched!
I have some once fired PMC brass (working with it, seems surprisingly consistent, and the neck mouths are tougher than Winchester through the polisher and trimmer. Annealed necks and all that.). Thought I would start with Varget, full length resize the PMC, and tried to find 68gr. Hornady BTHPs but could only find 60gr. VMax handy in town.
Hornady's book is MUCH more conservative than Hodgdon's site on loads. So I thought I would start in the middle of Hodgdon - only to discover I could NOT get the full charge of Varget in the case?! It was not shown as compressed until you hit the max. I ended up loading some at 24gr. and even then there was just a tiny bit of crunching seating the boolit from time to time, but they are not compressed.
What is going on here? Are the PMCs particularly thick walled, like military or something? If so I am glad I picked 24gr.!
By the way, Varget meters surprisingly consistent, I was surprised, having used W760 up to now loading .300WSM. Varget metered better!
Sincerely yours, n00b with dumb questions. But at least I searched!