WHATS THE DEAL WITH THAT AMMO!!!

Recently our favorite you tuber, Mountains , Mullets , Merica published an episode called 6ARC VS 6.5 CREEDMOOR - 14.5" DMR COMPARE

And from that video a few folks had some questions, specifically our 140 gr eldm we provided to Zach for the video. If you are unaware we provide mountains with ammo whenever he ask basically. For 2 reasons primarily, one we like the way he conducts his range videos. Very data driven and clean fun. On top of that its yet another data point for us to collect for our records. Not only are we concered with our very own local data prior ,during and after the process. We like to harvest data long after the fact the ammo has been loaded and sent off to who knows where so we see how it performs.

In this video Zach was running the 140 elms in a 14.5" ar10 platform and it provided him with less than stellar performance on the numbers.

The numbers in question of a 10 shot group

2532 fps average velocity

extreme spread of 40 fps

std dev. 12.45

To me this isnt really the interesting part, what is more interesting to my self is the fact Zach has gotten better performance from this load in the past. in group size and in the numbers. The real question that needs answered is why?

Is the rifle in diffrent condition than before?

Has anything changed with suppressor?

What is the change in weather conditions as well as elevation? as Zach films in different loactaions.

Has the ammo been stored differently than usual?

We wil collect this data and post those results.

As far as those numbers, while they may be slighly worse than before, thats not bad numbers for a 14.5" . As that particullar ammo was never intended for use in that platform, infact its quite the opposite. We specificly developed this ammo per a custom orders specs over a year ago at this point. The powder we selected based on parameters customer set, was specificly optimized for a complete burn in a 24" barrel. What does this mean? More erratic sd and es in short barrel configurations. Its really that simple.

This particular ammo was a contract over run essitanly that more than met our specs for production. Will we ever produce it again? unsure at the moment. While performance was great, we have better offerings. We dont like just kinda better than factory , we like much better and we strive to do so with every round.

HOW MIGHT YOU ENSURE DATA STAYS CONSISTANT?

Make sure barrel is broken in properly befoe worrying about data. Go check out applied balistics data on this if you want more info.

Maintain some sort of proper cleaning schedule and routine for fouling back. As this will effect, velocities, sd and es.

If you change muzzle device and or supressor, expect a change in velocity, sd, and es.

All ammo will change with temprature changes. This largely due to powder temp sensitivity. All of them change, just some more than others. The bigger question is, is there correlation between certain tempratures and es and sd?

As in, is said powder more consistent in certain temprature ranges than others? I have tons of data i will have to start taking a closer look to see if there is more to this as well. Something quite honestly ive never given much thought to. Yes we test a bunch and in all temp ranges and collect all that data, but its another data point i will have to take a closer look at.

Understanding powder burn rates. If a load is specificly developed in longer barrels for longer barrels it will perform better in longer barrels. Its really that simple. Theres a reason why so many powder options are available. Different burn rates will yeild different results. It all comes down to consistnecy from this perspective. If we develop a offering to maximize its potential in a certain barrel length, that means the powder we chose will utamitley " burn up" with in that barrel length plus or minus 1 or 2 inches. Now, theres more to that conversation we can get into another day, because the cartridge case and projectile definatly get a say . But, we are speaking on behalf of barrel length at this moment. And let us not forget the muzzle device and or a supressor. They definitly get a say as well. Hornady and Applied balisticls have information out about this , id suggest seaking that out if your more interested.

Store your ammo in consistent place. Preferably dry. Almost all ammo is not hermeticly sealed. Gun powder has the ability to absorb moisture. This is refered to as hygroscopicity . I will touch on this in great detail later, for the sake of this one, just keep your ammo in a consitent dry space. Key being consistent, as i do not belive completely removing all the humibity is benefical as it pertains to data and real world use. Again, more on this later.

To keep this from going on far to long ill call that good for now. That alone will spark on many more conversations at later dates on more nerd stuff.

REMEBER

Its not you , its the rifle!

https://youtu.be/AnKS5yEMLQA?si=amQN4JtnKMKKlTDl