308 Winchester for AR - 10

[The_Shadow]

Well after a bunch of research I decided on a load to start testing using the Barnes 165 TSXBT bullet.
Barnes shows this bullet using this data:
CFE 223 43.7 grains @ 2632 fps  48.5C grains @  2877 fps

The load I settled on for this one is as follows:

Barnes Data  165 TSXBT
C.O.A.L 2.810"
CFE 223 46.6 grains @ 2800 fps =/- (based on other real data with 24" BBL)
Energy 2872

Now to dry out down here from Hurricane Barry's slow progress and trailing large persistent rain bands, so I can get to test these out.

[Rojo27]

Wishing you good fortune and success with your 308 Barnes
load development and tests!!!

A 308 DPMS AR-10 clone picked up on a whim well over a decade ago started me  on
my intermediate semi automatic rifle hunting cartridge journey (which I'm still on).  Up until that point
I rifle hunted exclusively with bolt action rifles (having always heard that semi-automatics
weren't as accurate; completely false by the way).  Picked up a NIB DPMS in 308 cause stumbled across a good deal, and thought it might be fun to take out to country and burn through some ammo. 
Even with open sights, quickly learned it was very accurate.  Ended up throwing a middle of the road scope on it to possibly try hunting with.  Long story short by time I headed home from the rifle range
I was dumbfounded to learn at 100 yards I was able to cover last 3 bullet holes with a quarter (off a rest).  Needless to say my mainstay hog hunting rifle was born. 
Taken dozens of feral hogs with it as well as a number of whitetail.  I'm not a hand loader but my all time favorite ammo combination in that rifle is Barnes 150gr ttsx.  It works like lightning bolt if I do my part.  I've weigh-laid (ambushed) sounders of hogs and scored several multiple kills with that rifle and ammo combo...  Don't sound impressive if you've never hunted wild pigs but they get the hell out of dodge fast at the first sound of shot. Knocking 3 or 4 down (W. Texas flat scrubby terrain) at a time is a lot harder than it sounds.

Best of luck Shadow!!

[Trapper6L]

I never could get the accuracy I wanted from the Barnes bullets. Hopefully your experience is better than mine. If groups of 1.5" at 100 yds is what you're looking for, that's about as good as I could get them. I did find a load that shoots near one hole groups though that you might want to consider. I stumbled on a bunch of VV N-135 powder from my cousin who had to give up shooting. I ran 45.0grs of it under a 150gr Remington Core Lok and started shooting one hole groups with a slightly modded Remington 700 (free floated stock, Callahan Speed-lok). Next rifle was a new out of the box Remington 700 with a pencil profile barrel- one hole 5 shot group. I've since run that load thru at least 10 other 308s owned by family members and they all shoot match quality groups. Might give it try. It's one of those loads that's on node for a 308.

[The_Shadow]

Thanks for the encouraging words guys.  I'll have to see how these work out...

[TODDXUSMC]

Good luck with the load Shadow! Dry out quickly!! Keep us updated in your progress
Im thinking about maybe switching from my M1a and going to an AR10 platform. The main issue is scope hight above bore. On my M1a the centerline of the scope is about 4"+ over the centerline of the bore, even with the highest cheekpiece I still have to rest my lower jaw on the riser to see through the scope. Two problems confronting me:
1. My M1A is sub MOA, tested to 300m anyway, and that's with all 3 common bullet weights (handloads worked up to this weapon) 150, 165/168, & 175VLD.
2. Most AR10 have proprietary parts incorporated somewhere, and aren't nearly as interchangeable as the AR15.
Im liking RRA(I'have one and had one both stellar in AR15) but RRA is quite proprietary right down to their very expensive magazines. But, scope hight would be awesome.
Hobbies, hobbies, hobbies, what to do???


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[The_Shadow]

Thanks Todd, Hope to get testing soon, but rain for the weekend down here

[TODDXUSMC]

I never got to the the range this weekend either. Got hit with a tornado yesterday at 11:30am. No power until 9:00 tonight. I ended up cutting wood 1:30 Saturday until 5pm today. Son and I were in the garage when it happened, sounded like an F18 was tied to the roof with the afterburner on. Son [emoji102] at me with eyes just like these and says, "Oh no!! The MF tree just fell on my car!". Trees down in front and back of the house. About a 15 block area trees twisting off, and falling on houses etc. 60% of the city lost power with some estimates saying it will take up to 7 days to rebuild grid infrastructure and get power to everybody. They have crews coming in from the south and midwest US, utility crews working 24hrs/day.
Needless to say, I am really tired tonight.


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[The_Shadow]

Wow, glad you all are OK!  Hope your buildings made out good and you all get back to normal soon!
Take care!

[The_Shadow]

Well I purchased the NOE 311-199-SP K5 3 cavity GC mold and got to cast some with it today!  The weights were really close only about 1 grain difference...199.0 to 200.0.





Setting up the Sizer/Lubricator to start prepping them and applying the Gas Checks.

[The_Shadow]

I was digging around and actually have a LEE push through 0.311" sizer kit I got in a trade.   So I installed the Hornady crimp on gas checks on a few without any lube.  They say that's the best way so no lube gets under the checks.  Then I applied some White Label  Carnauba Red lube in the two lube grooves the passed them back through the sizer to smooth the lube evenly.

I have the RCBS expander for lead bullets that I used to prepare the case necks, also a slight chamfer of the case mouth to also aid in proper seating so the bullet doesn't shave as it is pressed into the case necks.  This worked very well as I made the DUMMY cartridge for test fitting the chamber and cycling.

Now to decide on a starting load to run a tester round to see how things go...May be a shot in the dark but working on this project is soothing to the soul!

[The_Shadow]

Here is a picture of the sized and lubed NOE bullets ready to load...



Loaded testers:

[sqlbullet]

Those are awesome bullets.  If you have a .311 sizer die, I would certainly shoot those before I tried anything different.  Generally I find that as long as they cycle, cast bullets are pretty forgiving of being a thousandth or two oversize.

[The_Shadow]

These I loaded using lower charge of CFE223 powder to see how the run...