62gr SS109 for plinking (again)

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62gr SS109 for plinking (again)

Post by Mitch@Ripley » 23 Jun 2018, 11:29 am

Hey everyone, finally found a reliable source of SS109 projectiles ("TopBrass" military pulldowns) So I am going to do some accuracy and velocity testing next weekend with these, as well as some of the ADI projies I was given as a comparison. After I find a decent load I plan on testing with a few different targets, any suggestions? I already have a 10mm thick steel plate off an old machine as well as an 18mm thick laminated hardwood cutting board (more testing the board than the bullet haha). As well as this I am going to test their accuracy out to 300yds.
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Re: 62gr SS109 for plinking (again)

Post by Cooper » 23 Jun 2018, 11:32 am

Watching with interest!
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Re: 62gr SS109 for plinking (again)

Post by bladeracer » 23 Jun 2018, 12:51 pm

Even a hunting bullet is likely to go through 10mm mild steel plate. Could be interesting to see the impact of the 109 alongside a BT or HP though. The 109 being lighter due to the steel core, the hunting bullet might actually penetrate better.
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Re: 62gr SS109 for plinking (again)

Post by Gaznazdiak » 23 Jun 2018, 7:40 pm

I have a pile of SS109s, their being branded "62gn" is a bare average.
The 50 I bothered weighing were over a range of 1gn either side, so don't expect consistancy.
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Re: 62gr SS109 for plinking (again)

Post by AZZA'S HJ47 » 26 Jun 2018, 11:07 pm

Will be doing some testing myself soon. Will be interesting to see how they do. Good cheap plinking round hopefully
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Re: 62gr SS109 for plinking (again)

Post by sungazer » 27 Jun 2018, 1:44 pm

Yep I have bought a box to have a test and look see after all this posting. I plan to weigh them now and try them on a few different materials and thickness as well as for accuracy. The results will be interesting to compare.
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Re: 62gr SS109 for plinking (again)

Post by Gaznazdiak » 27 Jun 2018, 3:03 pm

sungazer wrote:Yep I have bought a box to have a test and look see after all this posting. I plan to weigh them now and try them on a few different materials and thickness as well as for accuracy. The results will be interesting to compare.


Here is a secondary impact by the penetrator, into 10mm aluminium after going through 30mm of aluminium at 100m.
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Re: 62gr SS109 for plinking (again)

Post by Gaznazdiak » 27 Jun 2018, 3:09 pm

Two more;

A 70gn Nosler RDF BTHP vs a "62gn" SS109 into an 18mm thick railway track plate at 100m
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Re: 62gr SS109 for plinking (again)

Post by Gaznazdiak » 27 Jun 2018, 3:19 pm

Two 13mm and one 9mm layers of polycarbonate sheet.
The bottom pic is a .22 Powerpoint at 10m for comparison
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Re: 62gr SS109 for plinking (again)

Post by AZZA'S HJ47 » 01 Jul 2018, 5:55 pm

Have loaded a few of these 62gr FMJ'S for next weekend as well as a few others to have a play with. Have loaded up two batches with both BM8208 and 2207 i hope that they shoot well even if they are just for plinking. Have also loaded up some 70gr speers and some 60gr Vmax so next weekend will be a trial for some new pet loads
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Re: 62gr SS109 for plinking (again)

Post by AZZA'S HJ47 » 08 Jul 2018, 4:22 pm

Well the search for a cheap plinking round will continue probably stick to the Super roo. My T3X Super Varmint will shoot these all day shot a group today that was .6 of a inch with a flyer. I also tested some 60gr vmax shot under a inch also will do some playing around with seating depths so should be able to close the groups up a little. Even the 70gr speer soft points shot well also just under a inch at 100. I did also have some barnes Varmint Grenades to test however left them in my ammo crate at home.

A little diisapointed with the FMJ 62gr pills I personally struggled to get a group any smaller than 2 to 3 inches. Two diffrent powder combos and diffrent charge rates best groups were around the max charge with 8208. I will try a few diffrent things with these projectiles however i am doubtfull i will be able to get a group under the inch mark.

