EastTNHunter
Well-known member
- Joined
- Jun 13, 2018
- Messages
- 1,749
I will start out by saying that I am a recovering tinkerer… but I still have occasional setbacks. With that confession made, I also love to help kids and new shooters get into the sports of shooting and hunting. Without going into the details, let’s just say that I have introduced many new shooters and hunters to the sport.
With that as a background, the AR platform gives me an adaptable utilitarian tool to teach with. It is compact, adjustable, and mild recoiling. But even small amounts of recoil can be uncomfortable for new or smaller shooters. For the 5.56, I have used mild charges of Unique to provide recoil slightly more than a 22lr, but these loads will not cycle the action. I have also used mild loads of H4895 to give a little more oomph (including noise and recoil), but they WILL reliably cycle the action.
Yesterday I decided to do some more tinkering on my 6.5G AR with my son. He is 7, and can shoot the “Grendel” accurately for a few shots, but then his accuracy starts to suffer as he tries to anticipate the recoil and begins flinching. The recoil moves his body far more than mine, so I know that he feels the recoil from this mild round far more than I do. So I went to a starting book load of H4895 and Sierra 85gr Varminter, hoping to get lower recoil and still cycle the action.
Eureka! 24gr did the trick. We shot ~1.5” groups at 50yd from a seated position using an attached bipod, which is plenty accurate for busting bottles, cans, and other reactive targets in our backyard shooting range. I’m sure that it will do better than that if I were to try prone or from a bench. Recoil was much lower, they reliably cycled the action, and his enjoyment level went up. This is good news as I get him ready for his second deer season, as he will be able to practice more live shooting using the gun that he will hunt with.
I load similar loads for bolt rifles, but don’t have the cycling concerns. Also, he is too small for the stocks on these bolt guns at this time
Anybody else tried messing with mouse fart loads?
With that as a background, the AR platform gives me an adaptable utilitarian tool to teach with. It is compact, adjustable, and mild recoiling. But even small amounts of recoil can be uncomfortable for new or smaller shooters. For the 5.56, I have used mild charges of Unique to provide recoil slightly more than a 22lr, but these loads will not cycle the action. I have also used mild loads of H4895 to give a little more oomph (including noise and recoil), but they WILL reliably cycle the action.
Yesterday I decided to do some more tinkering on my 6.5G AR with my son. He is 7, and can shoot the “Grendel” accurately for a few shots, but then his accuracy starts to suffer as he tries to anticipate the recoil and begins flinching. The recoil moves his body far more than mine, so I know that he feels the recoil from this mild round far more than I do. So I went to a starting book load of H4895 and Sierra 85gr Varminter, hoping to get lower recoil and still cycle the action.
Eureka! 24gr did the trick. We shot ~1.5” groups at 50yd from a seated position using an attached bipod, which is plenty accurate for busting bottles, cans, and other reactive targets in our backyard shooting range. I’m sure that it will do better than that if I were to try prone or from a bench. Recoil was much lower, they reliably cycled the action, and his enjoyment level went up. This is good news as I get him ready for his second deer season, as he will be able to practice more live shooting using the gun that he will hunt with.
I load similar loads for bolt rifles, but don’t have the cycling concerns. Also, he is too small for the stocks on these bolt guns at this time
Anybody else tried messing with mouse fart loads?
