Load Analysis, Your assistance would be greatly appreciated

[L.Sherm]

From everything I've read and researched Remingtons 308 chambers are not saami they just put a crap load of freebore in them.

 

[birdiemc]

"Oh you meant SAAMI, hell I thought you said Sammy, better recall them....nah never mind, what's it matter, dummy's will still buy em?"

 

[L.Sherm]

LOL

 

[Canhunter35]

I'm definitely going to be jumping quite a bit no matter what with the 168, I dont have the numbers in front of me right now, but I did check with 220 eld-x seated at same COAL to fit in the magazine and I was .160 something off the lands. So the 168 I would imagine is going to be farther back still and I'll run out of neck before I hit the lands.
Right now I'm not compressing the powder at all. You say I'm not maximizing case fill. Are you saying the max case fill (slightly compressed charge) will provide better es/sd? Please explain, I'm trying to wrap my head around it.

Generally yes, a case near max fill will perform more consistently than a case with an air pocket shifting around inside it. It's not the end all be all, but that's why varget is popular with a 308. Near max case fill it usually gives great predictable accuracy if its on your node. Don't fret about, let the targets tell you.
Goodluck

 

[DUSTY NOGGIN]

Generally yes, a case near max fill will perform more consistently than a case with an air pocket shifting around inside it. It's not the end all be all, but that's why varget is popular with a 308. Near max case fill it usually gives great predictable accuracy if its on your node. Don't fret about, let the targets tell you.
Goodluck

next time you are seating bullets in a load workup , where the data/powder you chose has the capability of 100% case fill, remember that charge weight when you first heard/felt crunching while seating ... alot of times i will find that point showing tight accuracy ... BUT , like stated above you still need to shoot em to see what the target says

 

[birdiemc]

Thanks guys. Interested to play around with this as soon as I get a chance.

 

[birdiemc]

Whole family is gone for the day so I got plenty of time to mess around in the shop, decided to turn some necks on my lathe so I threw on the 4-jaw and ground a tool to be able to take a light cut bout .0005", ground the angle to let me just kiss the shoulder, takes a while but works pretty darn good. I broke my indicator stand for my 0.0001" indicator so I can only check with my 0.001" indicator but I'm at least .0005" accurate doing it this way. Like I said, takes forever but I got nothing but time today, and anxious to see if neck Turing makes much difference for me personally. Especially before spending any more money on reloading equipment. Had to get scoped and rings for 2 new guns (1 for me and one for the wife) so my play money is tapped for a while. I'll report back once I can ever get a chance to shoot.

 

[birdiemc]

Well I tried 44gr at COAL 2.810 (close to Canhunter's suggestion) it was terrible.
The rest were loaded at 45.1gr, was shooting for original CBTO length of 2.308 and decreasing in .015 increments. But I ended up at 2.303 on my first so went with that, then 2.295 and down from there in .015 increments as planned. Started at the bottom hoping to find something that just impressed the heck out of me, then I could just push the remaining bullets in to that depth...no good. They were all so terrible I didnt even measure except for 2.303 which gave me .792" three shot group. So I'm guessing .015 was way too big a jump. Previously with 45.2 I had a group size .634" with bullet seated to 2.308".
On a side note the 2.303 had trouble feeding from my magazine today so that creates a whole new problem for me.

 

[L.Sherm]

Its obviously not liking more jump, seat them out farther and see if it shoots better
Dont worry how much bullets in the neck just test it that's the only way your gonna know and if it's better may be worth a wyatts extend box if it works and your satisfied with it.

 

[Silly_Ghillie]

I know this is probably arbitrary, but I have a few simple suggestions.
check your action screws and play with the torque and see if that changes anything, sometimes I have found that the harmonics of a load really depended on the mating tension of the action to the stock. take your best load and run a couple groups with 5 in/lb. reduced or added.
I also know that some commercial brass is horribly diverse with its internal volume- specifically federal. I don't know if you are weighing them or not- but I would try and get a couple set aside that are within a grain of each other and try those.
It was an earlier suggestion by someone else that it is a brass issue and I have a hunch that might be what it is.
that is what I would try if I were in your current position.

 

[birdiemc]

I played with action screw torque with FGGM 168's along with a whole bunch of other stuff to finally get it to group just under 1 MOA. That's where the federal brass is from. I guess it still could be an issue perhaps, but I'm kinda thinking I need to play with longer seating depth like Sherm said.

 

[Silly_Ghillie]

I played with action screw torque with FGGM 168's along with a whole bunch of other stuff to finally get it to group just under 1 MOA

Maybe I am just lucky, I don't know- but it seems to me you should have found a good node by now with everything you have tried. Definitely try Sherm's idea-

 

[Canhunter35]

Well I tried 44gr at COAL 2.810 (close to Canhunter's suggestion) it was terrible.
The rest were loaded at 45.1gr, was shooting for original CBTO length of 2.308 and decreasing in .015 increments. But I ended up at 2.303 on my first so went with that, then 2.295 and down from there in .015 increments as planned. Started at the bottom hoping to find something that just impressed the heck out of me, then I could just push the remaining bullets in to that depth...no good. They were all so terrible I didnt even measure except for 2.303 which gave me .792" three shot group. So I'm guessing .015 was way too big a jump. Previously with 45.2 I had a group size .634" with bullet seated to 2.308".
On a side note the 2.303 had trouble feeding from my magazine today so that creates a whole new problem for me.

Sorry for leading you astray, hopefully you'll find something that works for you

 

[birdiemc]

Sorry for leading you astray, hopefully you'll find something that works for you

Lol, hey it was worth a shot.