Back to the drawing board me thinks :unknown:
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Re: 62gr SS109 for plinking (again)

Post by bladeracer » 08 Jul 2018, 5:05 pm

AZZA'S HJ47 wrote:Well the search for a cheap plinking round will continue probably stick to the Super roo. My T3X Super Varmint will shoot these all day shot a group today that was .6 of a inch with a flyer. I also tested some 60gr vmax shot under a inch also will do some playing around with seating depths so should be able to close the groups up a little. Even the 70gr speer soft points shot well also just under a inch at 100. I did also have some barnes Varmint Grenades to test however left them in my ammo crate at home.

A little diisapointed with the FMJ 62gr pills I personally struggled to get a group any smaller than 2 to 3 inches. Two diffrent powder combos and diffrent charge rates best groups were around the max charge with 8208. I will try a few diffrent things with these projectiles however i am doubtfull i will be able to get a group under the inch mark.

Back to the drawing board me thinks :unknown:


What twist rate are you trying them in?
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Re: 62gr SS109 for plinking (again)

Post by AZZA'S HJ47 » 08 Jul 2018, 5:33 pm

1 in 8
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Re: 62gr SS109 for plinking (again)

Post by bladeracer » 08 Jul 2018, 6:00 pm

AZZA'S HJ47 wrote:1 in 8


Hmmm...maybe they're made for the 7"-twist M4's?
I believe this bullet is almost an inch in length?
Length shouldn't matter though as my 8"-twist shoots the 1.160" 80gn ELDM just fine.
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Re: 62gr SS109 for plinking (again)

Post by AZZA'S HJ47 » 08 Jul 2018, 6:15 pm

Same boat Bladeracer have shot both the 75 and 80g pills well. Have to experiment with seating depths to see if that helps. But as ive said i am doubtful that this will be beneficial. Back to the drawing board lol
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Re: 62gr SS109 for plinking (again)

Post by sungazer » 09 Jul 2018, 6:00 pm

I have loaded up some of these but haven't shot any yet. I plan on doing some 100yrd accuracy tests and load development and then doing some of the penetration tests that others have done and also against the specs it was first designed for.
There is some really interesting reading on the round here https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/5.56%C3%9745mm_NATO
At one point the talk about 1.6-2 MOA accuracy and another more like 3-5 MOA so that will be interesting.
BR the round is about 0.9 inches long and from that wikki was meant for use in 1-9 twists which seems very doable. I have a Howa with a 1-9 and have shot 75gr VLD that are stated by Berger to be 1-8 optimal and at 1.063 inch I haven't found a problem as yet in the 1-9.
A interesting point I find is that where the canular is actually makes the round quite short, not what i was expecting given the other information about 5.56 military chambers to be longer. In the Howa at that length it is about 110 thou off the lands. They must have been using a pretty fast powder as they say there was no increased MV from 20 inches to 24. This would also tie in with the requirement to reduce muzzle flash. There are quite a few interesting tid bits in that wiki. Some of the specs / wanted requirements are interesting like being able to pierce a WW2 helmet at 800yrds but with a 2MOA gun the chance of ever hitting a target that size repeatedly or even with any one shot is dreaming. Anyway it will be interesting to see how they perform and if they have any uses in a bolt gun.
They dont sound like a great round overall but only testing will tell.
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Re: 62gr SS109 for plinking (again)

Post by bladeracer » 09 Jul 2018, 6:30 pm

sungazer wrote:I have loaded up some of these but haven't shot any yet. I plan on doing some 100yrd accuracy tests and load development and then doing some of the penetration tests that others have done and also against the specs it was first designed for.
There is some really interesting reading on the round here https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/5.56%C3%9745mm_NATO
At one point the talk about 1.6-2 MOA accuracy and another more like 3-5 MOA so that will be interesting.
BR the round is about 0.9 inches long and from that wikki was meant for use in 1-9 twists which seems very doable. I have a Howa with a 1-9 and have shot 75gr VLD that are stated by Berger to be 1-8 optimal and at 1.063 inch I haven't found a problem as yet in the 1-9.
A interesting point I find is that where the canular is actually makes the round quite short, not what i was expecting given the other information about 5.56 military chambers to be longer. In the Howa at that length it is about 110 thou off the lands. They must have been using a pretty fast powder as they say there was no increased MV from 20 inches to 24. This would also tie in with the requirement to reduce muzzle flash. There are quite a few interesting tid bits in that wiki. Some of the specs / wanted requirements are interesting like being able to pierce a WW2 helmet at 800yrds but with a 2MOA gun the chance of ever hitting a target that size repeatedly or even with any one shot is dreaming. Anyway it will be interesting to see how they perform and if they have any uses in a bolt gun.
They dont sound like a great round overall but only testing will tell.


