Filthie’s Reloading Bench: Bawk! Bawk! Bawk!!! 🐔

 Well fellas, it’s time for another Ruger American poast. In our last exciting episode, we were playing with 70 grain Berger target bullets, and Varget powder. We pushed the little pill up to about 2662 FPS, on a charge of 25.0gr of Hogdon’s Varget, which yielded a group approx. 1.18 MOA ~ 2.373 inches. I’ve never had much luck with either Varget or Berger bullets; I’ve gotten ho-hum performance out of both. We pushed this one right up to the max according to the Hogdon manual, with no pressure signs on the brass whatsoever. I figured we have room to push a little more; the accuracy seemed to improve as velocity increased; and I figured I’d start bumping up the charge in 0.5gr increments until we saw evidence of a hot load. In the comments, Eaton Rapids Joe reminded me that the 223 is a small case and questioned whether it would have the capacity for such a bump. I hemmed and hawwed and decided to bump up only by .3 of a grain. We were at book max, and it turned out to be a good call.

25.3 gr. Varget, 70gr Berger Target bullet

2.239” OAL

Average Velocity: 2672 FPS

Standard Deviation: 20 FPS

Group Size: 3.094” or 1.547 MOA @ 200m

The load was mildly compressed. We only picked up 10 FPS velocity, and groups opened up to approximately 1.54 MOA. Ho-hum. As McChuck pointed out in the comments…the Ruger American is a 16” carbine and 1.5 MOA is perfectly acceptable. He’s right, too. This no F-Class bench gun. But…we should be able to do better. Berger’s are not what I’d call a premium bullet…but they’re not cheap either. One of my cases showed a mildly cratered primer. It was a mildly compressed load. Given that accuracy fell off with no appreciable gain in accuracy… I’m gonna call it with Varget. It’s not a hot load…but it’s getting warm. It’s time to try other options.

I’ve got a few 8 pounders of H4895… so:

23.0gr H4895   70 gr Berger Target

2.239” OAL

Average velocity: 2622 FPS   “Book” Velocity: 2782 FPS

Standard Deviation: 42 FPS

Group Size: 2.584”  or approximately 1.292 MOA @ 200m

Hmppffff. Not bad. Using McChuck’s benchmark of 1.5 MOA…this is okay. We’re getting much better velocities than a similar charge of Varget; accuracy is better too. Let’s bump it up and see what happens!

24 gr H4895   70 gr Berger Target (Book max, mildly compressed load)

2.239” OAL

Average Velocity: 2765 FPS

Standard Deviation: 14 FPS

Group Size: 1.516” or approximately 0.758 MOA @ 200 yards.

Bingo! We have finally gotten a winner from Berger! All it took was some fussing around! Now if I was serious I’d start piddling around with primers, different brass, bullet seating depths… and I’d start tweaking the powder charge too. I’d drop back down to 23 gr. and go up 24 gr. in 0.2 gr. increments… but…screw it! For a chit house 16” barrelled carbine…this is good enough. That is going to be my 70 gr. Berger bullet load, end of story - for me, that is! 

The usual weasel words apply. Use this data at your own risk; I am not responsible if you blow your face or your fingers off. 

After Action Report

I hesitate to add this. A very unreliable source told me that I could try CFE-223 gun powder. My alarm bells went off, but this source had never steered me wrong before. To me CFE is for lighter bullets and against my better judgement… I gave it a shot. I knew I was in trouble the second I saw the chronograph readout. 2100 FPS?!?! Oh shit. Extraction was slick, the spent shell popped right out. But..it had a burnt ring of carbon round case head.

See that sooty crap on the one on the left?

The firing pin indentation was more pronounced too.

The primer wasn’t cratered or flattened at all…

The one on the right is a normal firing pin strike.

Yeah.

No. 

I made 5, fired one and chickened out. Obviously the little carbine wasn’t happy with this bullet/powder combo and it could be potentially unsafe. I took apart the remaining 4 rounds and called CFE a “no go” for this bullet. My recommendation is don’t try this at home.

My favourite campsite at the rod and gun club is finally clearing out and the snow is melting off. Time to get the trailer out! ☺️👍

After the testing I slung up and TOTALLY sucked at my shooting from the sitting position. I sucked so bad I didn’t even bother getting the 243 out. I got so damned mad at myself that I just called it a day and went to my favourite campsite for a coffee and a pipe.

Today I got into some Mac Baren “7 Seas”. It was warm enough for shirt sleeves today so when I finished my pipe… I was enjoying myself so much that I refilled it and smoked another bowl. Now it feels like the cat shat in my lungs! HAR HAR HAR!

😂👍

For now I’m done with Berger bullets, and we’ll try something else in the next exciting episode.