Been reloading for years and i thought i knew what i was doing and you fixed a lot of the mistakes i was making. Since watching your videos, i've gotten better and actually enjoy it.

Here is a hint on keeping primer pockets snug at 60,000+psi chamber press. When you rework the once fired Lake City NATO Military brass, swage the crimp ring back just slightly so that the new primer cup will fit without snagging on the burr you rake out when you decap while sizing. Do not machine away the brass crimp ring, as some are want to do. Experiment with the swage nib setting so it just barely bumps back the crimp ring burr. Primer pockets are going to expand. No way to stop that unless you reduce pressure. Keeping a good interference fit between the crimp ring artifact and the primer cup delays the point when you have to toss the brass case.

Been watching your videos since about 1500 subs. You still crack me up and I learn something every time, love the vids and love this series.

CFE 223 will allow you to easily duplicate or exceed the 2750 FPS velocity spec of the MK 262 Mod 1 load when used with the 77 gr. Sierra Tipped Match King bullet.

"Never copy loads from an idiot on KZfaq" LMFAO you rock brother!!!

Just loaded some of the MK's and TMK's to try out with XBR 8208 with my FN15. I seated mine a little farther out at 2.255 with those powder charges. Thanks SO MUCH for the videos. Keep up the great work.

Johnny, you’ve inspired me to start reloading. I think I’ve watched everyone of your videos at least twice. Tonight I just set up my reloading press and ran my first case through it. I’m waiting on my case gauge to be delivered but tomorrow I’ll take some measurements at work on an optical comparator to see where the case is at.

7:34 - 9:50👍🏻👍🏻 you're absolutely right ( even with the space station 🙂). Hello from France

Interested to hear what you find when you inspect the rifle. That was some outstanding loading/shooting, and those 2 fliers have me intrigued. Just picked up a pound of 8208 XBR last week and now I'm even more anxious to start playing with it. Another outstanding video in a great series. Thank you, brother.

22.6-22.9 grains of AR-Comp + WSR primers have always been an accurate combo for my heavier projectiles. 75gr Speer Gold Dots 75gr Hornady BTHP 77gr Nosler CCs 73gr Hornady ELD-Ms Works great for all those.

You are definitely my favorite idiot on KZfaq and I am very grateful that I have hours upon hours of your videos to keep me entertained.

As Hornady 75gr match is nonexistent right now, I picked up a bunch of SMK's to work on as a substitute. This is the info I needed, thank you!

Nice work sir! I’m glad I’m not the only one finding anomalies in some of these ladder tests. I’ve been focusing on cast loads as of lately, for the simple fact I went through load developing enough with a bulk bullet. (No names please) , but I have my load. And it works in most ar’s. The cast world adds a lot of wtf’s. Hahaha. As I know you know. But I have had stupid changes as well. And I (knock on wood) have never hit my chrono. But personal experience, if your damaging the case, that load is kind of a useless endeavor. I know you have went through all the pains (changing barrels, primers, powders, etc) Sometimes it’s just frustrating brother! But you keep your wits on camera! Nice job sir!

i know this is old . but you are right about altitude and temperature . i found this out when i moved from mi to tn . hadn't reloaded in a yr . got set up and loaded a 100 44 mags with a 245 gr keith bullet . and used the old keith load of 2400 powder . this load was good and no pressure signs when tested . in a cold mi winter . around 28* . when i loaded them in tn it was 95* and summer . same jug of powder , same primers and brass . fired 6 rds . and had to beat the case's out of all 6 chambers ! with a wooden dowel and hammer ! and they realy took a beating to get out ! so be careful when you move for temp and altitude . that same load and velocity here in tn is 4 grs lighter then the original load !! and good ole elmer keith worked his load up in the rocky mountains .

I worked up a load with ar comp 23.6 gr 77 gr berger otm tactical oal at 2.246, lake city brass, out of a 16" carbine gas length, with very very minor ejector marks. Nothing to worry about. Average velocity of 2662, at 12.1. Absolute tac driver. 5 shots at 100 yards 0.5".

Ill admit its alil hot for everyday but ive hot rodded the 70g berger and arcomp w win primer to 24.8g and it shot kick ass out of a 16"ar at 600yds but i backed off for my normal loading to 24.3. 24.8 was starting to get some crater marks on the primers.77g sierra and arcomp 24.0 is what i run. but i got a 5.56x45 chamber. If you are gonna play with blowing your face off preasure you must do a flawless job of brass inspection especially in 223/556

Wow, two videos in one day! I just picked up some of the Sierra 77 gr. TMK's (by mistake, just wanted the regular ones) and will be referencing your videos for which powders to start with. Great video as always! Keep up the good work!

