Say "Hello" to Brutus....

[The Annoyed Man]

Have you tried any M118LR?

I haven't been able to find any that wasn't outrageously priced, and I've read warnings of counterfeited boxes. It used to be not too hard to find, but guess the WOT is burning up most of the available supply of it? I don't know. Anyway that was what I was trying to duplicate with the BL-C(2) powder. That is the powder used by Lake City Arsenal to load M118LR.

The guy I talked to the longest at the Silencer are Legal event suggested that I might want to double check the headspacing. The barrel was installed and headspaced by Noveske at their facility, but I suppose it is conceivable that they just didn't get it right. If the headspacing were a little too loose it would negatively impact group size. So I guess I'll buy a set of go/nogo gauges from Brownells and check it.

Poly vs Cut should make no difference, other than, in theory, polygonal rifling yields a tighter seal as the bullet travels down the barrel.

Seems like a lot of factors would contribute to the low FPS, and I think you've figured most of them out already. That flash hider thing bothers me a bit too.

The flash hider is working fine now that I've swapped out the original one for the Smith Vortex. The problem with the original was that the gunshop that applied the Dura-Coat to the barrel installed the crush washer backward so that it wouldn't crush down, forcing the flash hider to tighten only to the point 180º before it should have, where it was deflecting muzzle blast downward instead of upward. But the Vortex is very effective.....and self-tightening.

[Carry-a-Kimber]

CTD
Midway
Cals

[The Annoyed Man]

CTD
Midway
Cals

Thanks. I'll give that a try. The M118LR I've seen was all in the plain brown paper box from Lake City Armory.

[OldCannon]

Have you tried some Black Hills 168gr? I think you'll like the results more than the Lake City stuff.

[Dave2]

It was obvious that these loads were really hot, not just because of the primers, but also the the recoil. I have the Smith flash hider mounted now, and it worked as advertised, but it felt almost like a magnum rifle. So here are my thoughts, and I would be interested in anybody's feedback.....

Blown-out primers notwithstanding, I'm going to pretend I know what I'm talking about and suggest you check the buffer & buffer spring.



Seriously, though, be careful... Don't let this happen to you:


(Some NSFW language in the comments)