Looks good Will. I put a little touch of roll crimp on mine, helps them feed.
How did you check alignment? I believe your last photo in post 45 got out of place, at least that's how the forum software is putting it up for me (sometimes photos display in the wrong places temporarily).
I am planning on using the Lee FCD to help them feed properly. This is the very first time I am reloading for the ar15, so all new to me in what will work or not. Part of the learning curve for me.
I fixed the photo. Sorry about that (yes, sometimes the forum software messes up, but this time it was "me"!).
For alignment check, I did it optically. I removed the bolt, and look through the barrel at a bright area and move around to see if I can pick-up the edge(s) of the end cap on the suppressor. I am pretty anal about this alignment work on the lathe, and it is not that I "expect" it to be a problem, but I always like to do this visual check when installing a suppressor for the first time, and even more so since I got the stacking on the tolerances of 3 components:
- the barrel threads and edge (which I didn't machine), plus
- the taper suppressor mount (that I machined) plus
- the complete F1 308 suppressor which is about 9 inches (which I machined).
Gives me a warm feeling when I can see everything nice and aligned before taking the first shot
On other forums I know some buy straight steel rods of various sizes, which then get inserted (gently) in the barrel to check concentricity, etc., but I hate to touch the potentially delicate crown on a barrel.
By the way, still on the 300bkl - you mentioned that at about 5" of barrel travel I should look for loads in QL that would give me at least 6K PSI for cycling the bolt. How about on the max. side? As long as cartridge-wise I am safe and under the SAAMI limits, do I need to worry about the port pressure for the higher-end supersonic loads?
Will