6x45

[StoneHendge]

Well, a good and bad outing yesterday. Did long ladders with both XBR and Benchmark and 70 gr Varmageddons. Seated at COAL of 2.255 which is about 0.045 off the lands. Velocity with both powders was high enough that I think my Magnetto might be on the fritz. But variance was really good across the board ranging from high single digit SDs to high teens with low variance with both powders with the lowest variances at 25.5 gr and 27.0 (max). The best was 27 grains of Benchmark for 3149 sd9/es18 - but throw out a "flyer" and it was sd4/es9. Unfortunately, accuracy for anything wasn't very good - pretty much MOA to 1.5 MOA across the board. The 27 of BM had best promise - two groups of two touching about 1/2" apart with the 5th bringing it to about an inch. Maybe the Magnetto was moving around but it seemed pretty secure to me. Maybe its the upper - has the type of barrel nut where the gas tube goes through a thin hole - maybe its touching. Or maybe it just doesn't like the 70 Varmageddons. Going to make a bunch of sets at different lengths now that my ASC mags have arrived (only 8 days for 3 day priority mail - how's that for service!) and shoots some groups sans Magnetto and also at range to verify velocity. I did have an ejector mark on one of the 5 27 gr BMs, but it is pretty heavily gassed at that point - brass was actually bouncing out of my Caldwell net. An AGB would probably make it go away. At 3150, that 70 grain bullet hits the 1600 fps expansion threshold at 700. If they don't work, onto the 70 gr Nosler Ballistic Tip Varmints and maybe the 80 gr Sierra Blitz Varminters.