Rewatching all your videos. This is good stuff.

Why would somebody give this a thumbs down?! Would love to see these powders revisited once you get your gun sorted and after you're done eliminating the other powders. Video idea for your coming rainy days. For the sake of others not blowing off their face, maybe discuss and show the signs of different pressures and how to read and interpret them for those that don't really know what to look for?

I am an avid reloader and shooter with tens of thousands of rounds of experience in my sixty three years and still loading shells I'll most likely never be around long enough to shoot. I went with the AR Comp with the 77gr OTM at 22.1gr. Why? It shot dead nuts on in both my Adams Arms Piston gun and my Anderson Arms DI gun. With two AR'S and a Mini 14 I've got (Some) experience with autoloaders. You spend a lot of time worrying about that adjustable gas block. Find a setting where you think it's quite a bit over gassed and forget it's there ! It's got more to do with a lot of the pressure signs your reading than the loads showing them. I know with that can you use you have to adjust for that but timing has about as much to do with pressure signs in an AR than pressure itself. There are a lot of AR'S out there with a can and no adjustable gas block and I don't hear about them wearing out sooner or blowing up? With all that said, I have an old Model 88 Winchester in .308 I bought New back in about 1971 that will shoot any max load Hornady can list in a loading manual and show NO pressure signs what so ever and the empty brass just falls out of it. A friend of mine bought one of the newer cheap Remington bolt action .308 and he can't shoot my reloads at all. Blows the primers, have to beat the bolt open with a 2x4 it looks like a ten grain overload. Each gun is it's own entity. Your pressure signs show you something about your gun, nothing about mine, as you know. With all this said, I have watched all of your video's and keep up the good work. Maybe less on the loading part and more shooting though. Good Job ! Keep up the good work.

Excellent shooting ! I got lucky with 8208 as my go to powder for my version of 77gr.

Both of those are my favorite powders for 77 grain Sierra’s. AR Comp is slightly better. Charges of 22.1, 22.7, and 23.2 all gave me sub-1/2 moa groups out of my LaRue Stealth barreled AR. 23.2 does show the slightest pressure signs so I stick with the 22.7 charge for a loss of only .1 moa.

In general, there's a little voodoo and witchery involved in "reading" pressure. Just for conversation sake, say you switched to a die that sizes your headspace more. Now the firing pin knocks the case forward, and powder ignition slams the head back in to the bolt face. This can cause ejector marks. And reading primers...30-30 & 308 use the same primers. By the time you see flat primers in a 30-30, your gun is likely toast. But flat primers can also be from a pocket that's too deep, causing the primer to slam back against the bolt. I've had flattened primers using CCI 400's with light loads because the cup is ~.005" thinner than the CCI 450's. Winchester primers are thinner and soft, making them prone to piercing. Federal brass is basically made out of silly putty and the head deforms when I size it. And cratered pin strikes can be pressure, or an oversized firing pin hole. You seem to be holding reasonable consistency, so the swipes are likely a legitimate sign of increased pressure. But like you say, you have to be very familiar with your gun AND be absolutely consistent in your loading to make any meaningful determination from these signs. These techniques are often misused because their limitations are not recognized.

The first thing that came to mind was a light baffle strike. Anytime you can pull a 1.7 standard deviation it reaffirms that your loading process is solid. Great video brother. Keep them coming. Curious have you considered picking up a 6.5 Creedmore. With the right bullet makes an awesome elk cartridge and available in an ar platform. Would make some great videos on a new cartridge. Good luck next week.

You may be on to something with your chronograph. I have the same model magnetospeed and over time with it attached to a suppressor the plastic shim closest to the suppressor slowly melted and compressed. This resulted in the very tip of the magnetospeed raising up towards the bore and eventually I grazed it. Take a close look and see if something similar is happening to you. Once last thing. I have to give you a bit of a hard time. You seem willing to go into high pressure territory with some of these powders but you wussed out with Varget. Should have taken Varget to 25.5 grains. Maybe at the end of the series in a video to tie up loose ends you should consider going a little higher with that powder. I’m loving this series.

I got a chance to buy several hundred Tipped Match King's and in late 2020 if you find anything at all you can use you buy it. They don't compensate for the tip apparently and just add it so they are longer than the non Tipped version. Thus have to be seated deeper to maintain magazine length. I dropped back to your 22.6 grain load of AR Comp and have ran with it. Slightly compressed, accurate, good enough for me and AR Comp is what I found so bought three pounds of it. 22.9 Was showing me some pressure signs with my less volume seating the bullets deeper and 22.6 doesn't. Hedge ball accuracy at 250 yards is good enough for me.

