I've started shooting subsonics (suppressed) and enjoy the heck out of it. Less powder, less noise, and honestly more fun- hitting distant steel and getting that ring makes my wife smile every shot. I've got a good recipe in 308 for some 203 coated bullets (from someone in CLT who was getting out of the coated bullet business), but those are getting low and there's apparently no replacement, so I'm busy working up a substitute load with some 215 gallants which should be more plentiful. BTW, if anyone knows if those 203s, I'm in the market- think I got them on the other forum before it was canuckified.
Anyway, I'm trying to build up loads and honestly, subsonic is harder than supersonic to get an accurate load, compounded by very little published loads. I saw a youtube video about this, and think I just experienced it myself in that will low case fills (GRT says 50%), how the powder lies in the case will cause huge speed and SD changes depending how the bullet was loaded. In my case, I either got 800FPS, all the way to 1280. I'm convinced if I carefully set each one to vertical orientation, tapped it, and then single-loaded it, I'd get a better speed. (and yes, 1280 is way too high, but oddly, my mean speed is ~1050!).
One solution is to go for a shorter COAL, but I've had the koolaid that bullet jump is critical to accuracy (at least in supersonics). Getting this particular 300BLK load to a 90%+ case load, means shorterning COAL by 0.425! I know there are hacks from the old days by putting in some kind of filler, but I dont' want to go there. The next choice (which is hard because of lack of data) is to go for bulkier powders (Trailboss, or 5744), but that will take a while. GRT helps with this, as well as powder burn charts.
Anyway, was a frustrating day at the range, so just venting somewhat, but not giving up.
Anyway, I'm trying to build up loads and honestly, subsonic is harder than supersonic to get an accurate load, compounded by very little published loads. I saw a youtube video about this, and think I just experienced it myself in that will low case fills (GRT says 50%), how the powder lies in the case will cause huge speed and SD changes depending how the bullet was loaded. In my case, I either got 800FPS, all the way to 1280. I'm convinced if I carefully set each one to vertical orientation, tapped it, and then single-loaded it, I'd get a better speed. (and yes, 1280 is way too high, but oddly, my mean speed is ~1050!).
One solution is to go for a shorter COAL, but I've had the koolaid that bullet jump is critical to accuracy (at least in supersonics). Getting this particular 300BLK load to a 90%+ case load, means shorterning COAL by 0.425! I know there are hacks from the old days by putting in some kind of filler, but I dont' want to go there. The next choice (which is hard because of lack of data) is to go for bulkier powders (Trailboss, or 5744), but that will take a while. GRT helps with this, as well as powder burn charts.
Anyway, was a frustrating day at the range, so just venting somewhat, but not giving up.
