The K16, with a barrel four inches shorter than the K8’s, actually gives up little in velocity, and it is fully as accurate. The 40-gr. Nosler Ballistic Tip is super at 3,494 fps with 24.2 grains of Vihtavuori N-130 powder, and is a ground-squirrel vaporizer. But loads with 50- to 55-gr. bullets get the most use, and the Hornady 50-gr.V-MAX really cooks with 26.2 grains of Varget. The Nosler Ballistic Tip of the same weight favors 25.3 grains of X-Terminator. Both clock over 3,000 fps, and accuracy is all you could ask for. These handloads compare nicely with Hornady’s 53-gr. BTHP Match load at 2,925 fps and group under an inch.
As I have noted, the 6.8 SPC is a superbly balanced cartridge. An excellent selection of bullet weights from 90 to 115 grains is available, and while some 130-gr. bullets shoot fine, their velocities are a bit low for reliable expansion. This is no impediment, as the tough Barnes 85-and 110-gr. Triple Shock-Xs and Nosler 110-gr. AccuBond bullets make the little 6.8 perform all out of proportion to its size.
For the lighter TS-X, a load of 31.0 grains of AA-2230 delivers 2,711 fps and consistently groups under an inch. A charge of 30.0 grains of IMR-8008XBR gives the 110-gr. Hornady V-MAX a velocity of 2,497 fps. For pure paper punching, look to the 115-gr. Sierra MatchKIng over the same powder charge. Most handload velocities equal or exceed those of factory loads in my rifles.
The most recent Olympic Arms AR to cross my path is the .25 WSSM K8-MAG noted above. It continues to astound with its pure accuracy and excellent power. Antelope and deer beware.
Big game hunters will favor this accurate and powerful Model K8-MAG chambered in .25 WSSM, shown here with the excellent Vortex Crossfire illuminated reticle 3-9x40 scope, secured in a Weaver Tri-Rail mount. The K8-MAG is also available in .223 and .243 WSSM calibers.
Olympic Arms AR Rifle Range Tests
Model: K8, caliber 5.56mm, 20-inch barrel, 1:9-inch twist
Model: K16, caliber 6.8mm SPC, 16-inch barrel, 1:10-inch twist
Note: Remington cases were used for all 6.8mm handloads.
Note: Accuracy is the average of at least three, 3-shot groups at 100 yards from a bench rest. Velocities were measured with an Oehler M-35P chronograph with the front
For proper functioning, all AR rounds must be held to an cartridge overall length of 2.25 inches, such as these .25 WSSM handloads.
Here are just four of the over-achievers for which Olympic ARs are chambered (from left): the ubiquitous .223 Remington; the 6.8 SPC Remington; the hot new .300 Olympic Super Short Magnum; and its parent cartridge, the .25 Winchester Super Short Magnum.
Basically, about every load performed well, but here are a few favorites. Big game is the role of the .25 WSSM, and bullets weighing 100 grains and up are just the ticket, and all six shot well. The Nosler Partition bullet clocks almost 3,000 fps out of the .25 WSSM over 44.1 grains of IMR-4007SSC. Another winner is the 110-gr. Hornady InterBond with 46.3 grains of Reloder 19 at 2,824 fps.
A main attribute of the .25 caliber is its ability to shoot heavier bullets than a 6mm. Here, the 120-gr. Speer Grand Slam cooks along at 2,755 fps with 44.1 grains of H-4350. This makes a terrific bigger big game load.
All in all, it is hard not to find a particular model and caliber set up in the Olympic Arms AR line that isn’t appealing. They are competitively priced, functionally reliable, very accurate, and they accept a wide range of handloads without a whimper. In the crowded AR market, collectively they represent solid value.
Model: K16, caliber 5.56mm, 16-inch barrel, 1:9-inch twist
Note: Federal cases were used for all 5.56mm handloads.
Model K8-MAG, caliber .25 WSSM, 24-inch barrel, 1:10-inch twist
Note: Reformed Winchester cases were used for all .25 WSSM handloads.
screen 12 feet from the guns’ muzzle. Abbreviations: SD, standard deviation; OAL, cartridge overall length; F, Federal; R-P, Remington-Peters; BT, boattail; HP, hollow point.
ON THE TRAIL OF “SMALL DEER”WITH Allyn Tedmon
BY CLARENCE ANDERSON
When one gets down to a real honest confession of his good times, he usually ends up telling himself it was the little, inexpensive hunting trip he enjoyed most.” Every important gunwriter has on occasion addressed small game hunting, but how many became so enamored of it as to declare that “most of the shooting fun for the most of us has been had with small game”? Well-read riflemen are familiar with the work of Charles Landis, who made a science of squirrel and woodchuck sniping, and perhaps also Paul Estey, another ‘chuck specialist, but the name of their contemporary, and author of the preceding assertions, Allyn Henry Tedmon, is unknown to most twenty-first century shooters.
Republication of the books of Landis and those of other shooting authorities of the time – Crossman, Whelen, Sharpe – has perpetuated their reputations, but because Tedmon’s work, prolific though it was, appeared almost exclusively in magazines, his name has receded into obscurity and has been preserved from oblivion only by his unique association with a marque still venerated by many, the J. Stevens Arms Co.
Why resurrect the career of a writer whose work is unavailable except to collectors of vintage sporting magazines? Interest in shooting and collecting Stevens single-shots, and single-shots in general, which began to wane after WWI, has expanded enormously since Tedmon’s day. But absorbing as this may be to Stevens afficionados and small-game devotees, no less significant is his tireless, impassioned advocacy of good sportsmanship – the ethics, that is, of hunting – along with his seemingly obsessive concern with threats to the Second Amendment. Tedmon was not, of course, the only writer of the time to treat these subjects, but he was singular in his vehement insistence on them over a publishing career that commenced in 1914, if not earlier, and continued intermittently until 1959.
Champion of Stevens rifles, hunting ethicist, defender of the Second Amendement – Allyn H. Tedmon was all of these and more.
Allyn H. Tedmon Photo courtesy Jim Foral
“GANGLING PRODUCT OF THE WEST”
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