.243 Win 105 Amax & 95 Berger VLD loads?

[bailey1474]

Managed to get away this evening and shoot a few of each bullet with various charges of H4350. Both were seated .020" into lands.

I could not get the Bergers to group very well. They only shot around 1 MOA @ 100 and 250 yds which is just not good enough for me. They seemed to shoot the best w/45 grains. I may play with the seating depth and see if I can improve the groups a little. May also try some RL 22 w/them.

The Amax on the other hand shot very well. They shot better than the Bergers w/all powder charges. I haven't measured the groups yet but 43 and 44 grains both produced groups of .5" or less @100 yds. The 44 gr group would have measured <.4" if I would not have pulled the third shot. I shot a fourth and it stacked right in with the first two.

I'm going to do a little more testing with the Amax Friday evening and see what they do @ greater distances. Hopefully will get to chrono them also. If they do well I'm going to try for a 600 and 700 yd prarie dog Sunday!!

Thanks for all the advice, guys.
B.J.

 

[goodgrouper]

Sounds good Bill. I am not surprised that the Amax shot better at 100 yards. They are much less radical of a shape and have a longer bearing surface. The Berger 95's are shaped like nothing else, and seem to be finicky in rifles. But if you can get them to shoot, they will shave almost 2 minutes off your traj at 1k. I would definetly try them both again, only this time at 500 yards because the Bergers might just need a little more distance to settle down.

Also, one other little word of advice: Measure all the Amax's bearing surfaces within the lot, and expect different lots to be WAY different lengths. I have had Amax's vary .008" in ogive length on bullets from the same box!

If you want to see how all these bullets stack up according to consistency, run a search on a thread I started called, "how the popular 6mm bullets stack up." You might find it interesting. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif

 

[bailey1474]

Goodgrouper,

I shot all 5 shells I loaded w/the Bergers and 45 gr @ 250 yds. Three of them stack right in with each other <1". The other two were fliers that were about 4" higher, but right next to each other. Any ideas on why? I don't claim to be the best shot but I really don't think I pulled them, especially not that bad.

Thanks,
B.J.

PS- There was little to no wind also.

 

[goodgrouper]

The Bergers must also be checked for ogive length. They are usually much better than the Amax in consistency, but can still vary .004".

DId you measure and segregate these 5 bullets?

Also, it is hard to get a good judge on a bullet just by shooting 5 at that close of a range. Move on out a little with a load that clocks good uniform velocities and shoot a 10 shot group. That will tell you more.

 

[jb1000br]

FYI a buddy was measuring bearing surface on some 95gn bergers -- varied 30 thou! yep, 0.030"

worst variences i have heard or seen!

I have measured 140 amax myself--out of 100 they were fairly evenly split into 2 groups 0.001 apart -- i was impressed!

so what does this mean?

CHECK EM ALL! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif

YMMV,
JB

 

[goodgrouper]

Just goes to show that everyone is capable of producing lemons!

I too have had some lots of Hornady's be very good, but on average, there is a reason why Hornady's are almost half the price of Sierra's and Bergers.

 

[bailey1474]

Took the 105's to prairie dog town today. Great results!!! Got a confirmed kill @ 680 yds and an uncofirmed @ just over 700 yds with many kills of 500 and in. Not sure if I killed the one @ 700. He was in some tall grass and just dissapeared after the shot. Those 105's will explode on contact. Got one @ 500 and gave him some serious airtime!!

Lerch and I are getting a little better each time out. The first 400 is almost a gimme now.

We took some great pics and got some of the kills on video. We'll post the pics tomorrow and if someone would be kind enough to tell me how to post a video I would appreciate it. There is one hit that you'll have to see to believe!!!

Thanks for all the advice. I think I've got a decent load worked up. Not going to give up on the Bergers just yet though.

B.J.