Just got some 223 dies, been loading .40 Time for me to step up lol Awesome great videos !!

I love this series! I have followed along with my load testing and have basically had the same results with the same powder as you have. As of now the AR comp is my top contender, but I have yet to ladder test the Vitu Vorhi (sp?) powders. Thanks for putting all of this great content out there for us to sample.

Still come back to watch your videos when I’m researching what I’m about to load. Thanks for all of it. I wonder if you’ve listened to The Hornady Podcast or watch their KZfaq videos on load development and group size and how that would affect your Reloading today. It certainly has mine.

Good educational advice and cautions about copying loads !!!!

I have to say that you are one hell of a shot. I think you're shooting of a regular Protektor rear bag with a collapsible stock and a 3.5lb CMC single stage trigger. Man it's not easy to get those groups and you do it consistently. I saw your vids and was like I can do that. Then I started shooting from a bench with a more stable setup and sweet trigger but I can't get consistency to save my life.

Got Shannon out here back in the day driving miss Daisy.

I'm trying to recreate the same cartridge. So far, I'm pretty happy with Vihtavuori N135 and N140, but after seeing your videos on this cartridge, I want to try the N540. Alliant Reloader 15 is another good one. I think I will also try Accurate 2495. My rifles seem more accurate with extruded powders for this heavy projectile; I wish I knew why! I really appreciate your research on this topic!

Keep rocking out these videos these are really cool

that magneto deflects gas and can effect groups. take the 2 lowest SD groups and play with them. comp shooters take the fastest of the 2 and refine it. but you may want to refine the slower groups load. that will use less powder & lower velocity will do less damage to your brass.

I use 8208XBR in mine. Can't wait to watch this to see how you do with it.

great videos, thanks for making them. I do find it funny that in some of your video's, my accuracy loads are REALLY close to what your's are getting for thus. for me, with 77gr im at 23.5grs of xbr, and this has been my accuracy load for 3 years now.

I know this is an old video, but if you run that 23.2 grain ARComp load with a 75 grain gold dot, you have a nasty deer load.

It is plain and simple imr 4064. Which just happens to be the powder used in the m118lr. The extreme heat/cold indifference makes it ideal and from barrels designed for the 77 gr mk and the 175 gr mk has acceptable accuracy

The round that dropped 16”, the brass also ejected at like 4:30 vs 3:00

these brakes between videos are killing me man!

77 TMK and 23.8 gr of 8208 XBR shoots lights out in my DPMS 20inch Bull

Ejector marks can also be a sign of headspace problems, but there are usually other headspace symptoms at same time as the marking.

Finally 8208 XBR, I have been waiting for this one, all I load is 77smk but I am at 23.1 with good results. That is my choice for my Mk18

JRB your best group was 23.6 Gr's of 8208 XBR @2715 FPS, that load is a keeper

I think it was the last video in this series that you mentioned your gas block screw seized. That's common with adjustable blocks. I prefer a block with detents, and I'll run it full closed to full open, then back to my setting (count the detents) after every range session. Haven't had one seize using this technique.

my results are similar with 8208. Its just a phenomenally accurate powder in my 223 and 308 rifles

If your trying to mimic the Mk 262 load w/ bullet wt., velocity, oal, and do it safely while achieving great accuracy I think you've achieved your goal with that 24gn load of 8208xbr. That powder has given you the most consistent accuracy from the lowest powder charge to the max thru all these tests (I've watched all of them). I would be inclined to use this load, but tinker with the oal, different primers , or some other variable to see if you could improve upon what I think is already about a perfect copy of the mk262!

would like to see you re-shoot the 8208 groups....... I did satterlee load method today with 8208, both with 7.5 primers and cci41 primers. out of a 16 inch ballistics advantage hanson barrel, my cci41 velocity numbers were not far off yours even with a 2 inch shorter barrel. ALL cci41 rounds were consistently 25 to 40 FPS higher (with no pressure sign change) than the 7.5 primer rounds with the same powder charge!!!

OK... We are looking at all these different combinations of accuracy bullets made for DMR's ...... what about some long range shooting with them? I don't know if you have access to a place you can stretch the legs out on these reloads to see what could happen, but maybe a next thought?

Loved your PSA

Awesome shooting!

that damn international space station

another excellent video.

I actually got ripped off recently by an actual certified provider of ammunition online for purchase. Ordered 6 boxes of Black Hills 262 mod1. They arrived in black hills TMK 77G labeled boxes. I was immediately suspicious and started inspecting the ammunition and could easily find noticeable differences between the cartridges. Contacted the supplier and they said that black hills changed the sku on boxes between the two rounds and that I could call BH to confirm.... They thought I would leave it at that.... I called Black Hills and they said nothing of the sort! Come to find out the provider somehow got ahold of a bunch of black hills packaging and were taking all the good ammunition out and replacing it with factory seconds as well as what looks to be random lake city reloads....

