This could go into the AR Forum, but it's reloading so I picked this forum.
First...the why; just recently built a pair of 6.5 Grendel gasser's. IMO 120gr bullets are a bit heavy because you have to watch over pressuring the platform. So normal pressure signs don't come into play.
Combine that with my most recent bullet purchase from a guy here. Roughly 300 lead core, exposed lead tipped bullet. 100 of Sierra 120 Pro Hunter which get great reviews by Grendel users. Plus about 200 120 Speer bullets, which are discontinued. From what I'm reading they are bonded.
Ok so I have a bonded, lead tipped bullet that is most likely built too well for Grendel velocity. So the problem is obvious!
Right?
I've been thinking about doing this since I was a kid in the late 70's, so I took 20 bullets and did it!
I break out a razor blade, small drill bit, digital scale and core less drill.
Yep, you know what I'm about to do...don't you? I bet nearly everyone reading this has thought about doing this.
So I cut the exposed lead tip off. That took me down to 117gr. Then I drilled out the tip about an 1/8". Now I'm at 115gr. I use a slightly large drill bit to counter sink the hole and clean it up a bit.
Now the weights are kind of every where. So I use the drill bit by hand to match the bullets weight. I then weighted, grouped the bullets that had matching weights.
I only did 20 bullets, 4 - 112gr, 4 - 114gr the remainder 115gr. I loaded them all to the same powder load of 28.2gr of IMR 8208. I seated them slightly longer than the lead tipped, measured at the ogive, but not to the mag length of 2.280.
So off to the range. I just bought two new Athlon 5x24 50mm scopes for these rifles. Without bore sighting either scope, I had both in the bull at 100yds in less than 5 shots out of each rifle!
The 18" likes these bullets the best. It out shot my 20" group wise with the Speer bullet, altered and non-altered.
I only had 4 of the 112gr so I shot them out of the 18". I pulled the third shot as usual but settled back done for the 4th shot.
The SD 7 and ES 14 average velocity of 2531was better than the 20"...that is a first.
First...the why; just recently built a pair of 6.5 Grendel gasser's. IMO 120gr bullets are a bit heavy because you have to watch over pressuring the platform. So normal pressure signs don't come into play.
Combine that with my most recent bullet purchase from a guy here. Roughly 300 lead core, exposed lead tipped bullet. 100 of Sierra 120 Pro Hunter which get great reviews by Grendel users. Plus about 200 120 Speer bullets, which are discontinued. From what I'm reading they are bonded.
Ok so I have a bonded, lead tipped bullet that is most likely built too well for Grendel velocity. So the problem is obvious!
Right?
I've been thinking about doing this since I was a kid in the late 70's, so I took 20 bullets and did it!
I break out a razor blade, small drill bit, digital scale and core less drill.
Yep, you know what I'm about to do...don't you? I bet nearly everyone reading this has thought about doing this.
So I cut the exposed lead tip off. That took me down to 117gr. Then I drilled out the tip about an 1/8". Now I'm at 115gr. I use a slightly large drill bit to counter sink the hole and clean it up a bit.
Now the weights are kind of every where. So I use the drill bit by hand to match the bullets weight. I then weighted, grouped the bullets that had matching weights.
I only did 20 bullets, 4 - 112gr, 4 - 114gr the remainder 115gr. I loaded them all to the same powder load of 28.2gr of IMR 8208. I seated them slightly longer than the lead tipped, measured at the ogive, but not to the mag length of 2.280.
So off to the range. I just bought two new Athlon 5x24 50mm scopes for these rifles. Without bore sighting either scope, I had both in the bull at 100yds in less than 5 shots out of each rifle!
The 18" likes these bullets the best. It out shot my 20" group wise with the Speer bullet, altered and non-altered.
I only had 4 of the 112gr so I shot them out of the 18". I pulled the third shot as usual but settled back done for the 4th shot.
The SD 7 and ES 14 average velocity of 2531was better than the 20"...that is a first.