Leverevolution & 95 SST is working

[Trashy]

Just got home from the range a little bit ago, looked at the brass and data again and ate some lunch I think I am a happy camper!  The Hodgdon LVR seems to be working for me, fairly clean burning and it hit my velocity goal without any signs that looked worrisome.

Going to load a C&R ladder and if the wheels don't fall off while shooting that ladder my load development for the Hornady 95 grain SST will be over.  The only problem I see with this is that it is .7 grains to 1.0 grains over Hornady's posted max with LVR. Hornady's data tops at 29.7 grains of leverevolution at 2600 fps from their 18" barrel.  Group sizes hovered at an inch and less, the condensed version of today's data is below.

20" cmmg barrel, 95 gr SST, Hodgdon Leverevolution, CCI 450 primers, cbto 1.678", neck tension only.  5 rounds at each charge weight.  I believe that my pick of the litter will be 30.4 grains LVR.

28.6 gr, avg vel 2746, sd 12.5, es 33
28.9 gr, avg vel 2773, sd 4.5, es 10
29.2 gr, avg vel 2793, sd 6.5, es 17
29.5 gr, avg vel 2828, sd 18.3, es 46
29.8 gr, avg vel 2863, sd 7.6, es 19
30.1 gr, avg vel 2885, sd 9.7, es 23
30.4 gr, avg vel 2912, sd 6.6, es 16
30.7 gr, avg vel 2933, sd 9.0, es 23

I can also post the Accurate 2520 data from the range today if anyone wants to see it but LVR was the big winner.

[Dino11]

You got them bullets screaming, Lever is my next load I am sizing the brass for it this evening. I think I am going to load some of them with 100 grain SPBT that I have. But I am still working on the 105-108 loads. Was going to start at max load and go a little above it. Did you show any pressure signs?

I am loading these with CCI 450 Magnum primers, but I don't want to get to far out of line and start destroying brass. So far aside from resizing and trimming I have not had to bump any shoulders back, so the brass is not stretching very much. But the cases are at max length or a little more so they have to be trimmed.

[Troy fairweather]

What's the leverevoloion street price, my lgs had it for $26 had a few pounds to.

[Trashy]

Dino, all my brass is trimmed to 1.477”, after first firing of factory 105’s case length was all over 1.490, they haven’t grown much since then. I’m using CCI 450’s also. I started seeing some flattening of primers at 30.7 grs of LVR but it wasn’t consistent across the charge weight and it wasn’t sever (I had greater flattening of primers with the factory 105’s) but I didn’t go higher than that because 2900 was my goal. 2900 FPS with the 95 SST is 100 FPS off hornady’s max book on the 95 SST in the 243 Win and I don’t care about pushing it past that. If I didn’t cover all your questions, please let me know and I’ll take another swing at it.

Troy, I gave $32.00 for the pound I bought so you got a better price than I did. I could probably do better online buying larger amounts (8-16 pounds at a time) but until load development is completely done, it is what it is (So to speak).

[Troy fairweather]

Dino, all my brass is trimmed to 1.477”, after first firing of factory 105’s case length was all over 1.490, they haven’t grown much since then.  I’m using CCI 450’s also.  I started seeing some flattening of primers at 30.7 grs of LVR but it wasn’t consistent across the charge weight and it wasn’t sever (I had greater flattening of primers with the factory 105’s) but I didn’t go higher than that because 2900 was my goal.  2900 FPS with the 95 SST is 100 FPS off hornady’s max book on the 95 SST in the 243 Win and I don’t care about pushing it past that.  If I didn’t cover all your questions, please let me know and I’ll take another swing at it.

Troy, I gave $32.00 for the pound I bought so you got a better price than I did.  I could probably do better online buying larger amounts (8-16 pounds at a time) but until load development is completely done, it is what it is (So to speak).

I haven't picked it up yet I'm waiting for my barrel to come in. I have a thing about buying stuff before the gun or parts needed come. Guess I don't want to jinx my self lol.

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Trashy 2900 with a 95 is great, what barrel length.

I'd like to try for 3000 from a 85 grain bullet.

[Trashy]

I’m shooting a 20” cmmg slim profile

[grayfox]

Just got back from some more trigger time with my faxon 20. Did a ladder with the 95 Sst and some lever, taking a cue from trashy and the load data.
My mv’s weren’t quite as fast as yours but puts me in the range where I want it to be. Faster than the book data btw.
28.9, 2712
29.2, 2713
29.5, 2760
29.8, 2780
30.1, 2827.
No sd or es this was just a ladder to get my mv ranges defined.
Now I will focus in on 29.6-30.2. I think 30.0 might be where I wind up, just an educated guess. About 2815-ish.
I have more lever right now than cfe... thought I had more cfe but not so. Which is ok though.