As the ammo also has to function in very short carbine barrels, it doesn't surprise me that it doesn't make much velocity increase in longer barrels.

I don't think they mean as a marksman aiming at a helmet, they mean suppressing fire should be able to penetrate helmets it hits.
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Re: 62gr SS109 for plinking (again)

Post by Gaznazdiak » 09 Jul 2018, 6:47 pm

The guy who gave me mine was an ex Army weapons instructor and he told me that match accuracy was not a precondition, just enough accuracy to hit center mass at 600m through an assault rifle and the ability for them to penetrate a kevlar helmet at 600m. Mainly designed for area fire using a crew served weapon or Squad Auto Weapon.

They certainly won't do for hunting anything but rabbits though I think.
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Re: 62gr SS109 for plinking (again)

Post by AZZA'S HJ47 » 09 Jul 2018, 7:56 pm

At one point the talk about 1.6-2 MOA accuracy and another more like 3-5 MOA so that will be interesting.

1.6-2 moa was around what i was getting. As i said i had a hard time doining anything better than the avove mentioned.
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Re: 62gr SS109 for plinking (again)

Post by sungazer » 10 Jul 2018, 6:11 pm

So I had a little play this afternoon with these guys. The results were not quite as bad as I was expecting. I dont like making excuses but I think my scope may have a little problem apart from being a Simmonds that I bought a long time ago and it is like looking through a fish bowl, I never knew how bad it was until getting a good scope.

I started with a load of 23.6 grn 8208 with them jammed 20 thou that group is pretty big and randomish looking at 1.8 inchs. I then moved to 20 thou off and apart from that one wayward shot it was looking pretty good at 0.5 without the stray and out to 1.2 with it. Then the next group is with the SS109 seated to the canular which puts them at 110 thou off for such a VLD shape I thought this may be ok but it has opened up, again at 1.2.
5823s.JPG


I then shot some Super Roos to see how they compared, I am still looking for a load for them as well. From what I have shot with this Howa 1500 I think it is about a 1 MOA gun often grouping a few shots then popping a few others somewhere else. If it wasn't in a chassis I would think something is moving. (It may be a scope)
The Super Roos grouped best at about 20 thou off at 0.75 inch everything was shot at 120 yrds
5830s.JPG
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Re: 62gr SS109 for plinking (again)

Post by AZZA'S HJ47 » 10 Jul 2018, 10:46 pm

sungazer wrote:So I had a little play this afternoon with these guys. The results were not quite as bad as I was expecting. I dont like making excuses but I think my scope may have a little problem apart from being a Simmonds that I bought a long time ago and it is like looking through a fish bowl, I never knew how bad it was until getting a good scope.

I started with a load of 23.6 grn 8208 with them jammed 20 thou that group is pretty big and randomish looking at 1.8 inchs. I then moved to 20 thou off and apart from that one wayward shot it was looking pretty good at 0.5 without the stray and out to 1.2 with it. Then the next group is with the SS109 seated to the canular which puts them at 110 thou off for such a VLD shape I thought this may be ok but it has opened up, again at 1.2.
5823s.JPG


I then shot some Super Roos to see how they compared, I am still looking for a load for them as well. From what I have shot with this Howa 1500 I think it is about a 1 MOA gun often grouping a few shots then popping a few others somewhere else. If it wasn't in a chassis I would think something is moving. (It may be a scope)
The Super Roos grouped best at about 20 thou off at 0.75 inch everything was shot at 120 yrds
5830s.JPG



Seeing this has given me some more hope that the seating depth is going to have a major factor with accuracy. Looks like ill be loading up some more to test :drinks:
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