Loads or ammo for AR-10?

RedneckFur

Smith & Wesson is a religion of peace.
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Recently built a 308 AR-10 with an 18 inch 1/10 twist barrel. I've tried shooting a variety of factory ammo through it with mixed results. So far, it seems to prefer Privi Partisan 168gr match, but isn't very fond of Federal 'M1A' Match that is also 168gr. Tried some handloads I'd made up for my Remington 700, but it shot them very poorly. I don't remember the powder charge, but I know that its Reloader 15, and the bullet is a 168gr SMK. The Remington 700 has a 26" 1/12 twist barrel.

Planning to start reloading for it soon, and will be shooting at ranges of 100-300 yards.

Would I gain better results by stepping up to a heavier bullet? Is reloader 15 a good powder for use with semi-autos? If you have a load that has given good results in an AR-10, please feel free to share it.
 
I shoot 168SMK with 43.6gr RE15 and CCI Large Rifle Primers

Thats what I would use in my bolt guns with a 24 inch barrel
43.5g - 44g varget 168g pill.

I had un burnt powder at those levels in my AR's
and it was much harder on the brass with the gas guns.

I know fps is not as high, but I wasn't looking to shoot a 16 -18 inch barreled AR 10
out to 1000 yards, 600 ish yes.

There are a few accuracy nodes I have found on my stuff 42.5+ - , and then 44+ -.
 
Thanks for the input, everyone. I'll stick with the 168's and try some different powder charges, and maybe some different powders, and see if I can find something this gun really likes.
 
Red, you could have mentioned to me that you'd already posted a thread on reloading for an AR-10. :p

Last night I loaded 20 rounds of 168gr HPBT Hornady Match with 43.2gr of Reloader 15. I'll see how that does here soon, hopefully.

Smack: thank you for the suggestion to try out 42.5gr. I was debating that for myself, so I think I'll load 20 rounds of that and see what happens.

To those curious, I built my AR10 shortly after Red did, but I went for the 20" barreled upper rather than the 18".
 
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Look into the Sierra 125gr MK for 100/200 yard shooting. A very accurate bullet that won't beat you up with recoil as a 168gr is kinda overkill at such short distances. You can stretch them out to 300 yards too, if conditions are calm enough. I used to shoot the 125's in my M1 and M1A during rifle matches as they were easy on the shoulder and easy to recover from recoil while shooting from position.

My load for my M1A was:
Sierra 125gr MK
41gr IMR 4895
WIN LR primer
USGI brass

The Speer TNT 125gr was another good bullet, but had a shorter OAL than the Sierra. Much cheaper too.

Another option for 100-300 yard shooting would be the Sierra 155gr matcking ( butNOT the 155gr PALMA)
 
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I have had really bad results with the Federal "M1A" round too. Pretty sure they are very much downloaded so they don't hurt the op rod in the M1. I have had the best results with 168gr AMAX and either RL 15 or IMR 4064. 308 responds best in my guns the harder you push it and 45.1gr of RL15 is a tack driver. Work up as that's obviously a fairly hot load.
 
My Mega MA-TEN .308 has an 18.5" barrel and is 1:10 twist, it loves most commercial match ammo in 168 and 175 grain.
 
Can't help with reloading stuff, don't do it.
I picked up some PMC bronze plinkers on the cheap, even cheaper than the federals with the rebates. They're 147 gr. fmj-bt at 2780fps (according to them)
Their chart says flat shot at 200 yards.
If I don't yank the gun, they'll do moa out of a pa-10. I also have some mil spec M1A2 ball ammo dated 1983 that someone gave me. They will not do moa, not even close lol, but they're good for the steels anyway and the price was right.
Generally, I've had good results with the PMC stuff in all calibers. It's good for play and isn't real dirty.
 
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