10-25-2019, 08:58 PM
Bigs28 Wrote:I went out today with my 12" Krieger from Precision Firearms. I went out last week with some 110g Make Trex with CFE 223 and it was not a good day. I didn't get a group under 1.5". I know CFE can be finicky on the lighter pills so I called Maker bullets and the owner was actually kinda shocked I wasn't happy with 1.5 " groups but he recommended I try some 8202. I went back today and had multiple loads under 1 moa and only 2 loads that were over 1 moa. I am much happier. Unfortunately I didn't get to the velocity I was wanting but I still have room to add some powder.
110g Maker Trex, 8208, CCI 450, 2.230, Velocities were about 15 feet in front of the barrel
26.1g 2133 fps
26.4 2152 fps
26.7 2187 fps
27.0 2208 fps
27.3 2231 fps
27.6 2254 fps
27.9 wouldn't register, getting errors
28.2 2313 fps
28.5 errors
My lighter loads grouped better. Groups started opening up as the day went on. Not sure if its barrel temp related, harmonics, mirage, shooter fatigue, or what at this point. First load at 26.1 was a 7 shot group with the 8th shot being away to the left. That 1 shot to the left was first shot of the day. Not sure if I pulled it or that was the cold barrel impact. I do use a barrel cooler, and give plenty of time for barrel cooling between shots. Our range goes cold every 15 minutes. I come back from checking my target shoot one group, put in my barrel cooler and wait 10 minutes and then shoot my second group of 4. Then wait for range to go cold and do it again.
I use a Caldwell chrono and it got cloudy and most of my velocities were reading in the 1500s on the final strings.
Cfe 223 works great with the 85 grain makers I'm useing but it's got to be at the top end of the load range for it to group well.