Hey Dave!!!

[abinok]

Hey Dave,
I was setting in the dining room uniforming the meplats on the 220SMKs I bought a month back. As I was thinking about how much time I have invested in each of these little gems from the two sorting steps, and meplat uniforming, it occured to me that you were going to try some sorted 175SMKs at your F class matches. Has your club started shooting yet, and have you seen any improvements?

 

[Dave King]

I just shot my 308 Win yesterday and the day before (04 and 05 June 2005).

I was at a 1000 yard competition shooting my special meplat trimmed, base to ogive checked, double everything else checked bullets. First match was a 197, second was 198 (I don't recall the "X" count). I has very little vertical dispersion but I obviously can't measure the targets. My "out" rounds were horizontal of course but I do believe the trimmed meplat makes a difference. I still need to find a place to do some long range groups onto a piece of paper I can retrieve for measurement. (I'll shoot a control group too, non-trimmed meplat.)

 

[abinok]

pretty decent shooting! Sounds like a possible this year is ... possible (pardon the pun) let us know when it finially happens.
Ive been shooting my new lot of sorted bullets. started with 500, so the groups (of bullets) are big and the groups (on paper) are small. I finially figured out that posterboard makes a pretty good center for my portable target stand. stick a shoot N see in the middle, an I can take my groups back to the house to hang on the wall.
Gongs are cool, but sometimes paper is better.

 

[Dave King]

Finally sat down (proned out actually) and tried grouping some rounds I've been shooting, meplat trimmed, RWS brass, 43.5 Varget, CCI-BR2. I shot from my bipod and sandsock.

Shot a .12 MOA 5 shot group at 200 yards.

I then tried a little ladder test to see if I could get a little more speed and keep precision. The 11 rounds all piled in on top of one another at 200 yards for a combined group of just over .7 MOA (including called bad shots, 2... you'll see them).

The squares and grid are 1".


I believe the meplat trimming helps a bit...maybe but I'm reasonable sure it does not hurt.

 

[Ian M]

Dave,
Just wondering what you do with all them meplats when you trim them off the bullet /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smirk.gif I don't gots time to worry about meplats, got lots of other good solid excuses for my lousy shooting. Did you every buy a progressive press or are you still using the Wilson?

 

[Dave King]

Ian

Meplats evaporate during trimming so there never residue. Trimming meplats is like digging holes, no matter how hard you work or how much dirt you move, it's still just a complete hole.

I still load using the Wilson dies. It's getting to where it takes me a long time to load a big batch but most of the time is preparation.

I bought a RCBS ChargeMaster 1500 thing but I still catch myself checking the thing against my analog balance every once in a while.

I trim meplats and measure base to ogive (soon to begin measuring bearing surface instead/also).

I anneal case necks.

I clean (tumble -- jiggle's more like it) the cases and have an ultrasonic cleaner on order to clean the inside too.

I check OAL against the rifle each loading session to account for wear and keep the distance to the lands at .001.

Takes a long time but it's mental health time for me, beats knitting!!

 

[abinok]

Are you getting enough velocity to make it worth the increase? It does not look like it is hurting accuracy too much.

 

[Dave King]

abinok

With my current 43.5 Varget load I get right at 2735fps average. I generally don't get too excited about shooting over the chronograph when ladder testing but once I find a good load I check it for speed.


For general info:
Federal GMM 175 and M118LR "factory" loads go about 2807fps average from this rifle. During my last match I tried some M118LR as a test from 1000 yards and shot a 199-12X with it, who da thunk that???