Have you had success getting Nosler ABLR bullets to group well?

[HTJ]

If so please post your method. I've shot hundreds of these things in various calibers and I just cannot get them to produce what I consider an acceptable group. I really want to run these bullets because they should be an excellent hunting bullet and I get outstanding velocities with them in all my rifles. I just havent found the magic trick to good groups with these yet.

This is yesterday's example. 260AI with a 24" 7.5 twist Brux barrel. This barrel will hammer .25 MOA groups all day long with 140 Berger VLD hunting bullets. The shots below are (5) 5 round groups in a ladder increasing .3 grains at each target. The only one I deem even somewhat acceptable is the center target And I know the gun is much more capable than that.

I shoot both the NAB and NLRAB in 260 REM, 270 win, 7 Mag, 300 RUM. ALL shoot excellent and are fantastic hunting loads. I measure all my OAL's from the Ogive. I start .05 off the lands and work from there with .5 gm increments in powder.

 

[Remhunter]

I had to send a Nosler rifle into Nosler a bit ago and was chatting with David Archerd who works for them and we got to talking about loads. According to him the ABLR is very sensitive to seating depth. According to him 5 thousandths off of where they want to be is enough to open that group up. I personally have not had good luck with the ABLR either, maybe I just have sat them where they want to be.

 

[Paladin300]

They need to be seated at least (.05) 50 thou off the lands. If you do they shoot like this. 338 RUM IMP. 265 ABLR 81grains IMR 4350 5 shots measured .029 inches. Best group of my life. I can consistently get them to shout sub moa in most of my rifles regardless of caliber but they need to be seated further back than Elds or Bergers. I had to call nosler to figure it out, before I did I had the same issues. It was 28 degrees the day this group was shot. I prefer 85.5 grains of R23 which produces more consistency and around 1/2 moa. I think IMR will be less consistent in the warmer weather.

 

[Mike D Texas]

They need to be seated at least (.05) 50 thou off the lands. If you do they shoot like this. 338 RUM IMP. 265 ABLR 81grains IMR 4350 5 shots measured .029 inches. Best group of my life. I can consistently get them to shout sub moa in most of my rifles regardless of caliber but they need to be seated further back than Elds or Bergers. I had to call nosler to figure it out, before I did I had the same issues. It was 28 degrees the day this group was shot. I prefer 85.5 grains of R23 which produces more consistency and around 1/2 moa. I think IMR will be less consistent in the warmer weather.View attachment 300311

The groups on my OP were seated .050 off the lands because I had heard that's where they like to be.

 

[QuietTexan]

Before they revamped their site, Nosler had this note:

*When loading the AccuBond®-LR bullet, Nosler ballisticians have found that loading to the maximum SAAMI cartridge overall length tends to provide best accuracy.

So not 0.050", but rather whatever the jump is for standard freebore in the cartridge. In my case that was almost 0.080".

What are you set up for with the 260AI? I'm seeing everything from 0.060 to 0.170" depending on short versus long action and bullet weight. Are the bullets sat out long to get 0.050" off, or are they somewhat stuffed in the case?

 

[Indian7953]

If so please post your method. I've shot hundreds of these things in various calibers and I just cannot get them to produce what I consider an acceptable group. I really want to run these bullets because they should be an excellent hunting bullet and I get outstanding velocities with them in all my rifles. I just havent found the magic trick to good groups with these yet.

This is yesterday's example. 260AI with a 24" 7.5 twist Brux barrel. This barrel will hammer .25 MOA groups all day long with 140 Berger VLD hunting bullets. The shots below are (5) 5 round groups in a ladder increasing .3 grains at each target. The only one I deem even somewhat acceptable is the center target And I know the gun is much more capable than that.

The only thing that would work for me was to let them jump to the rifling, .120

 

[Panhandle Pete]

If so please post your method. I've shot hundreds of these things in various calibers and I just cannot get them to produce what I consider an acceptable group. I really want to run these bullets because they should be an excellent hunting bullet and I get outstanding velocities with them in all my rifles. I just havent found the magic trick to good groups with these yet.

This is yesterday's example. 260AI with a 24" 7.5 twist Brux barrel. This barrel will hammer .25 MOA groups all day long with 140 Berger VLD hunting bullets. The shots below are (5) 5 round groups in a ladder increasing .3 grains at each target. The only one I deem even somewhat acceptable is the center target And I know the gun is much more capable than that.

