I handloaded factory ammunition to see if I could make it more accurate w/Pix

[Lavid2002]

Hi everyone!
I was bored and I bought everything needd to reload. Set up my bench....and have to work to get more money to pay for my ingredients for my hand loads. Since That will be a while for shipping and getting the money....I Figured HEY! Why not have a little competition! My measurements vs factory measurements!
So heres the scooop!
Cheap surplus ammo of choice:Aguila .223 remington 55gr FMJ
5 shots of factory ammunition shot from a RRA Mid-length AR15 carbine.
VS
5 Shots of the same ammunition that has been dissasembled, re-measured, and put back together using MY equipment. Lets see who gets better groups.

Heres How I did my loads.
Dissasemble 1 round in a bullet puller. Dump all the powder onto a zeroed scale and weight it in. I got 19.6 grains. KEEP IN MIND! SOME POWDER STUCK TO THE BULLET PULLER! This means 19.6 grains is BELOW the factory charge. I set my scale at this to be on the safe side!
Now time for the bullets. The bullets had this gunk all over them (Right bullet)

I wiped it off(Left bullet) it was really bad....I dont know what it was. Sealer perhaps? Cant beleive that crap was in my rifle!
Anyways....I wiped it off and measured the bullets. They were pretty un-uniform. Heres my measurements... all .224 by
1-.756
2-.747
3-.7435
4-.743
5-.748
Oh, by the way...4 of the bullets were shy of 55 grains...by at LEAST 3 grains. Only one bullet was 55(Surplus ammo for ya!)
Heres the casing measurements
1-1.748
2-1.751
3-1.747
4-1.747
5-1.750
After Loading the cases I had one case that was 2.2215, but aside form the one all others were 2.2215 to 2.223
As for the non-reloaded rounds you ask? Well here they are : D
1-2.232
2-2.2315
3-2.290
4-2.232
5-2.231
Im curious to see what groups I get at the range with the other loads in comparison to the factory loads.
I was bored....lets see what happens. Its raining here in NJ and I cant play outside and shoot....but I promise Ill try to get down there not this weekend(Memorial day weekend have to work) But the following to see what happens!
Dave

 

[Army GI]

Yeah, surplus ammo isn't really all that great for accuracy work. The Army only needs it to hit a human sized target. 4 MOA groups are acceptable by Army standards for both rifle and ammunition.

If you want to shoot tack driver groups, you need to load up some MatchKing ammunition

I just got 1k of 55FMJ Lake City surplus crap from surplusammo.com. It's great for shoving in some military brass and dinging steel plates with. But other than that, it's not going to get you 1MOA groups like higher priced match bullets.

However you might find that if you pull em apart and handload them with consistency, you might tighten up your groups by a noticeable amount

 

[Lavid2002]

Im not looking for tack drivers

only looking to have sumn fun and see if I can shrink a group untill my order arrives

 

[Edward429451]

4 MOA is fun too, and useful. I like working with surplus bullets. Not only are they cheaper, but not so specialized so more versatile and general purpose.

I have about 4K surplus 55 & 62's left that I'm working through right now. I'm getting great results (for me lol) with BLC-2 and H-335 with them. I was bored and loaded some 62 gr ss-109's with IMR-4064, and a starting load gave up 2 MOA. That was a pretty big thrill from my AR for me. Prolly shouldn't of tried 4064, now I'm stuck hand weighing all those cuz I know they shoot well, doh.

 

[Lavid2002]

haha

Well....hand weighing makes you take your time and relax when you shoot, BANG......BANG........BANGBANG "NO! tHAT TOOK ME A LONG TIME TO MAKE ".............BANG
haha thats how it works for me

 

[FM12]

Try loading them with a quality bullet like Sierra or Hornady, with a flat base, see what ya get. Be sure and let us know. Excellent post, I'm looking forward to your results.

 

[SL1]

If you are loading for a bolt-action rifle instead of an auto-loader, another experiment you might try is to break-down five more surplus rounds and reload the powder charges and bullets into the first five cases that you have already fired in your gun. You would need different primers, of course, to reprime those cases. When you resize those once-fired cases, back the sizing die off a little (~1/2 turn) from contacting the case shoulder. That should leave the case in roughly the shape that fits your chamber, especially the first 0.04" of the case neck, which will help center the bullet in the chamber throat and improve accuracy. (Of course, if the case necks vary too much in thickness around their circumferences, this is not going to help that much.)

SL1

 

[Lavid2002]

One test at a time guys

One test at a time...Ill finish this...and work up some loads with fire-formed brass vs, full length sized brass. I want to put my Savage 12 through break in first...I need to buy all my reloading supplies, equipment kinda broke the bank....then after that I need a SS scope, and G-force basw with MK 4 rings...allot of money
Edit:I wont put nice bullets in these cases. A waste to me. This was just a test to see if measurements could accurize factory loads.

 

[Lavid2002]

I Got To Go To The Range!

YAY! Went this afternoon! My stuff came for reloading and I just finished resizing brass for .308 wina nd .223 remmy. CANT WAIT!
Anyways heres the groups....But first! Im sad to say my loads failed : /
In 2 ways
1)Less accurate
2)Gave obvious signs of low pressure Completely dirty down the side of the casing even to the rim! I could pick the cases out of a bucket and choose wich one was one of the five underloaded casings without even checking the mark I made on the primer!
Heres group # 1(Measured) from my RRA mid-length ar15 with a leupold vx2 3-9x 40 mm obj scope 50 yards, prone position.

Heres #2(Factory Loaded) same gun, same shooter, same everything.

There ya have it!

 

[Bullet94]

You will be glad when you load your own and tune your ammo to your rifle. I get better groups than the ones you listed at 330 yards with my RRA.

 

[Lavid2002]

I know

This ammo is crap.
I cant wait to load my own!