Range Report: Inside the Remington Accutip

[Hoot]

Continuing where I left off with my previous review of the Remington 260gr Accutip cartridge for the 450 Bushmaster. In light of the so-so performance I mentioned in that thread, I decided to both dissect the cartridge to get a better glimpse into why is behaves the way it does and to try a couple of simple corrective actions to try to improve it's performance.

First, let's pull back the covers and have a peek. In my first thread, I stated that the Accutip had no crimp applied to it. Closer inspection revealed this to be untrue. In the following image, you can see what appears to be a thin mark around the mouth of the case where the crimp, possibly some kind of roll crimp, was applied. In the second image, you can see the mark it left upon the bullet.





So we know that an attempt at a crimp is being applied to them. Its effectiveness is a little questionable when only 4 whacks with an inertial bullet puller is all it takes to yank the bullet. The bullet turns out to be similar in principle to their 230gr Golden Saber .45 Hollow Point. Here it is compared to the "Gold Standard" 250gr Hornady FTX.



As you can see, it's significantly longer, but a large amount of that is due to the large hollow point cavity, along with the fact that it appears to be made of brass and has a thick, solid base, below the lead core. Brass weighing less than lead...







Notice the void in the core? Small wonder they fly a little kitty wampus.

In the first thread about these, I got not only fair accuracy at best, but the velocities were wide, yielding SDs in the 40s. We all know from experience with the 450b that high SDs are not synonymous with poor accuracy, but I decided to try supplementing the factory crimp with a couple of stab crimps placed in different locations to see if it would be worth pursuing further.

I applied the first stab crimp immediately below the factory crimp at the mouth.



Then I tried further away from the factory crimp



Here's the results of those changes:



The resultant groups from those two stab crimps turned out like this:



The impact upon accuracy, while better than the first time out, was not monumental. It does however, beg the question of whether some other supplemental crimp might help better than those stab crimps. Perhaps try the regular Hornady taper crimp, or multiple, spaced stab crimps.

Hoot

[commander faschisto]

Nice work, Hootster...

What is up wit' dat void in the core? I wonder how many come out of the press like that? Whatever kind of crimp Remmy is doing on these, it is also changing the O.D. of the boolit north of the crimp line, if you look closely at the pics.

If the taper crimp works so well for the Hornady factory load, why isn't Remmy doing the same thing? Do you think you can retroactively apply a taper crimp to the factory Rems, or would you have to pull and reload/recrimp to get valid results?

[BayouBob]

Great job Hoot. It appears from your work here and the other post that the quality control problems at Big Green are spreading all across the company. Of course as long as walmart buys a gazillion dollars worth of their products and sells it fast, the bean counters that now own what was a once proud company won't care and won't change.

[Hoot]

Nice work, Hootster...

What is up wit' dat void in the core? I wonder how many come out of the press like that? Whatever kind of crimp Remmy is doing on these, it is also changing the O.D. of the boolit north of the crimp line, if you look closely at the pics.

If the taper crimp works so well for the Hornady factory load, why isn't Remmy doing the same thing? Do you think you can retroactively apply a taper crimp to the factory Rems, or would you have to pull and reload/recrimp to get valid results?

Actually, that 10 thousandths diameter change in the front half of the bullet (good catch) isn't created when they crimp the case mouth. It appears to be created when they form the mouth of the hollow point. All the Golden Saber bullet line has that before they are ever loaded into a case.

I do believe but need to confirm that the Hornady taper crimp can enhance at least the neck tension, which has room for improvement. I'm certain it only has to be applied over top of the existing crimp to have effect. In my Hornady based loads that I've done, that taper crimp and the degree that it is applied has a direct correlation to both the consistency of the velocity and the tightness of the groups. That is one of the experiments I am slated to try (hopefully) this weekend.

The smell of autumn is in the air up here and all the deer hunters are showing pre-rut behavior. Coupled with the rifle range being closed the past three weekends, it has caused demand to spike for the 8 shooting positions. My plan is to get there an hour before legal shooting time (9 AM) Saturday morning and stake out my spot. Heck, it takes a half hour just to get the gear set up and my targets hung anyway. I'm also toiling at establishing some good loads using my .300 WSSM (OSSM) upper at the same time, so competition for my disposable time is at a premium. Add to that, the wife has started pulling out all the left over pieces of paper in the "Honey-Do" jar that I got a "kitchen pass" from, during the horrendous hot July and first half of August, so I have to sneak out before she gets up. As all you married guys know, it's easier to say "I forgot" than to get permission.

I will report the results as soon as I have them written up.

Hoot

[Texas Sheepdawg]

I've been loading the Golden Sabres for my 9mm and .357 Mag for several years now and can confirm what Hoot is saying about the visual "step-down" at the upper end of the Golden Sabres.