08-28-2023, 07:19 PM
This upper is a 20" complete I purchased from AR15Parts.com. I was told the barrel is a Zero Delta manufactured in North Carolina. It is a 1/8 twist SS and bore scoping shows no issues, very clean looking interior.
All initial testing is done at 50 yds over a chronograph, and yes parallax is correct for distance shot, and eye focus is also set correctly. Scope is a 6-24X50 30mm side focus, mil/mil.
I have 3 test loads remaining to shoot with H335 and a reshoot of the best with W748. If I can get something close to 1/2" or less at 50 yds, and close to 1" at 100 yds consistently it would be satisfactory for deer hunting. What really is confusing is that almost every load I have tried has very solid extreme spreads, shot to shot, almost all under 30 fps, with many in the single digits. When I see ES of less than 10 fps I believe that load should shoot accurately, but that has not been the case with this bullet/upper combo, at least not yet with the 123 SST bullet.
I doubt it is a barrel issue as I have a load that shoots the Hornady 120ELDM consistently under 1/2 MOA at 100 yards using W748. Very possible this barrel just doesn't "like" this bullet. Never in 50 plus years of handloading have I not been able to get a bullet to shoot accurately in a barrel, even though it may not be at the velocity I was hoping.
I have a box of factory Hornady Custom 123 SST and a box of Hornady 123 Black on the way just for curiosity.
All initial testing is done at 50 yds over a chronograph, and yes parallax is correct for distance shot, and eye focus is also set correctly. Scope is a 6-24X50 30mm side focus, mil/mil.
I have 3 test loads remaining to shoot with H335 and a reshoot of the best with W748. If I can get something close to 1/2" or less at 50 yds, and close to 1" at 100 yds consistently it would be satisfactory for deer hunting. What really is confusing is that almost every load I have tried has very solid extreme spreads, shot to shot, almost all under 30 fps, with many in the single digits. When I see ES of less than 10 fps I believe that load should shoot accurately, but that has not been the case with this bullet/upper combo, at least not yet with the 123 SST bullet.
I doubt it is a barrel issue as I have a load that shoots the Hornady 120ELDM consistently under 1/2 MOA at 100 yards using W748. Very possible this barrel just doesn't "like" this bullet. Never in 50 plus years of handloading have I not been able to get a bullet to shoot accurately in a barrel, even though it may not be at the velocity I was hoping.
I have a box of factory Hornady Custom 123 SST and a box of Hornady 123 Black on the way just for curiosity.