I am sorry you are having trouble getting the accuracy node with the Nosler ABLR- I load the 129 ABLR in my grandson's 260 AI- 50 grains of H1000 powder both to fire form ( Hornady 95 grain V Max bullets] and the finished load of 129 ABLR, we have had extremely good results with this load in our guns, #4 weight Schneider 8 twist polygonal cut rifling, I am not at home to give you the overall length ect but will try to post tomorrow that information. These are antelope, deer and feral hog killing bullets. I shoot the 142 Nosler ABLR in my 260 AI with the same 50 grain H1000 load, same barrel twist and polygonal cut with 26" varmint contour, deadly also both for accuracy and stopping, we get lots of opportunity to test different loads on feral hogs and would not have any qualms about shooting game in the 600# range with either load.

 

[Mike D Texas]

Before they revamped their site, Nosler had this note:

So not 0.050", but rather whatever the jump is for standard freebore in the cartridge. In my case that was almost 0.080".

What are you set up for with the 260AI? I'm seeing everything from 0.060 to 0.170" depending on short versus long action and bullet weight. Are the bullets sat out long to get 0.050" off, or are they somewhat stuffed in the case?

Currently 2.900" is kissing the lands, so they are set at 2.850". I don't have my load book in front of me to reference CBTO measurements.

So if I set them to 2.800 SAAMI length my jump would be somewhere around .100". And even at 2.850 I am below the shoulder/body junction so I am encroaching on powder space and it would be worse if I set them deeper.

 

[Paladin300]

The groups on my OP were seated .050 off the lands because I had heard that's where they like to be.

.050 is where I had to start. That works well for my 338. I think my 270 and 6.5 are loaded a little further back. I would say find what load works the best at .050 and then begin to try moving it back away from the lands in .005 -.01 increments until you find where your gun likes them. Starting at .05 worked best for me in the above rifles but I am running the 150s in a short barreled 7-08 that I have yet to get 1/2 moa from. Started out using factory coal which is a good bit more than .05 off the lands in that gun and haven't had a chance to try anything else. .050 made the difference for me before that I was pushing them .01-.02 off the lands and couldn't get them to shoot less than 1.5 moa. They are finicky but once you get them dialed in they will shoot.

 

[JD284win]

I've mostly messed with the 7mm flavor both 168 and 175 in the ABLR. Best I ever got was 3/4 inch group out of my 280AI. 284win,7mm RM and 7mm wby never got better than an inch. My wife's 284win and my old 280AI shot bug holes with regular 140gr AB. ELD-X's kill amazing and have shot great in every gun I put them in so I gave up the ABLR. ELD-X has better and more accurate posted BC and they have performed well at all ranges.

 

[Muddyboots]

Like I mentioned earlier, loading at SAAMI you really need to rethink powder choice based on case fill with bullet seated deeper. I migrated to ball powders when loading ABLR's just to get the velocities with case fill.

 

[Aussie Hunter Steve]

I'm having good success accuracy wise with both the 129gr and 142gr ABLR in my 6.5-300. Both < 0.010" from the lands.

 

[Buckys]

My only question is this; how far off the lands are you seating the ABLR?
I have been using the 150g ABLR in a 270Bee since they came out, half inch groups are the norm, seated to max mag length.
Also use them in (142g ABLR) in my 264WM seated .030" off with less than half inch groups, the 129g ABLR weren't as good, but still 3/4 MoA.
The 210g ABLR out of 3 of my 300WM all group below 3/4MoA without much fuss. They are seated .040", .030" and one likes .015". Haven't tried than in my 3.4" mag length rifles, take up too much powder space.
Your middle group looks promising, have you tweaked seating depth or changed primers?

Cheers.

MM, by chance have you tried other seating depths and how sensitive are your rifles to the same?

I've been wanting to try 150 AB and ABLR in my 270 bee ... glad to hear that your's does well with the latter (maybe all of that freebore can be useful).

 

[Mike D Texas]

Like I mentioned earlier, loading at SAAMI you really need to rethink powder choice based on case fill with bullet seated deeper. I migrated to ball powders when loading ABLR's just to get the velocities with case fill.

In my .308 I get almost unbelievable velocities using CFE223 powder with 168s and only a 2o" barrel.

I haven't looked to see if that might work in the 260AI.

A couple of reason I want to make these work:

1. Based on short range BC calculations, they seem to slip through the air very well, better than advertised actually.
2. The low velocity threshold should be great at longer distances especially in lower velocity cartridges like the 6.5 Grendel that I shoot on occasion.
3. My 6.5x47 shoots them exceptionally well so I know it can be done, I'm just struggling so far with the 6.5 Grendel, 260 Rem & 260AI and I'm a bit concerned about the .308 because I've only done a ladder test to find velocity nodes but so far it it shotgunning them in about a 3" group.