LabRadar - tips and tricks to keep it from missing shots anyone?

[Mike6158]

I only shot the first group and 1 from the 2nd group for the 7mm Rem Mag so nothing useful there. I shot all of the .308 groups and had some promising data.
Powder: RE15 Min: 41.6gr / Max: 46.2gr (compressed)
CCI Large Rifle Primer
New Lapua Brass No prep (not required)
Bullet: 168gr TTSX. Seated COL 2.810 (max from the book)
Book velocity range: 2,525 - 2,785 fps
I shot at targets to give me something to point the LaRadar at. I'm debating whether to shoot with the powder charge in group 9 again or just start the seating depth test. If the later then the next rounds will be into targets to check for groups by seating depth.

I'll shoot at 100 yards. My scope is getting older and even thought it's a Nightforce NXS "it's" not as sharp as it used to be at 200 yards. Might move to 200 yards at the end just to see what happens.

I'm going to start at COL and move the bullet out an as yet undetermined amount per step. I may take another stab at trying to find jam on work backwards for jam minus .020. I don't mind single shot loading some of my rifles and this is one of them.

Data from the LabRadar

Group 3 42.5gr
2,560
2,530
2,549
ES 29.62
SD 15.00

Group 6 44.0gr
2,650
2,624
2,647
ES 26.1
SD 14.29

Group 7 44.5gr Not terrible
2,687
2,685
2,680
ES 7.18
SD 3.69

Forgot to start a new series on group 10 so these were combined and the LabRadar didn't give me ES or SD for the 3 shot strings.

Group 9 45.5gr I really like this one
2,739
2,741
2,741
ES na
SD na

Group 10 46.0gr
2,748
2,737
2,738
ES na
SD na

The missing groups had ES and SD higher than the worst of this set of groups.

 

[Mike6158]

Welp... Since my 7mm test was a bust due to issues with the rife I decided to regroup <--- intentional pun. I've determined where jam is and I measured it 3 ways (because I could. I'm only going to use one of the measurement methods).
Jam
COAL: 3.381" - not using this. The Barnes 150gr TTSX COAL is 2.810
Base to Ogive comparator: 2.721" This my second choice.
RCBS Precision MIC Gauge: 1.300 First choice. Easy to use and repeats well

I took the time to set maximum length to 0 on my Forster Ultra micrometer seating die. I'm fairly certain that the word ultra adds about 10 fps to each load. Not really.

Now all I need to do is set .020" under jam, actually .021" and load a full powder test with that. Once I pick a powder charge with a good ES I can start looking for a seating depth node. But that's not what I'm going to do. I shot 4 out of the original test series. I'll load those .020" under jam and use the for sighters. I could pull bullets, dump powder, and start all over but I'm not going to. I should be able to pick a good ES from what I have loaded and develop with that and the .020" shorter than jam (and shorter). I'm also going to move in to 100 yards. Once I get something I like I'll try it at 300 yards too. I'll be done then right. With the 7mm maybe, but I'd really like to find a good long range load with some Berger VLD's.

Done with the .308? Yeah nah... I found some 175gr Barnes LRX's that work with the twist rate of my barrel. And there's still the hunt for a good long range load with Berger VLD's. Sooo... I'll get one load worked up for the .308 and TTSX's then start working on the LRX's.

"The road goes on forever and the party never ends".

Brass, bullet, primers, and powder stock always seems to be limited but I found something even more limited. Time. I'm about to go through the same process with the .308 but I probably won't get to shoot any until next weekend at best. On the upside, I should be off a full week at the end of the month. Rain will cause to me to adjust my plans. Hopefully that won't be the case anymore.

 

[Mike6158]

Numbers from today's outing with the 7mag. The LabRadar collected all of the data points so that was nice. It didn't store them to the sim card but they are on my phone, not so nice. Arming / disarming with the phone worked every time. That's a handy feature.

With a little brute force (typing) I got everything into a spreadsheet. I don't know of this will be legible on all monitors. You will likely notice that there is a gap between 64.6gr and 66.7gr. Sticking with the 0.3 grain increments there are 6 charges that I didn't test. So, I'm not done with powder testing yet. I had one load, 67.0gr., that had an SD of 8.62, ES 16.12. The first charge ES is supposed to be 18.98 not 183.98. I just caught that. The results were not terrible.

4-ish gr spread with the missing loads falling in the 2nd third-ish. I'm going to load the orphans just to be sure I'm not missing a charge that's better than SD of 8.62.

I didn't take the .308 because I wanted to get an AR (.223) sighted in and tested with my Sandman-L. Having the .308 and the 7mm Rem Mag plus the AR would've been a pita if the range had been full. It turned out that I was the only one there for about 3 or 4 hours. The AR test went fine. If I put my Sandman-L on my .300 BLK the rounds go off target by a few feet left and 18" down. No baffle or end cap strikes. I used a Geissele alignment rod to check concentricity and that was fine. Sort of. Mike at Dead Air says it should have .020' clearance between the rod and end cap and it doesn't unless he meant .020" total. That's a problem for another thread.

