Side charger

spotstalkshoot

spotstalkshoot

Well-known member
I had decided to put together a billet side charger 223 wyde upper. After pricing different components/shipping I couldn't pass up BCA 18" heavy SS upper that is/was on sale. Ordered it Friday, came UPS today. Barrel is chatter free and little burring around the gas port. I'm going to run the same ammo thru it, testing against a factory Bushmaster and a carbine build I did 5-6 years ago for a total (rifle only) of 300.00(50.00 new barrel off Gun broker). The load --Fed brass(O.F. military) CCI 450, H335(25 gr) Hornady 55 gr varmint sp. Coal 2.220. I flushed/brushed the new barrel with FreeAll and patched dry. One interesting situation, I have a 3.5-10 scope in a PrepR QD mount on the carbine, going to pull off after the carbine targets are shot and shoot on the new upper. Carbine upper is very square, minimal windage adjustment needed for scope zeroing at 100 yards.
 
Today's range small sample results.
Bushmaster 556 NATO chamber group 1.870 vertical dispersion
Carbine 223 wyde chamber 2.19 horizontal dispersion
New BCA upper 223 edge chamber .691 mostly vertical dispersion
From my experience vertical usually needs charge weight adjustment
The horizontal is seating depth.
Reloaded the brass with 0.2 gr more powder
Seating depth I seated 0.007 deeper(moving toward cannelure and suggested cartridge overall length-coal).
I confirmed zero and previous group size of the carbine, .860 group (50 gr SX Benchmark powder).
I think slightly tweaking the load will get me a decent general use round.
All barrels were clean before testing, will remain fouled, except the new barrel which will be cleaned during first 100 rounds between range sessions.
 
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