Yes 23.8 with CCI 41 77MK same load as Austria Defense force MK 262 load

Have you ever considered removing the plunger and rounding the edges. I've done it on all my ar's and it seems to not to beat up the brass as badly.

Did you learn to stop spilling stuff or what? Haven't seen a good dump for a while.

I think you meant Remington not Federal on the 23.6 gr. load when switching back and forth between primers. Just an observation

How do you like the magnetospeed after testing it extensively? Idk if I should get that or the lab radar. Thanks love your channel, keep up the good work.

Ive got a new thing to test ; rebarrel a ruger SFAR to 5.56 with a long throat , load 80-85gr to 2.5" .

Accounting for the location of the international space station I often forget.

Johnny, how to you deal with loose primers? Do you use them again?

Check your gas rings real well or just replace em

You need to clean your rifle more often. By not starting out clean during load development, you're possibly missing a good group due to the distractions of malfunctions. That and testing a load with a barrel that has already gone 70 rds after the last cleaning will no doubt shoot quite differently, either better or worse with a squeaky clean bore.

I know this is old. But does one not feel having the magneto speed handing on the barrel not affect the barrel movement that naturally happens?

Love this series

I believe you just sold Widener's out of 8208 XBR! nice work.

Finally found the pressure limit in my rifle with 8208, way up at 24.1gr with long loaded 80 ELDs. Still very mild swiping, barely visible. No speed information but I’m confident it’s 2700+.

I have a theory that the powder the government uses for military ammunition is a very fast ball powder that is kept in a controlled slightly humid state and is kept that humidity by the neck and primer seals. When I say humid I definitely don’t mean wet, but humid enough to retard the initial burn and allow a peak pressure when the bullet has traveled slightly farther down the barrel when the powder has dried where it wouldn’t put too much strain on the chamber. This wouldn’t really be replicable at home but it’s just a theory.

I ran your 22.9gr of AR-Comp and the 77gr SMK through Quickload, and it says that load is putting out 74kpsi...😬

Johnny - I want to duplicate Nosler factory 60 gr. match ammo the same way you are doing with Mk262. What is your practice when you are seating bullets deeper than the maximum OAL? How do you arrive at a safe starting charge weight?

I have been enjoying the series. I am curious what digital scale you are using (after you take it off the Lyman). I really like it. Thanks

please try new win staball match powder for the 77gr smk

Mount the chrono to the bipod ,it’ll shoot better ,nothing on barrel!,

How do you think that federal gold medal match AR primers would do with the ARcomp?????

What is the twist rate on that barrel?

Nice shooting Johnny, are you ready at this point to declare Sierra Match Kings as the world champ of bullets? They always seem to give you the best groups

Amazing set of videos!! I will be starting to reload 223 for my savage msr 15 recon which loves the 77gr SMK. I have purchased a cheap set of lee dies (full length sizer, crimp and seater)But, was wondering if you have any suggestions on a good set of dies without breaking the bank? Thanks and keep up the great work!

Just curious how you came up with that length? Everything manual I read says mag length for the 77s 2.260. Doesn’t seating shorter increase the pressure even more?

Shout out to GUNNY RIP brother

Are you compressing ar comp at 22.3gn.?

Could you test Vihtavuori N530 or N540 or both?

Have you done a video on just primers? Same bullet, same powder measure etc..

Over gassing can cause FTF issues too.

So analytical ... I'm geaking out man .was that 100 yard groups?

This is my gun.....LOL Loose primers eh.... Would the CCIs fit snugly? Maybe try CCI "Magnum" primers! 🤪 ;)

Man you are the best! 😆

is that a New Scale? Where did you get it? My scale is starting to get cranky. Going up and down.1 to .3

bought some honaday VLD 75 Gr just a heads up to those kinda new to reloading 75gr VLD will not load to 2.260 magazine length bought them and then found out i cannot load them to 2.260 so sad never again they need to put something on the box saying cannot be loaded to 2.260

hello ! johnny i haven’t seen you checking for concentricity ?

The 16” drop Could be an accidental light charge it happens to the best of us

Will you try H335? Thanks

I was under the impression that max pressure would happen when bullet was touching lands

Hitting an insect mid-flight may have knocked those two loose......?

Baffle strike or can is carboned up

When you inspect you should go live, be a great video

when was the last time you cleaned your suppressor

ar15 forums are saying 23.1 to 23.5 of 8208

What loading trays are you using?