I will add this... shooting suppressed then forgetting to put hearing protection on when shooting an AR or 7 mag will ring your bell big time. Do you know what they say about that? Don't do that. (I used to tell my kids that all the time lol).

Here's some shots from the range. It was cool, overcast, with occasional spotty rain. And I had it to myself. I shot one of my pistols when I was waiting for the rifle to cool down. And I always have my CZ457, suppressed with a Dead Air Mask, with me when I go. I shoot subs at 100. Most of the time I can see them arcing into the target in the scope. The little CZ has a nice trigger.
The big orange box is my battery pack. It might be a bit bigger than I need

The little CZ quietly waiting it's turn

 

[Mike6158]

I had another range day for the .300 BLK and 7mm Rem Mag. I wanted to shoot everything with the LabRadar but I got a memory error. It looked like this on the screen (wait for it. This isn't a LabRadar rant or problem for that matter).

I won't type what I said when this popped up. I didn't troubleshoot the problem else I probably would have caught that the... wait... for... it... little slidey thing that write protects the card was set to locked. How? Obviously I fumble fingered it when I put it back in after I looked for my files and didn't find them. The LabRadar won't start up without the memory card so I don't think that's why there was no data from the test prior to this one on it. Thankfully it was on my phone. The LabRadar still has all of the data to date and I formatted the SD card so clearly I don't understand how it stores data. I sure would have liked to seen all 30 rounds from today in the LabRadar but I'm to blame for that. One powder charge and 10 different seating depths spaced out in .003 increments (longest to smaller, not smallest). Next time.

The test went fine. It was a bit windy, variable not gusting, so I had to pay attention to the when I shot. I'm going to reshoot a couple of the loads because the groups were nice and then shot 3 went a minute or more to the left on the same elevation. I'll load 5 each (total of 10) of what I think may be a node and shoot at 200 and 300. We'll see about shooting at 300 too. I may save that for the final choice. 200 will tell a good story. I may scan the targets in and post them. I used a target for each group. I let the barrel cool between each group. I had a .300 BLK Ruger American bolt action to sight in and I needed to sight in my suppressed CZ (.22 LR) at 50 yards and then check it at 100 with subs and supers so I would know where to aim. I put 12,000 steps in according to my watch. That's a lot of target checking.

I had 3 sighters left so I dialed up 300 and rang steel with those. Things are coming along...

 

[RegionRat]

If you have a different memory card, it would be worth a try.
Take a close examination of the card you tried to use. Does it work in "any laptop"?
Make sure the memory card doesn't have a physical lock or a software password protection that would prevent the LR from reading and writing.

 

[Mike6158]

If you have a different memory card, it would be worth a try.
Take a close examination of the card you tried to use. Does it work in "any laptop"?
Make sure the memory card doesn't have a physical lock or a software password protection that would prevent the LR from reading and writing.

It's a long tedious post but if you read the part under the photo I found that the card was locked. Had I checked for that at the range I would have my data. Lessons learned and all that.

 

[QuietTexan]

You can take the card out and run on internal memory also.

 

[Mike6158]

I'm pretty sure that I tried pulling the card and it popped the same screen up but my memory isn't to be trusted. Especially after getting shoved around by a 7mag 30 times. I've tested it with the card unlocked. It should work. I may go back today and home in on the best 5 groups. I feel like the wind messed with the L-R orientation for a couple of groups that were otherwise very small.

 

[Mike6158]

I think I figured the bluetooth problem out (latest firmware btw). Bluetooth dropped out 3 times yesterday. None a few weeks ago. The difference is that I plugged my phone into the same 40Ah battery pack that I use to power the LabRadar a few weeks ago. That put the phone in front of the LabRadar on my right vs in front of me on the left. Or that was a coincidence.

The problems I had were not a concern because I was just shooting some loads that I made 6 or 7 years ago and didn't have documentation for. I also hauled my .338 Edge out. It hasn't been shot in a long time. I always tell people how easy it is to shoot. I think someone slipped some Viagra into the bullets I was shooting, also old loads. Between sending 25 rounds downrange with the 7mm Rem Mag and shooting a 1/2 dozen through the .338 Edge I was feeling pretty beat up by the end of yesterday. To top it off I went over to the pistol range and sighted the red dot on my 9mm in and shot the 10mm with some reloads that have been in a Dillon box for a good 15 years. My sons were in the USAF when I bought the Dillon. The 10mm rounds were hot and very unpleasant to shoot. I used my MantisX in live fire mode for the first time. I think I like that thing.

10 yard target. I didn't take a photo of the 40 yard target. I hit it but that's about all I'll say about that. The first six from the 9mm hit the center. That was shooting from a rest. The Red Dot was on so not much sighting in was done. None actually. The off target splatter is old shots into the backboard.