GGG 308 155GN FACTORY LOADS

[Gazza0208]

Curious.

 

After buying the above rounds at Bisley, and getting massive variations to shots, we stripped three rounds down, the powder weight in each was 44.00gn, 44.20gn and 45.00gn all from the same box , looking closely at the powder it looks like there's a variety (Mixture) of powder in the cases, as in long, short and round particles, and the round particles vary from dust to quite large, the Bullets are all the same, the cases vary in length a bit, more than some other makes or more than they should but thats not the end of the world. Does anyone know what powder they are supposed to be carrying in these rounds, or is it all guess work?

[ezmobile]

Blimey, thats a hell of a variation in powder loads / type. Did you let the NRA know about this?

[Gazza0208]

So they can tell me "we will contact the suppliers" no I have not. We are purely curious as to the powder as I for one have never seen a "cocktail" like it, stand to be corrected though. 

[Rem Imperri]

Gazza,
When did you purchase the ammo from the NRA? Also which batch/year does it say on the box? They should no longer be selling the 2019 ammo and have resorted to the remains of the 2018 batch (which had it's own problems).

A bit of background;
The past two years of GGG have has serious issues, to the extent of people not entering the Imperial competition due to the variation in the ammunition. 

After investigation the 2019 batch was found to have 'some' (~1/10) overcharged primers, which was causing elongation & weakening of some the cases and in some tight chambers extractor failures. I can dig out the report if you're interested. Worth noting that it shoots extremely accurately as long as it doesn't break your rifle... For any reloading activity it's strongly advised to measure case lengths post firing and remove any that appear uncharacteristically long.

The 2018 batch, while not dangerous, was found to have some non-concentric cores in the bullet heads which resulted in erroneous shots (possibly what you're observing), although I can't recall anything about anyone identifying an issue with powder weight/combination, although I'm pretty sure I've got that data somewhere, so will have a look.

TlDr; I would advise against using either 2018 or 2019 GGG if you're looking for safe & accurate ammo.
But also please do report your findings  to the NRA as they can add it to the wealth of data the target rifle guys have gathered in various investigations.

Fingers crossed for the 2020 batch...

Rem