[thornblom]

Gentlemen,

Has anyone here reloaded this brass? If so, how did it do and how many loadings did you get before you had to discard it? The guy shooting next to at the range was shooting this ammo in his 700 sps tactical rifle. He saved the cases, put them back in the box and gave them to me cause he knew that I reloaded. They are once fired. I did all the target preping on them and weighed them. They averaged 167.5 grains, +- .6 of a grain for 20 cases. I did have to chamfer the primer pockets to smoothe out the primer seating process.

Sincerely,
Dave (Bubba) Thornblom

 

[BK]

Sounds like you are our designated guinea pig, Bubba. Let us know how they work.

 

[thornblom]

Sounds like you are our designated guinea pig, Bubba. Let us know how they work.

Well Mr. BK,

That is the way it has worked out for most of my life, but it has been interesting. Now that I am too old for cars and girls, I have settled for used trucks, fine tequila and reloading for my 700 vsf .308 among others.

Amazing how changing the objects of your guinea pigedness make your married life more content.

Ya'll may quote me on that.

Sincerely,
Dave (Bubba) Thornblom

 

[M700]

There is one thing that I suggest that you do.

Section an empty case of the P-P and a North American commercial brass so that you can compare the thickness at the web.

I have seen a rifle destroyed from using factory P-P ammo. When we sectioned the case, it was found to be thinner than anything we had seen before, by about half.

Caveat Emptor.

Do this just as a precaution, it may save your rifle.

 

[thornblom]

There is one thing that I suggest that you do.

Section an empty case of the P-P and a North American commercial brass so that you can compare the thickness at the web.

I have seen a rifle destroyed from using factory P-P ammo. When we sectioned the case, it was found to be thinner than anything we had seen before, by about half.

Caveat Emptor.

Do this just as a precaution, it may save your rifle.

Well,

All I have invested in these cases is a little time and 20 primers. I may be better off just sh*t cannibg these cases. I have 100 LC cases, 200 Remington cases and 50 Hornady match cases. I can surely do without these 20.

Thanks for the heads up.

Sincerely,
Dave (Bubba) Thornblom

 

[BK]

I'm not sure I would even bother with a lot of 20 cases. I generally like to work with a minimum of 50 cases on big game rifles and 200 or more for varmint rifles. WhenI break down and buy a tac rifle, who knows how many cases I'll end up prepping for it.

 

[M700]

There is one thing that I suggest that you do.
Section an empty case of the P-P and a North American commercial brass so that you can compare the thickness at the web.
I have seen a rifle destroyed from using factory P-P ammo. When we sectioned the case, it was found to be thinner than anything we had seen before, by about half.
Caveat Emptor.
Do this just as a precaution, it may save your rifle.

Dave:

If you only have 20 cases, they aren't worth the effort.

What is your location?

Well,
All I have invested in these cases is a little time and 20 primers. I may be better off just sh*t cannibg these cases. I have 100 LC cases, 200 Remington cases and 50 Hornady match cases. I can surely do without these 20.
Thanks for the heads up.
Sincerely,
Dave (Bubba) Thornblom

 

[thornblom]

Well,

I did finally reload these cases. I used 165 grain spitzer boat tails (Nosler) 10 rounds and 165 grain spitzer boat tails (Speer) 10 rounds. 43.5 grains of RL-15 and CCI-Br2 primers.

I shot four 5 shot groups at 100 yards on the bench rest. All groups hovered around 3/4" +/-.
Both groups with the Speer bullets were alittle under 3/4" and both groups with the Noslers were
1/16" under and 1/16" over the 3/4" mark. That really surprized me as I expected the Noslers to shoot better. Both of these boxes of bullets were from and old stash of mine that I bought in 1983.

The prvi cases held up good. No problems with them at all.

Sincerely,
Dave (Bubba) Thornblom

 

[El Chorizo]

Perhaps with newer bullets, they've made some improvements in tolerances in bullet manufacturing since 1983.

Those are good groups though! I wouldn't be disappoint with that!

How many uses are you expecting out of the prvi cases?

 

[thornblom]

Perhaps with newer bullets, they've made some improvements in tolerances in bullet manufacturing since 1983.
Those are good groups though! I wouldn't be disappoint with that!
How many uses are you expecting out of the prvi cases?

I'm just guessing, but right now I'll just go for 4 or 5 loadings and see how they look after that.

Sincerely,
Dave (Bubba) Thornblom

 

[thornblom]

Well, so far I have reloaded and fired these cases 3 times plus the initial firing of the factory load. They are holding up fine with triming after 2 firings. All have been full length sized each time they have been loaded. I have a bent piece of wire that I use to feel inside the case to see if thinning is taking place ahead of the web. So far no thinning is showing up. I will probably reload them another couple of times and then toss them. No sense in pushing the envelope.

Sincerely,
Dave (Bubba) Thornblom

 

[M700]

Thanks for the report Dave.

 

[thornblom]

No problem M700. I enjoyed the loading and shooting. All the way out to 500 yards these loads were right in there with my SMK loads as far as hitting the gongs from 100 to 500 yards. Gongs are not as precise as paper targets but, fun anyway.

Sincerely,
Dave (Bubba) Thornblom

 

[BadKarma]

+1 on the gongs. Dave, what are you pushing your SMK's with. I've been playing around with 4064 between 43 and 43.5 grains with CCI 200 primers and Winchester cases. I'm trying to duplicate the FGMM 168's. So far they are working pretty well out of my SPS Tactical. I don't have a Chrony so I'm not sure about velocity but they are pretty dang accurate out to 200 yards so far.

 

[thornblom]

Howdy Bad Karma,

I tried IMR-4064 in my 700 VSF .308 but I get better accuracy with RL-15 and Varget.

So far my favorite load looks like this:

Case: Federal Military (FC 08)
Primer: Federal 210-GMM
Powder: 43.1 grains of RL-15, or 44 grains of Varget
Bullet: 175 grain SMK
COL: 2.810"
Muzzle Velocity: no chronograph, but I am guessing between 2600 and 2650 ft/sec

Another load I shoot:

Case: Remington .308
Primer: CCI-Br2
Powder: 46 grains of Varget
Bullet: 155 grain SMK
COL: 2.800"
Muzzle Velocity: 2850 ft/sec

Third load I shoot:

Case: Nosler Custom .308
Primer: CCI-250 mag
Powder: 45 grains Varget
Bullet: 168 grain SMK
Col: 2.810"
Muzzle Velocity: Approx 2700 ft/sec

These are max, work up to them slowly, especially the last one. I have a 26" barrel.

Sincerely,
Dave (Bubba) Thornblom

 

[thornblom]

Hey there Bad Karma,

Since I did the load developement and offered it to you on request, don't you think "THANK YOU BUBBA" is in order? I sure would feel better about it. LOL

Sincerely,
Dave (Bubba) Thornblom

 

[BadKarma]

Dave you are most certainly correct, please forgive my rudeness!!! THANK YOU BUBBA!!!!!! Hey, your right, I do feel better about it as well. LOL.
Seriously I do appreciate it.

 

[thornblom]

Those are all pretty good loads, but my favorite is the 175 grain smk load. It actually duplicates the M118LR Marine Sniper round. It is very predictable and very consistant. Some say that RL-15 is sort of temp sensitive. With big temp swings in the summer time, yes. This time of year when the low is 55 and the high is about 72, it is not a problem.

Have fun.

Sincerely,
Dave (Bubba) Thornblom