05-29-2023, 11:33 PM
Stumbled on this thread while googling around for info on the 109ah. I have been playing with them on a new build I did for my daughters to use on a cow elk hunt this year. My oldest is 12 and 53 80lbs soaking wet so low recoil is the goal plus she shoots the grendels so well. For her elk hunt I went with a 22 Grendel Hunter barrel to get max velocity. She shoots at or under moa with my 18 BHW 264lbc out to 200yds which is the furthest I would let her shoot an elk. Where we will be hunting is an area we know very well and where I bow hunt so getting in close shouldnt be a problem. I will say you should try a faster powder. Cfe223 seems it would be way too slow. I have had good results with H335 netting 2890fps but I have backed down for next trip as that looked like absolute max and she will be hunting in mid August so could be quite warm. I had good velocity with max charges of Tac but that is even a tad slow burn rate wise for the 109 and was not giving me good accuracy at all. H335 was giving 3/4 @ 100 which should work just fine out to 200 on elk. From what I have found you want to treat the 109ah as about a 95 grain cup and core bullet as far as powder choice and charge. I think I will end up about 2850fps so 2700ish should be doable with a 16 barrel. I also had ok results with AA 2015 but couldnt get enough in the case. I would love to try some H322 but that stuff is rare these days. I am loading to 2.26 with a lee fcd at 1/2 turn in top pdr groove. Tried longer with no crimp with poor results but will play with that more later. I also learned through this process that my Hornady sizer die way over sizes the brass bumping the shoulder back like .017! Once I adjusted the die back off the shell holder to give more like .004-.005 bump, accuracy improved dramatically.