WelshShooter
Member
- Joined
- Jun 10, 2014
- Messages
- 491
I've had some good success loading 110gr plated bullets made by German company H&N Sports for my M1 carbine and thought I'd share my success with others.
In short, the recommended 12.0gr Viht. N110 load worked very well for me. This load is around 160fps slower than my FMJ load but after adjusting rear elevation setting and shooting at 100m the target does not care
This H&N bullet is less than half the cost of FMJ bullets available to me so I'm definitely going to be shooting more of this bullet.
One important note to make up front. My M1 carbine is a UK compliant rifle, so it has no gas system! It is not semi-automatic, it is straight pull which means that I do not lose velocity due to cycling the rifle after each shot. Please bear in mind that you will most likely get lower velocities than I and therefore may have trouble cycling the rifle reliably. Standard FMJ load data for N110 is 14.0gr, but these reduced loads were 12.0gr max. I'd recommend starting with 12.0gr as this is already reduced with respect to standard 110gr FMJ bullets.
These bullets are very cheap and can be a good alternative to jacketed bullets for those who are plinking. Typically, S&B 110gr FMJ bullets cost me around €20 per 100 (approx. $23) whereas these bullets cost me around €42 per 500 (approx. $49) which is around €8 per 100 (approx. $10). That's a huge cost saving and thought it was worth checking out.
Here's the website which shows information for the bullet. It can be used to make reduced charges for .30 calibre military calibres (e.g. .30'06, 7.5x55).
https://www.hn-sport.de/en/reloading/rn-308-110-gr-hs
Here's a picture of the box, followed by a side-by-side picture of the H&N bullet (left) and the Sellier and Bellot 110gr FMJ bullet (right) for comparison.
The recommended load given on their website is 12.0gr Vihtavuori N110, seat the bullet at 42.5mm (1.673") and to use CCI 550 primer (small pistol magnum). I started my loads from 10.2gr, working up in steps of 0.2gr. My bullet seating depth was 1.670" and I used a small rifle primer CCI 200 as I use small rifle primers for all my M1 carbine loads. In addition, I believe the purpose of magnum rifle primers is for ball powder, but seeing as N110 is an extruded stick powder we should have no problem with ignitions using a standard small rifle primer. All bullets fit inside the magazine (max OAL is 1.680") and all fed into the rifle flawlessly with no hangups over a box of 50 rounds.
I recorded velocity using the MagnetoSpeed sporter in Foot per Second. I've created a chart showing the velocity at each powder charge step (n=5 rounds at each charge). The standard deviation in velocity shows to be very good at 11.6gr and 12.0gr with 7fps and 8fps respectively. Extreme Spread values of 17fps and 20fps are acceptable for me. Weather was cloudy with light rain, around 20C (68F) with slight breeze.
Right, now the important part - what does this mean for the target? All shots were fired from my M1 carbine seated with the front on a sandbag. I was expecting lower velocities so started with my rear sight on the 300 yard setting. The rear windage sight was set for my gallery 25 yard load. My point of aim was 6 o'clock low, with the front post just touching the bottom of the black circle on the target. This is how I like to zero and shoot all my open sights rifle so that my front post doesn't obstruct the target.
The first shot of 10.2gr was very high on the target, so I adjusted the rear sight to 250 yards and the group came down considerably. I expected the grouping to rise with subsequent loads so left it at 250 yards. Two of the five shots did not hit the target.
At 10.4gr I adjusted the rear sight 5 clicks anti-clockwise to bring the group over to the left. Accuracy was very bad for 10.4gr.
10.6gr accuracy was starting to look better with a nice three shot group. Velocity data shows two low readings which may have been the two fliers.
Before shooting 10.8gr I made one clockwise click (so now I am 4 clicks anti-clockwise from 25 yard zero). Accuracy was terrible.
11.0gr looked good from a vertical dispersion point of view.
11.2gr wasn't so good with 1 shot missing from the target or just happened to go through one of the previous holes.
At 11.4gr only 3 of the shots made it onto the target, but looked like a nice group was forming. I used 11.6gr to adjust in the windage. 3 clicks clockwise was made after the second shot. The third shot was around halfway between the previous two shots and the centre of the target, so I made another 2 clicks clockwise (which is now 1 click clockwise form 25 yard zero) and fired the remaining 2 shots. These were just around the bullseye so I was pretty happy with that. Note: vertical dispersion is very good with 11.6gr.
11.8gr showed a lot of horizontal dispersion but vertical dispersion was very good.
12.0gr tightened up with respect to horizontal dispersion, but vertical started to open up a little bit. I am happy with this level of accuracy for a plinking round. Grouping is a bit higher, so next time I might try 200 yard setting to see if it comes down a little bit.
