Ruger Mini 14

A friend of mine just purchased a Ruger Mini 14 chambered .223. I am looking to see if anyone here has loaded for this particular rifle using Ramshot Tac? I have a bag of 500 bullets, I went in on a group by with XbonesX and algunjunkie back in the day, I believe these are 55 grain. Not sure of the manufacture.

If anyone has, what was your recipe? When you worked the load up, what was your starting point and your max?

Thanks

I believe they are some kind of Hornady bullets.

Tac or Varget would be what I would be using.

I love Varget in most of my 223 loads, but the Hornady 55gr FMJ's really like H335.

I've never tried Ramshot for some odd reason...

When I had my stag ar, tac is what I used. I really like Tac...

Looking at the load data on ramshot's site, they have quite a few 55 grain listed. All of them are different. I want to give him some really good test loads. Getting near max is what is getting me.

I could find the lowest starting one, then load up test near the lowest max listed. See how that does.

I won't have any diagnostic tools this round to help such as a chrony. This will all be shoot and what the grouping....

Can he take a mini30 ranch rifle (barrel) and make a rugar 300 blackout ?

Not really sure about that. I havn't dabbled into anything that serious...

I have used quite a bit of TAC - it's one of my favorite powders.

My usual load for a 55 gr was 23.5 - 26 gr of TAC.

My little .223 AI Sako hates bullets heaver than 52 gr but it loves the TAC powder with a 40 gr bullet.

I have found that around 25 gr of TAC is the best for accuracy in my AR with a 55 gr mil-surp bullet.

These guys will convert your Mini-30 to 300 AA but be prepared for sticker shock:
http://www.ruger-mini-14-firearms.com/ruger_mini_prices.php

Scroll down a bit to see the Mini-30 conversion prices.

XbonesX wrote:I believe they are some kind of Hornady bullets.

If they are the ones that I was a day late and a dollor short on, yes they are hornady 55 grain fmj bt w/c. I wasn't able to get in on the group buy, but not long after that happened I found a case of 6000 for a good price w/free shipping so I bought it. I just wish I would have bought 2 at that time because now they cost a hell of a lot more.

I have used then in my AR's using 25 gr. Of varget, and H335 but I don't remember the exact load off hand. Both powders worked great for me but I could buy the H335 a little cheaper so I did and saved the varget for my 308 loads. I have since switched to WC844 and bought it in bulk.

I bought some of the surplus WC844 from this spot:
http://www.patsreloading.com/patsrel/prices.aspx?category=Powder

It's pull down powder from de-mil'd ammo, but if you order several 8 lb canisters on one haz mat charge it can come out fairly cheap compared to other sources.

My load for 62 gr M855/SS109 is 25 gr of WC844 and 26.3 for the 55 gr M193 ball. Works good in my ARs and my little Sako but I do not have a Mini-14 to test it on.

My load for the T/C Contender 14" .223 barrel with its long Wylde throat is 25 gr of Ram Shot X-Terminator with a 60 gr Hornady V-Max bullet lit by either a CCI SR bench rest or magnum primer if I am shooting in freezing weather.

These guys will convert your Mini-30 to 300 AA but be prepared for sticker shock:
http://www.ruger-mini-14-firearms.com/ruger_mini_prices.php

scorge30 , thank you ...

george457d wrote:These guys will convert your Mini-30 to 300 AA but be prepared for sticker shock:
http://www.ruger-mini-14-firearms.com/ruger_mini_prices.php

scorge30 , thank you ...

Hey no prob, if you get a Mini-30 in 300 AA I am going to be most jealous! You will have to post pics!

scorge30 wrote:I bought some of the surplus WC844 from this spot:
http://www.patsreloading.com/patsrel/prices.aspx?category=Powder

It's pull down powder from de-mil'd ammo, but if you order several 8 lb canisters on one haz mat charge it can come out fairly cheap compared to other sources.

My load for 62 gr M855/SS109 is 25 gr of WC844 and 26.3 for the 55 gr M193 ball. Works good in my ARs and my little Sako but I do not have a Mini-14 to test it on.

My load for the T/C Contender 14" .223 barrel with its long Wylde throat is 25 gr of Ram Shot X-Terminator with a 60 gr Hornady V-Max bullet lit by either a CCI SR bench rest or magnum primer if I am shooting in freezing weather.

I bought mine from Jeff Bartlett at gibrass.com he pays the hazmat if you buy 6 jugs or more, and you can mix and match powders to get to the 6 jugs. Myself and a few guys went together and bought 6 jugs and it came out to about $90.00 a jug shipped. I would recommend anyone looking for bulk powder to look him up. He was great to deal with and shipped really fast.

I have bought most of my bulk powder from Jeff Bartlett. He is a great guy to deal with.

I unfortunately do not have a group of reloaders now that I could split an order like I used to.

Bartlett is a great guy to deal with and will help as much as he can. He is most accommodating and understands that prices have gotten stupid.

I bought some of the last WC844 he had and then bought some from Pat a couple of weeks ago before the craze hit when the Prez drove everyone to snatch anything AR-related from the stores.

I hope you guys have stocked up because it could be a long dry spell again like the first year of the Prez's regime.