My bad typo 80gr
How often do you find its the bullet not the powder combo your gun likes?
- Thread starter coop2564
- Start date
Help Support Long Range Hunting Forum
VarmintBob
Well-Known Member
100% of the time my rifle shoots well with whatever components I load for it. Since it is inanimate, my rifle cannot "like" anything.
Huntnful
Well-Known Member
Yep, you're absolutely right. I.must have had a brain fart when I typed it up. For some reason I can't edit my post to correct it, but everywhere I said tangent should say secant.
comfisherman
Well-Known Member
I tend to agree with you op, barrels seem to like bullets more than powder combos. I've also had the converse be true... built a 7 rum specifically for the long bullets available at that time. Probably shot half the barrel life trying to get one to shoot... nada. Took 5 160 partition loads from another 7 rum and shot the best group of my life with them. Proceeded to shoot the rest of the barrel out with 160 partitions out of a rifle specifically chambered for uld bullets... go figure.
Man I don't know. Every caliber I've shot Cutting Edge bullets in has been stupid easy to tune.I'm going to assume we're not talking about the same thing here haha. I do know that total bearing surface technically shouldn't matter to intrinsic accuracy potential…my non-technical experience as an imperfect shooter, loader, using imperfect equipment and probably in an imperfect field toohas however been that bullets with very short bearing surfaces (as in total contact with the rifling - now grooved or bore riding or drive band bullets are different, just talking cup and cores here mostly) DO require more fiddling around to find accurate loads with. Not that their inherently less accurate, but they're less "easily accurate" as in slap a load together and go shoot.
Sort of like how some cartridges are "inherently accurate" and some are notoriously fussy. It doesn't mean that the fussy ones aren't capable of being every bit as accurate as the easy ones, but the often require more trial and error to find that accuracy and don't shoot lights out with whatever you feed them. The .308s I've worked with you'd just about have to deliberately try to make them shoot poorly with dang near anything you feed them. The .220 swift is no less accurate…provided you feed it 4064 under 55 grain flat bases haha.
ABLR has been by far the most finicky bullet I've ever tried to tune. I should have given up a long time ago but I guess I'm too hard headed. I also like the concept of the bullet so maybe that keeps me trying.
MagnumManiac
Well-Known Member
I figured this out early on. I had some Rem ammo and sighted in for it. Ran out and bought what I could find, win super xx. It shot left and up about 4 inches same group just different bullet at 100 yards. That's why I only shoot my own reloads now.
MagnumManiac
Well-Known Member
What did you figure out? I am confused.
A change in POI is not a bullet thing, it is a barrel time thing. No 2 loads, even with the same bullet weight will hit the same point on target, just isn't going to happen very often, if at all.
Cheers.
I'm working with my 6.5 Grendel right now. Been trying different bullets and powder combo's. And I've come to the conclusion, that if a bullet has to have a prefect node to shoot well, I'm done with it. What I keep seeing in rifle after rifle is, when I find the right bullet nodes do not mean near as much. Meaning with the right bullet over two grains of powder I get good groups, yes I see a variance but its slight. .8moa to .5moa with say .3gr jumps, but it will not jump out of 1moa with that right bullet, but with the wrong bullet may go from 1.5moa to 1moa to .5moa then node out back to .8moa to 1.7moa. In past I was often happy to settle with that .5mao with that bullet/powder combo. But then often it wouldn't hold that accuracy due to temps, powder lot changes, etc.. But what I'm finding is with that right bullet that it wants to shoot great across a wide range of powder, without those big node swings. It just shoots near perfect regardless of conditions. If temp is hot that day and my velocity is up 60fps it still 1moa or less. Where with some loads I've used in past that were in that sweet spot node the day I tested, that same 60fps change would make me shoot 1.25moa at best, because my velocity change has me out or on edge of that sweet spot. But that bullet that it just likes, that change doesn't do as much. I realize some target shooters can tweak loads as they go, but for me as a hunter. Having a bullet my gun just really likes is more important to me than high BC finicky bullets. My Grendel is loving it some Hammer Hunters both 85gr, 99gr and gold dot 120gr. Every group working .3gr jumps with TAC or CFE223 shoots a little under moa to as small as .25 moa. It shoots 123SST's like crap 2moa on occasion but I can get it to .7moa with that perfect combo. But not going to waste anymore time on it. The gold dot has never shot 2 moa or even 1.5moa with any powder. The barrel just likes that bullet.
My experience has been both powder and the bullet can be the problem. I have had problems getting the 190 ABLR to group until I found the perfect seating depth in 30-06 AI. For that bullet it was deep with a long jump, but I got sub .5 moa. Components were scarce so I used 4064 to continue seating depth test so I wouldn't run out of RL 23 after burning a lot of RL 23 looking. I went back to RL 23 after finding the depth. RL 23 never shot as well as the 4064, barely MOA, but good enough for that fall. I would have stayed with 4064, but it was 200 fps slower.
I've switched to 200 Bergers and 6.5 Staball. Almost every charge and any depth are sub MOA. Tuning both tightened it up. I plan to try 6.5 Staball with the ABLR to see if it will change anything, but haven't yet.
I've switched to 200 Bergers and 6.5 Staball. Almost every charge and any depth are sub MOA. Tuning both tightened it up. I plan to try 6.5 Staball with the ABLR to see if it will change anything, but haven't yet.
bomberodevil
Well-Known Member
The most difficult bullet I tried to load and eventually gave up on was the 190 grain .308 caliber AB Long Range for my 30.06. I know I was at the edge of bullet instability concerning barrel twist, so it's not a huge shock it didn't work. But I tried a bunch.
Every other hunting load I've developed for 5 different cartridges, I've started with a bullet well known for stability and terminal performance, and then I can almost always find a couple of accuracy nodes for them with stable powders. It's just finding the MV that the barrel likes.
Nosler AB, Partition, and BT, and Hornady ELD-X, SST have all been fairly easy to get loads close to 0.5 moa, and usually below.
Every other hunting load I've developed for 5 different cartridges, I've started with a bullet well known for stability and terminal performance, and then I can almost always find a couple of accuracy nodes for them with stable powders. It's just finding the MV that the barrel likes.
Nosler AB, Partition, and BT, and Hornady ELD-X, SST have all been fairly easy to get loads close to 0.5 moa, and usually below.
Last edited:
What's confusing? Two different batches of ammo, even from the same manufacturer can have a different impact point. People that rely on over the counter ammo, that buy "what's available" aren't aware of this.