[Trashy]

Those are good numbers. If you ask me those numbers are pretty comparable considering all the variables. They only look to be 50-70 FPS apart all the way down the list, I bet if someone smarter than me could factor in the differences between the barrels, chronographs, altitude, distance from chrono’s, seating depth and weather conditions and extrapolate it out our numbers would be spot on.

That’s some good work Grayfox, I hope to shoot the c&r ladder next week, and will report the results back here, I’m hoping it all stays the same.

[Dino11]

I'm really starting to like this round, I loaded some 100's, 105's and some 108's with Leverevolution and the numbers were quite impressive.

100's loaded to 29.7 2780FPS Hornady Interlocks

100's loaded to 29.7 2760FPS Sierra Game Kings

105's loaded to 29.7 2640FPS Nosler RDF

105's loaded to 30.2 2760FPS Nosler RDF

108's loaded to 30.2 2735FPS Hornady ELD

All groups were very good, bullets went exactly were I aimed for, I was having to intentionally aim off center as my holes were going inside of each other and it almost looked like I was missing the target all together. The guy next to me had a spotter with him and he was checking out my targets. He was in total amazement when he saw that I was shooting an AR, and had to come over and check it out. I did not tell him it was a 6mm ARC at first. I said watch this... and starting ringing the steel plate at 600 yards five shoots in a row. He then asked me about the rifle and I told him it was a 6 ARC. They had never heard of it before and were amazed that the precision was so good out of this platform, especially from a semi auto DI gun.

I think the Lever is going to be my go to powder for 6mm ARC. I performed very well and burned a lot cleaner than CFE223, but the number were comparable for the two powders. With Lever having a slight edge.

[grayfox]

Excellent!!! I have the interlocks, and the sierra 100 sbt's, which was one I was thinking about, with Lever.
I agree, Lever looks to be the go-to for me also, for now.
Unless something better comes along but these numbers will be hard to beat.
Thanks for posting.

[StoneHendge]

Trashy & GF, what were your shooting temperatures?

[Trashy]

The day I was chrono’ing the leverevolution it was 86 degrees.

[grayfox]

72*. I’m using an indoor range close by.

[grayfox]

Dino what kind of COAL's were you using for the sst and for the sierra 100 BT gamekings?

[grayfox]

I tried some seating checks for the sierra 100 sbt, but the lead tips are getting scarred during the feed, I don't like what I see. I'm going to set them aside and concentrate on the 103 eldx and the 95 sst's.
Grafs finally shipped my brass, it should come soon.
They don't notify you or anything you have to check back in on your order.

[Trashy]

Were those sierra’s the ProHunter’s? I ask because that’s what I liked about them in my Grendel was that the lead tip was stiff enough that it didn’t deform during chambering. I haven’t tried any in the arc yet, guess I just assumed the lead tip make up was the same along with the geometry of the feed ramps. I wonder if the magazine could be causing the tip of the bullet to be hitting the feed ramp differently causing the deformation. Thanks for the information, I just crossed them off the list.

Yeah, I found that out about Graf’s on Wednesday night when I went looking Online at the order, after not hearing anything from them in over a week when their stated ship time was 4-7 days. The order had a tracking number at the bottom of it and it showed the quantity in the ordered and shipped columns. USPS says the brass will be delivered on Saturday, believe I’ll put Graf’s in the “use as a last resort” column.

Now if it will dry up so I can get to the range.

[grayfox]

They are the game kings, the boat tails. I would kind of guess the lead is the same, more economical that way.

[Trashy]

My brass arrived Friday while I was at the range (yea me!). Other than the velocity being 25-30 FPS slower than the 5 rounds in the ladder, all 5 strings were consistent and the rifle ran good with them. I don’t know that I want to spend the time or primers to find 30 FPS. I’m going to load 50 rounds of this load with the 95 gr SST and go hog hunting.

[Pig_Popper]

Awaiting hog hunting results with 95 grain SST and LVR ...

[grayfox]

I had a similar 25-30 fps drop when shooting some 103 eldx's groups with the new brass.
This could be just the effect from using new brass, some energy needed to stretch it. I plan to shoot them again as 1x fired's - think the MV's will come back to what I saw in my ladders (which were all either 1x or 2x brass at the time).