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With all the M2 Ball I have, I thought I would try replacing GI bullets with Sierra 150gr MK's to get it to shoot better. The question is, which to try it on first, Greek HXP or LC69? I'd at least initially reduce powder charges and work up.
Has anyone done this, and what were your results?
CDD :cool:
I've done it with the low powered LC69. I used 150 gr CorLocs thogh, not a great improvement in accuracy. Best was when a 168 MK was used. The 45 gr charge of 4895 in LC69 is still less than the load I worked up to with the 168 MK which was 47 gr of 4895. Velocity with the 168 mex/match LC69 was 2540 fps out of my M1903A1.
Larry Gibson
OT, glad to see someone else who's experienced underpowered LC69. Wondered about that for a long time!
I used 128 rounds of HXP77 to make "Mex Match" using the same components but cleaning off the asphalt sealer, resizing (not decapping), trimming, combining the powder and re-throwing it to more uniform weight, and reseating with a Redding Competition Die. I used HXP77 instead of my LC68 & LC69 since the boxed LC sold by the CMP was actually delinked MG ammo and I could not guarantee that all rounds in any box came from the sale lot; combining powder from different ammo lots is a very bad idea. Since I opened the spam can of HXP77 myself, I was pretty sure that it was all the same lot (but not 100% guaranteed).
Part of the experiement was to see how much I could improve my GI ammo inventory (at no additional cost) and part was to gain insight into the problems experienced with HXP77 ammo at the CMP Games Matches at Camp Perry.
Making the "Mex Match" was good experience, and velocity got more consistent, and accuracy improved somewhat, but I thought it was just as much work as reloading from scratch but with less accurate results. Replacing the bullet with an SMK or Nosler would improve results, but require cash into the deal which I was trying to avoid.
I descided that "Mex Match" wasn't worth all the effort.
Jack
I have a few cans of LC69 in clips and cardboards that I bought from the CMP about 10 years ago, its the RR lot number delinked MG ammo. This stuff shoots 9 MOA with my service grade!!! Really bad!!
I took 50 rounds, pulled the bullets and weighed the powder out of each round and recorded the result. over a full grain swing!
I did the math and selected a charge weight that would give me 50 rounds of the same charge weight and cleaned and resized the necks and reloaded and seated a Sierra Match King 150 grain bullet.
Bingo, good ammo. A little less than 2" at 100 yards now. I'll do the rest of it when I get time.
weighing the pulled bullets and sorting would help also. The weights of the bullets and cases vary so much. The powder charge can be an issue with the re-packed cans.
You could have who knows what for powder lots? I wonder if they kept original lots together during the re-pack prosses? Does anyone know if a re-pack lot was all from one other original lot? Jack nailed it when he said it was to much work! Originally Mex-Match was just pulling the bullet and replacing with a real match bullet.
I never thought about the fact that there could be rounds mixed in with other powder lots. Maybe that is why LC 69 re-pack is so BAD!
Mark