In short, the recommended 12.0gr Viht. N110 load worked very well for me. This load is around 160fps slower than my FMJ load but after adjusting rear elevation setting and shooting at 100m the target does not care
This H&N bullet is less than half the cost of FMJ bullets available to me so I'm definitely going to be shooting more of this bullet.One important note to make up front. My M1 carbine is a UK compliant rifle, so it has no gas system! It is not semi-automatic, it is straight pull which means that I do not lose velocity due to cycling the rifle after each shot. Please bear in mind that you will most likely get lower velocities than I and therefore may have trouble cycling the rifle reliably. Standard FMJ load data for N110 is 14.0gr, but these reduced loads were 12.0gr max. I'd recommend starting with 12.0gr as this is already reduced with respect to standard 110gr FMJ bullets.
These bullets are very cheap and can be a good alternative to jacketed bullets for those who are plinking. Typically, S&B 110gr FMJ bullets cost me around €20 per 100 (approx. $23) whereas these bullets cost me around €42 per 500 (approx. $49) which is around €8 per 100 (approx. $10). That's a huge cost saving and thought it was worth checking out.
Here's the website which shows information for the bullet. It can be used to make reduced charges for .30 calibre military calibres (e.g. .30'06, 7.5x55).
https://www.hn-sport.de/en/reloading/rn-308-110-gr-hs
Here's a picture of the box, followed by a side-by-side picture of the H&N bullet (left) and the Sellier and Bellot 110gr FMJ bullet (right) for comparison.
The recommended load given on their website is 12.0gr Vihtavuori N110, seat the bullet at 42.5mm (1.673") and to use CCI 550 primer (small pistol magnum). I started my loads from 10.2gr, working up in steps of 0.2gr. My bullet seating depth was 1.670" and I used a small rifle primer CCI 200 as I use small rifle primers for all my M1 carbine loads. In addition, I believe the purpose of magnum rifle primers is for ball powder, but seeing as N110 is an extruded stick powder we should have no problem with ignitions using a standard small rifle primer. All bullets fit inside the magazine (max OAL is 1.680") and all fed into the rifle flawlessly with no hangups over a box of 50 rounds.
I recorded velocity using the MagnetoSpeed sporter in Foot per Second. I've created a chart showing the velocity at each powder charge step (n=5 rounds at each charge). The standard deviation in velocity shows to be very good at 11.6gr and 12.0gr with 7fps and 8fps respectively. Extreme Spread values of 17fps and 20fps are acceptable for me. Weather was cloudy with light rain, around 20C (68F) with slight breeze.
Right, now the important part - what does this mean for the target? All shots were fired from my M1 carbine seated with the front on a sandbag. I was expecting lower velocities so started with my rear sight on the 300 yard setting. The rear windage sight was set for my gallery 25 yard load. My point of aim was 6 o'clock low, with the front post just touching the bottom of the black circle on the target. This is how I like to zero and shoot all my open sights rifle so that my front post doesn't obstruct the target.
The first shot of 10.2gr was very high on the target, so I adjusted the rear sight to 250 yards and the group came down considerably. I expected the grouping to rise with subsequent loads so left it at 250 yards. Two of the five shots did not hit the target.
At 10.4gr I adjusted the rear sight 5 clicks anti-clockwise to bring the group over to the left. Accuracy was very bad for 10.4gr.
10.6gr accuracy was starting to look better with a nice three shot group. Velocity data shows two low readings which may have been the two fliers.
Before shooting 10.8gr I made one clockwise click (so now I am 4 clicks anti-clockwise from 25 yard zero). Accuracy was terrible.
11.0gr looked good from a vertical dispersion point of view.
11.2gr wasn't so good with 1 shot missing from the target or just happened to go through one of the previous holes.
At 11.4gr only 3 of the shots made it onto the target, but looked like a nice group was forming. I used 11.6gr to adjust in the windage. 3 clicks clockwise was made after the second shot. The third shot was around halfway between the previous two shots and the centre of the target, so I made another 2 clicks clockwise (which is now 1 click clockwise form 25 yard zero) and fired the remaining 2 shots. These were just around the bullseye so I was pretty happy with that. Note: vertical dispersion is very good with 11.6gr.
11.8gr showed a lot of horizontal dispersion but vertical dispersion was very good.
12.0gr tightened up with respect to horizontal dispersion, but vertical started to open up a little bit. I am happy with this level of accuracy for a plinking round. Grouping is a bit higher, so next time I might try 200 yard setting to see if it comes down a little bit.
