Bill_Wallace
Member
I have a B-14 Hunter in 308 Winchester that is very very accurate with Lapua 167g OTM Scenar ammo and feeds perfectly. It printed a 1 inch group at 200 yards with this ammo with a Burris 2x7 Fullfield E1 hunting scope I scalped from my 1980 Browning BAR (which I bought new), also chambered in 308 Winchester on top of a new DNZ Products "Game Reaper" one piece scope mount and rings for the B-14. I re-installed the old Leupold 2x7 Vari-X II back on the BAR that I had originally installed on it.
Anyway, I have a mix of Remington, Federal and LC83 7.62 NATO brass that has been sized and trimmed to 2.005. I loaded a mixed small amount of those brass with Hornady 150 SST #30302 with COL 2.75. Most of these hand loads loaded and shot perfectly in the B-14. However, some did not feed well. The hand loads seem to feed ok, but I could not close the bolt on some of them. So, I culled out the leftover empty brass that would not function and the ones that did function by running the empty brass through the action. What I noticed was about 80% of the LC83 empty brass functioned normally. About 50% of the Federal brass functioned and same with the Remington. The Federal and Remington brass came from two different lots because the head stamp fonts are not the same. I separated them accordingly. There were no signs of indented rings on bullets from touching the lands.
Now, the BAR functions fine with any of this brass and the Lapua ammo. I think the BAR's chamber tolerances are little greater than a bolt action (maybe?) Someone mentioned European CIP vs SAAMI specs. Well, the BAR is made by FN in Belgium. Would they not conform to European CIP or SAAMI? If a EU maker was to market and sell to the USA, would it not make sense to use SAAMI? I use an RCBS small base sizing die for the BAR and a Redding FL Bushing die for the B-14.
So, I concluded that either the brass is out of spec and/or the B-14's tolerances could be tighter, as some previously discussed this. BTW, I did clean the chamber and bore prior to shooting, but I do not have a bore scope. I will try cleaning the chamber again with Kroil before the next round of tests.
Anyway, I have a mix of Remington, Federal and LC83 7.62 NATO brass that has been sized and trimmed to 2.005. I loaded a mixed small amount of those brass with Hornady 150 SST #30302 with COL 2.75. Most of these hand loads loaded and shot perfectly in the B-14. However, some did not feed well. The hand loads seem to feed ok, but I could not close the bolt on some of them. So, I culled out the leftover empty brass that would not function and the ones that did function by running the empty brass through the action. What I noticed was about 80% of the LC83 empty brass functioned normally. About 50% of the Federal brass functioned and same with the Remington. The Federal and Remington brass came from two different lots because the head stamp fonts are not the same. I separated them accordingly. There were no signs of indented rings on bullets from touching the lands.
Now, the BAR functions fine with any of this brass and the Lapua ammo. I think the BAR's chamber tolerances are little greater than a bolt action (maybe?) Someone mentioned European CIP vs SAAMI specs. Well, the BAR is made by FN in Belgium. Would they not conform to European CIP or SAAMI? If a EU maker was to market and sell to the USA, would it not make sense to use SAAMI? I use an RCBS small base sizing die for the BAR and a Redding FL Bushing die for the B-14.
So, I concluded that either the brass is out of spec and/or the B-14's tolerances could be tighter, as some previously discussed this. BTW, I did clean the chamber and bore prior to shooting, but I do not have a bore scope. I will try cleaning the chamber again with Kroil before the next round of tests.
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