Range report: Wolf 6.5G steel case + BHW .264LBC Type II barrel

[m796rider]

I had a brief opportunity to shoot some of the Wolf 6.5 Grendel 100gr steel case ammo through my Black Hole Weaponry 11.5" .264LBC Type II (.136" bolt face recess compatible) SBR this morning.

As others have reported, my barrel showed about 2.5 - 3.0 MOA accuracy at 100 yards. I used a TA31 4x ACOG for all shots. This level of accuracy is acceptable to me for the type of ammo I was shooting.



I did run into an issue, however, with the tighter .295 neck on the .264LBC barrel chamber. I confirmed via phone this AM that BHW does in fact use a true .264LBC reamer with a .295 neck.

The first 10 rounds or so fired without incident, but then I started to get failures to extract/double feeds. After 4-5 rounds of this, I actually had to mortar the charging handle to get the fired case out of the chamber. Upon inspecting the cases, I saw that the necks of the cases had areas where the lacquer had been completely removed. The failures to extract along with the case neck condition lead me to believe that the Wolf steel case and .264LBC barrels do not play well together.

As would be expected, Hornady brass cased factory ammo works just fine in this barrel.

(1) is the neck area where lacquer was removed, (2) is a split in the case.



I will contact Precision Firearms to see if they can ream my barrel's chamber to true Grendel dimensions, then revisit the steel case ammo.

[NugginFutz]

Well, you won't be able to convert that chamber to a true Grendel with a simple reaming. You will need to rechamber in order to get the compound throat. The best you should expect, short of that, is cutting the throat to .300". That, of course, would essentially make it into Grendel II.

Either way, I can't see it making a difference with the split case walls. Chamber dimensions are the same, from the shoulder on back to the bolt face.

[m796rider]

I think the split case is a fairly common occurrence with this ammo regardless of chamber. I'm not as worried about that as I am about the tight throat/neck.

[NugginFutz]

Understood, m796rider. Have you mic'd the case necks of the both the Wolf Steel and Factory Amax/SST? I'm curious if the steel stuff is larger in diameter, or if it's strictly a lacquer issue.

[CastorTroy]

well, that answers the question of whether or not a BHW barrel will work for my SBR build

[bwaites]

One of the issues Bill addressed with the .300 neck was the possibility of lacquered ammo. If you look at enough of it, you'll notice that some of it is not perfectly coated so far as thickness of the lacquer, which is the nature of the beast. Polymer coatings are better in that regard. When you tighten the neck, you may run into this issue.

That said, the reason you want a tight neck is accuracy, and no one expects lacquered steel case to be accurate!

[NugginFutz]

well, that answers the question of whether or not a BHW barrel will work for my SBR build

Apparently not all BHW's choke on steel cased wolf. Here are several BHW 264LBC's just eating the stuff up.

http://ar15armory.com/forums/topic/144748-loaded-264-ammo/#entry2574878

[lead chucker]

I just got my shipping notification from BHW that my 12.5" barrel shipped. I dont plan on using wolf ammo, only my reloads so im looking forward to getting my hands on the barrel. Thanks for the info on the Wolf ammo with the BHW barrel though!

[danm]

I just had a range day on Monday and shot a box of 20 Wolf steel with zero issues for a total of 100 rds of it through my BHW .264 LBC barrel...