450Bushmaster.net

I’ve been searching for weeks and I’m running out of options. Not new to the site but a new member. Is anyone loading 225 ftx pills over Lil Gun out of a 16” barrel? I’ve shot the factory Hornady Black with the 250 ftx’s with hit and miss accuracy. I’ve since purchased some 225 ftx’s and loading them with 38g and 41g (seems to be the charges used by a lot of other reloaders that I’m seeing plus the reloading manuals). My accuracy isn’t where I want it. My first loads where set at oal 2.12” slight neck expansion and moderate crimp. I plan to shoot some more today with the same charge but oal set at 2.210 which replicates the Hornady black rounds. Any advice helps.


Bear creek upper 16” barrel mated to a WW lower (I’ll build another dedicated lower when the price comes back down)
225 Hornady ftx
Hornady brass
REM 7 1/2 primers
38 and 41 grains of Lil Gun
OAL @2.12
Side note: Anyone else is using a bear creek upper? I had to open my gas port from .076 to .078 and I’m still not getting proper lock back. Before I go bigger let me know your opinions. Thanks

Update:

In regards to the gas port being opened up to .078.
Also, I did some more work to my “homemade” pmag. And now no more ftf or fte issues.

38g would not fully lock back the bolt however did catch the carrier. The rounds still cycled properly.

Shot a 40g round just to see how it would do. Full lock back

41g cycled and locked fully.

38g at 2.210” oal did ok but not as accurate as I would like. 3” at 100

40g at 2.210” shot center but about 2” high

41g at 2.210” again one shot dead-on another 4” high.

I will load up more at 40g and see where I end up.

Again, I’m sure everyone has been down this road with the ar platform 450 so I’m sure it’s nothing new however if anyone has that perfect load please let me know.

Gerber1621 wrote:I’ve been searching for weeks and I’m running out of options. Not new to the site but a new member. Is anyone loading 225 ftx pills over Lil Gun out of a 16” barrel? I’ve shot the factory Hornady Black with the 250 ftx’s with hit and miss accuracy. I’ve since purchased some 225 ftx’s and loading them with 38g and 41g (seems to be the charges used by a lot of other reloaders that I’m seeing plus the reloading manuals). My accuracy isn’t where I want it. My first loads where set at oal 2.12” slight neck expansion and moderate crimp. I plan to shoot some more today with the same charge but oal set at 2.210 which replicates the Hornady black rounds. Any advice helps.


Bear creek upper 16” barrel mated to a WW lower (I’ll build another dedicated lower when the price comes back down)
225 Hornady ftx
Hornady brass
REM 7 1/2 primers
38 and 41 grains of Lil Gun
OAL @2.12
Side note: Anyone else is using a bear creek upper? I had to open my gas port from .076 to .078 and I’m still not getting proper lock back. Before I go bigger let me know your opinions. Thanks

Hoot likes those 225 grain pills.

Thanks Tex....how can I get this info to/from Hoot?

Gerber1621 wrote:Thanks Tex....how can I get this info to/from Hoot?

Long read starting over 10 years ago. Link

While I can't speak for the 16" Bear Creek barrel and what it likes, generally speaking, 38gr Lil Gun, Rem 7 1/2 or CCI 450 primer with the bullet seated to yield a COL of 2.12. Taper crimp to a resultant diameter of .474-.475 measured as close to the case mouth as possible with a micrometer and you should be good to go. You can play up or down 1 grain or so, in .3 gr increments to find what your barrel prefers. When you find your pet recipe, it'll throw 5-shot groups like this at 100 yds provided you have good benchrest technique:

Thank you Hoot. Do to the early nights I’ve only about 20 minutes to shooting light once I get off work. I changed it up alittle and loaded a set of 40g at 2.210” with no neck expansion or crimp and they shot pretty decent 1.25”@100y. A close second on accuracy was a factory box of 250 grain Winchester Deer Season Xp at 1.5”@100y. My 41g reloads either had a flier or I doubled up holes. However due to dusk I was only able to get a couple down range and was unable to tell the impact through the spotting scope. Season here in WV starts this coming Monday. Hoping to get the next round of reloads shot tomorrow and get my dedicated hunting load. Really looking forward to hunting with this round. It really is true what everyone says about cracking a smile with every trigger pull. I guarantee the echo is heard over in the next town lol.

Gerber1621 wrote:...snip... Season here in WV starts this coming Monday. ...snip...

My roots go back to Belington and Philippi, WV. Used to hunt in the Canaan Valley area and the George Washington National Forest back in the 60's and 70's, before moving to MN. MN is a sportsman's paradise.

Hoot

Hoot, I’ve been fortunate to grow up farming here in north central WV. Never have had big bucks running around but the doe are plentiful enough to put meat on the table (which I lean towards, those big horns are nice but you can’t eat em’) I have spent some time at Coopers Rock, Stonewall Jackson and some other local WMA’s. The big guys are in there just have to find them.

On a side note I ran across a post you had back in 2017 regarding loading 200 Barnes XPB in a 16” barrel for the bushy. If it’s not too much trouble could let me what you you loaded with success? I have moved to the Barnes 110 tax-tx in my 300blk platform and was amazed at the bullet performance on game.

Much thanks