AR question

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I have a NIB colt HBAR that I bought in 1986, with a 1 in 7. I have been shooting highpower service rifle for the past 25 years with an M1. I am thinking about switching over to the AR. Can anyone point me in the direction of where I can find info on reloading for this twist rate?

Or,if this rifle has collectors value, should I keep it unfired, and look for another rifle?
 
I'd personally get a new upper to use and get a 2 stage trigger if you want to truly be competitive.

With a new upper for HP you'll have 1/4" adjustments instead of 1/2". A thinner front sight post and a free floated front barrel.

But if you want to shoot it stock, I've had good results with 69gr Nosler HPBT, 24.5gr varget and CCI 450 primers on my old HBAR.
 
1/7 will work with just about anything. I would thing you could even get the Sierra 90gr to shoot. The throat is so long on those GI barrels even the 80gr Sierras look like they are falling out of the case if you load them out to the lands.

R15 and Varget are the standard powders that will work with the lite and heavy bullets, but some people have very good results with 4895 if you have any of that kicking around.

B
 
www.handloads.com
is a good place to get the juices flowing. I've used that page numerous times to see what works well with different bullets. With a 1 in 7 twist you should have no problems running the full lengths of bullets from the very light to the very heavy, you just have to worry about OAL, with the heavy bullets if it's too long they won't feed properly not to mention that they won't fit into the magazine.
 
I shoot Sierra bullets. 69, 77, and 80 grains out of my Rock River 7.7 twist. Sell it and get a Rock River. Better trigger and the .223 Wilde chambered barrel shoots well out to 1000 yards.
 
I shoot 75gr BTHP across the course with 24.1 grains of R15 and Remington 7.5 primers. There is a lot of data out there for high power reloads, someone has already done the work for almost every bullet over 62gr all you have to do is pick your bullet weight.

I would do what colt_fan said and get an upper with a free float barrel and a better trigger.
 
For about $250 you can make your Colt match-ready.
$125 will get you a SR float tube and another $125 will get you a Rock River 2-stage match trigger.
With those two modifications, there is nothing with that rifle that will hold you back.

Load up a mess of 77 Sierras on top of 24-24.5 gr of RE15. Use LC or WCC brass with Wolf SRM or Rem 7-1/2 primers.

P.s. Once you do, you'll wonder why you didnt switch over to the AR years ago.
 
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Load up a mess of 77 Sierras on top of 24-24.5 gr of RE15. Use LC or WCC brass with Wolf SRM or Rem 7-1/2 primers.


Good advise right there. Load them up and send it.

The rifle is a pre-ban, so you could probably sell it in MA for way more than it's really worth and use the money to build a brand new one with all the modern goodies.
 
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