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**Unclenick** · June 28, 2010, 07:02 PM

The Lake City ammo is M2 Ball. It is famous for rarely shooting much better than about 2.0-2.5 moa in the best tuned match gun, and even 3.5 moa is not entirely unheard off with it. If you pull the bullets and look at the bases, you often find mixed toolmarks, indicating mixed lots of bullets of different tooling. A lot was pulled down from machine gun belts after they passed the military (20 years, I think?) storage limit before being surplussed out. Precision target accuracy isn't part of most machine gun applications.

FYI, .50 cents a round is the same thing the CMP is charging for surplus M2 ammo, so you didn't get taken. And that brass is good.

So, your gun is shooting M2 about as accurately as even a match gun shoots M2. That your handload didn't pan out is likely due to a couple of factors. For one, that's a pretty light load. The Hodgdon starting load is 48 grains of IMR4895 in a Winchester case with the Hornady equivalent 168 grain bullet, and 51.2 grains is maximum. Figure your Lake City case will want around a half to a grain less powder, so try 47 to 50.2 grains for your load range.

Most powders don't do their best at the lower end of their pressure ranges, at least, not if the case is also poorly filled. If you want to make that light load work, you likely need to go to magnum primers to help pressurize the empty part of the space better. That's what the military uses, though they do it for cold weather reliability rather than accuracy.

The standard primers will do better with that higher load range I gave you. Use Peetzakilla's recommendation to read the Newberry's site to learn a systematic approach to determining where in that load range your gun wants to be? When you get it right, you will easily outshoot the M2. My own loads always did, even when not tuned.

The earlier comments about the gun's condition still apply. You do need your crown to be in good shape. It won't hurt to bed the gun better. but since it shoots M2 about as well as a bedded gun, I would see what you can make the properly tuned loads do first?

June 28, 2010, 07:02 PM	#7
Unclenick Staff Join Date: March 4, 2005 Location: Ohio Posts: 21,084	The Lake City ammo is M2 Ball. It is famous for rarely shooting much better than about 2.0-2.5 moa in the best tuned match gun, and even 3.5 moa is not entirely unheard off with it. If you pull the bullets and look at the bases, you often find mixed toolmarks, indicating mixed lots of bullets of different tooling. A lot was pulled down from machine gun belts after they passed the military (20 years, I think?) storage limit before being surplussed out. Precision target accuracy isn't part of most machine gun applications. FYI, .50 cents a round is the same thing the CMP is charging for surplus M2 ammo, so you didn't get taken. And that brass is good. So, your gun is shooting M2 about as accurately as even a match gun shoots M2. That your handload didn't pan out is likely due to a couple of factors. For one, that's a pretty light load. The Hodgdon starting load is 48 grains of IMR4895 in a Winchester case with the Hornady equivalent 168 grain bullet, and 51.2 grains is maximum. Figure your Lake City case will want around a half to a grain less powder, so try 47 to 50.2 grains for your load range. Most powders don't do their best at the lower end of their pressure ranges, at least, not if the case is also poorly filled. If you want to make that light load work, you likely need to go to magnum primers to help pressurize the empty part of the space better. That's what the military uses, though they do it for cold weather reliability rather than accuracy. The standard primers will do better with that higher load range I gave you. Use Peetzakilla's recommendation to read the Newberry's site to learn a systematic approach to determining where in that load range your gun wants to be? When you get it right, you will easily outshoot the M2. My own loads always did, even when not tuned. The earlier comments about the gun's condition still apply. You do need your crown to be in good shape. It won't hurt to bed the gun better. but since it shoots M2 about as well as a bedded gun, I would see what you can make the properly tuned loads do first? __________________ Gunsite Orange Hat Family Member CMP Certified GSM Master Instructor NRA Certified Rifle Instructor NRA Benefactor Member and Golden Eagle Last edited by Unclenick; June 28, 2010 at 07:07 PM.