M1a best load today

[mark1]

I am also starting to do reloads for my M1A. What length are you trimming the cases to?

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[duggaboy]

I have just got offline with a freind in Australia, a world team member for the Aussie bench rest team, which won the world's in Sou Africa this year. He really was worried about the overweight 185 wt bullets too, but I reduced the powder load to compensate a little. I know that I will not continue to fire the 185's because of the strain on the gun. I have been trimming the case lenght to about 10-15 thousn. short of the published case length and seating the bullet out to the most length I can use. Single bullet feeding by hand allows me to just form a small, square nick on the ogive, very small and faint. this will not increase the pressure much and is really the key I think to the gun shooting well with this load. i will say though, the 175 grain bergers shoot almost as well and i will continue to shoot them at the long ranges that are really fun to shoot.

[Jim in Salt Lake]

My load for my M1A since 1988 has been 40.5 gr IMR4895 with a Sierra 168gr HPBT. I remember trying different weights of powder but that's what works best in my rifle. I shoot 168s across the course. I'm still shooting it as my son shoots our AR. I'm usually the only guy on the line with an M1A today, get kidded about my "cigar tube" brass. ARs are getting hard for me to focus on the front sight but the M1A sight is a little farther out there and stays sharp.

[TDH]

I am also starting to do reloads for my M1A. What length are you trimming the cases to?

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