COAL surprise with 95 gr V-Max

[603 Country]

Finally I have time to do a little reloading and load workup with the 6.5 G and 95 gr V-Max. First thing was to determine COAL for the Odin Works AR. Several reloading books have quite different suggested COALs so I loaded up a dummy round at 2.245 and blackened the bullet. That length jammed the bullet tight into the lands. Ok, now we’ll try the Hodgdon suggested 2.23”. Jammed that one tight too. I kept shortening the length and found that 2.210” was acceptable. That seemed a bit short, so I used the time tested cleaning rod method and got 2.210”. Well, that does seem short, but that’s what I came up with. Comments?

[grayfox]

Across 6 barrels from 4 different mfrs my 95 vmax have all seated 2.235-2.240 with room to lands to spare.
Howa, Ruger AP, faxon, lilja, one other barrel the mfr of which I've forgotten.

[603 Country]

I rechecked everything. I read it wrong. Actual max COAL is 2.215”. Still a bit short, but we’ll see how it shoots. Sorry about posting bad data.

Still a bit surprised that 2.23” jammed the bullet tight in the lands.

I have an email in to Odin Works, just to see what they say.

[grayfox]

Couple of barrels (which I did not keep) had chambers (I realize that's not your exact problem here) that would allow too-long of OAL's, firing them caused the brass to over-stretch, especially when compared to the other ones I had in hand. Others have reported on OAL's/chambers that appeared to be tight, but I've not had any myself. If you can get the powder in it and it shoots well, all well and good I reckon.
There are a couple of studies in Precision rifle blog/ accurate shooter that talk about the lands moving out ~0.005 give or take for every 100 shots fired... due to the fire/ablation of the throat during the firing; so it could perhaps loosen up after a couple hundred rounds for you.

[603 Country]

I loaded up some test loads, starting at 28.4 gr of H335. Went up to 29.6 gr, where there were the beginnings of pressure signs. 29.3 gr looked pretty good, so I’ll try it again and a bit higher and lower on both sides of 29.3. Too danged hot to spend all afternoon out there, so I’ll get after it again in the morning. All loading was done in a 71 degree barn workshop, so the rounds were all the same temp. I reckon that matters on a 102 degree day in Texas.

That’s interesting about wear on the lands. I had to chase the lands with a 220 Swift years ago. I bought it used, off a New Mexico cowboy. It was his coyote gun, and became my coyote gun. Finally had to rebarrel.

[grayfox]

H335 is definitely temp sensitive, I'd keep those unshot rounds in the shade or something cool, 107 will affect their MVs for sure.
But H335 is one of my fave powders for the 95, along with 8208xbr.

[603 Country]

I have a 100 yard range and the shooting bench is under a tin roofed open shed. I’m out of the Sun, but not out of the hot air.

[lazyengineer]

In mine, I have to run 2.2" Longer and I'm in the lands. I've learned the hard way with Grendel, that magazine length, doesn't always mean short enough in Grendel.

[BliksemDonder]

I have a 100 yard range and the shooting bench is under a tin roofed open shed. I’m out of the Sun, but not out of the hot air.

Same here, summer is brutal so any outdoor shooting is done early.

New to Grendel but not the MSR or reloading, including calibers other than 223 or 308. I use and like the 95gn VMAX over 30gn of H335 but I don’t use published OAL’s. I use a Stoney Point / Hornady OAL gauge to determine seating depth. I let the barrel/chamber tell me the dimensions required based upon measured values.

I cringe whenever I see posts calling for absolute values yet no mention of gauges or other measuring instruments to either measure or validate.

Loading/reloading quality ammunition is not a paint-by-numbers effort but a culmination of many factors. Understanding these factors and using them to your advantage allows you to assemble a rifle/ammunition combination that works. Ammunition forms part of the machine that makes up a rifle and if it is not the perfect fit the machine performance will be degraded.

(I am an immigrant and English is my adopted language, please do not play semantic games with me.)

[603 Country]

I’ve been doing this a long time - reloading and working up loads since the early 80’s, so COAL determinations are just part of my reloading practices. When I saw that Hornady suggested a COAL of 2.245 (going on memory), that sounded reasonable. So I was surprised when it jammed the bullet in the lands, so then I went to 2.23”, which, surprisingly, also was too long. So then I decided to measure in the old way. It’s a short COAL, in my view, but I can work with that. So, tomorrow morning, unless the wife wants to catch a few more bass in our pond, I’ll try to find the magic load.

[grayfox]

Go for it 603 - and good shootin' to ya.

[603 Country]

I finalized the load workup at 29.4 gr of H335. Very tight groups. The oldest grandson will be here on Monday, so I loaded up 60 rounds of the 95 gr V-Max so he could bang away at targets and maybe a coyote and I am done for the day.

[CazadorBob]

Your post is very well written and your command of the English language is excellent, probably better than mine and I was raised here.

[BliksemDonder]

Your post is very well written and your command of the English language is excellent, probably better than mine and I was raised here.

Off topic warning: I assume, yes I know, that you are referring to me. Funny thing is that my best friend Billy, born and raised in Texas and had served in the US navy as a nuke propulsion tech, when he went to engineering school he had to take remedial English. Kicker is my mother was his teacher. She only learned kings English as an adult!

Some of us who chose this great country as our destination have worked hard to assimilate. We came here because this is the greatest free country on this planet. The rule of law and the sacred constitution and bill of rights is not negotiable. I will quote George S Patton somewhat, make the other b@$tard die for his country…

I apologize for this rant but I must stay true to my beliefs, I experienced the loss of the right to not only freely bear arms but to defend myself. Be careful with our rights, friends.

[603 Country]

I didn’t really think he was complimenting me, since I was educated in Louisiana, the northernmost Banana Republic.