Load development methods...

[mixerdriverm]

Anyone have any suggestions

I can not get the bergers to shoot out of either of my remington 700's. I started with 64 grains of H-1000 and worked up in .5 increments to 75 grains, and adjusted the depths from the lands, to .040 off to .080 off to .120 off and I can not get any accuracy out of them much less any consieintcy out of them. I have sent over 200 down range and have 150 left. If I can not get them to shoot with the next 150, I am going back to Noslers. The groups at all charges and depths are 4-5 inches at 100 yds. With the Noslers and Speers I am right at .5-.75 at 100

 

[elkaholic]

More often than not the Bergers like to be seated INTO the lands. I seat mine .020" into the lands and they shoot 1/4-1/2". As long as you don't exceed .020", they should extract without sticking in the lands. Try it, you'll like it........Rich

 

[joe0121]

I seat the bullets roughly 10 thou off the lands and go.....

Again, simplicity to the extreme. This seems to be about as good as it gets for the SMK bullets. I realize that the Berger bullets tend to prefer to be seated into the lands but with the sharp ogive and my throat design, I find that once the bore has a few rounds down it and a bit of carbon fouling, the bullet can be gripped tightly by the origins of the lands and at times pull the bullet from the case if a loaded round is not fired and extracted. As such, I also load the Bergers off the lands so this problem is resolved. Again, my rifles are big game hunting rifles so getting a bullet stuck in the bore is not an option in the field.

I agree. I seat .010 off as well. I dont play with seating depth much. I use OCW and once I find the load usually in 20 rounds or less. Changing seating depth doesn't net any better results. Plus I like shooting at steel far far away more then I like sitting at a bench for hours. Once I get 1/2 MOA in the OCW zone I stop. Why burn the Barell out even if you get from 1/2 to 0 MOA you are still only talking about 5 inches at 1000 yards.

I sat down one day and really thought about it. 1/2 MOA is all I can really expect of myself or any human being in the field not shooting bench rest but actual real life in the field situations. So if the rifle shoot that well why mess with it.

As it Happens my WM is a 1/4 MOA rifle from a shaky bench on a windy day with me being the weakest part.

.308 is MOA or better with cheap wal-mart ammo so I have no doubts once I decide on bullet and powder I will get it to 1/2 MOA.

I think people spend too much time working on accurate loads when they should be working on becoming an accurate shooter.