Load Development Ruger Precision Rifle .243

[buckfvr]

So, yes its a great cat and a fine mount.....I helped Joe get it loaded and then hung on his wall with the help of another friend because of the injury to Joes arm. I mention this because the injury also made it possible for me to be invited to shoot in place of Joe as partner of another friend.

The long range shoot was casual but private, and observed all normal protocal and safety rules. Two man teams was the rule, 10 team limit, 8 teams participated.

The shoot took place here in north east Washingtons mountainous region that provides challenges of the extreme nature, especially on the targets from 1000 to 1250 yards. There were a couple novelty targets which required a mix of exterme precision and luck. Also, they set up three double or nothing targets that were of particular fun and challenge.

So in the spirit of it being beyond fun, and a great way to spend a saturday, Ill only say that my partner and I finished very near the top as a team and personally, but emphasis would be most highly placed on the experience overall first, and personally, second.

My main point would be that I was using the .243 I posted here after we developed Joes, and that it shoots nearly exactly the same load with the same unbelievable results. I will add the mix of rain, fog, hail and snow prevented any of us from a notable performance on the longest targets, but that lower on the hill where there at times was little to no wind, many of the rifles performed with amazing accuracy.

So in the end, my Savage action, Benchmark barreled gun was as good as any gun there, as was a Ruger RPR in .243 being shot by another shooter. SO........you can be enoying this fast growing sport even if you cant afford a custom rifle. Taking a capable "Box" gun 2 the "Bench" can deliver incredible results with serious reloading technique and honed shooting skills. Affordable and relatively easy with all the information on line and in load manuals. Russ

 

[jdmecomber]

In the spirit of one shot kills!

This is something to think about. We are not talking tactical or speed or conditions. Just what scope can dial closer to the bullseye

Scopes
Mil
.250 moa
.125 moa

Here are your options. Your shooting 1000 yards. It doesn't matter if you can even adjust for these errors. It's just math. I am not bringing shooting conditions into this at all.

Let's say this is a grading scale percentage 100% being the best. This is the ability of the rifle to dial a bullseye and the max amount of error you can have.

The mil scope starts out with a 82% so your at an 18% disadvantage
1 mil is 3.6 inches at 100.
1 mill is 36 inches at 1000
Example. Your scope dials tenths

So there are 3.6 inches per click .1
If your solution calls for 10.15 mils, Your options are 10.1 or 10.2 so your error would be .05 mills that you cant dial. Which would be half of 3.6 inches or 1.8 inches.

So your ability to dial a perfect bullseye, the max error would 1.8" away from the bullseye.

.250 moa scopes
Start out at an 86.91% so they have a max error of 1.309 inches.

True moa
1 moa at 100 yards is 1.047 inches
1 moa at 1000 yards is 10.472

So your scope dials .25 moa clicks
Let's say your solution calls for 24.375 moa, You can dial 24.25 or 24.5. So your max amount of error is .125 moa which calculated at 1000 is. 1.309"

So your ability to dial a perfect bullseye, the max error would be 1.309 " away from the bullseye.

.125 moa Scopes start out at 93.51% so they have a max error of .649 inches

1 moa at 1000 yards is 10.472 inches

If your solution calls for 24.937 You can dial 24.875 or 25. So 24.937 is in the middle of those two so the max amount of error you have is .649 inches at 1000 yards.

I know lots of stuff is involved with shooting. I like to take as much error out of everything I do. Fun fact to look at

 

[jdmecomber]

Here's some more stuff that I think about.

Let's say your zero is off at 100 yards by
.125". At 1000 it's approximately 1.25"

Also let's say you do ok with your reloading and your max velocity spread is 25 fps. Not even talking about factory ammo
Your shooting a 7 mag with 168 vld at 2968. You have a 25 fps hotter round at 2993 fps.

Your drop at 1000 with some random conditions and zero at 2968 is 249.32 inches. At 2993 it's 244.50 inches, that leaves you with high shot at 4.82 inch.

Throw in some max scope error of 1.3"
Improper zero error. 1.25"
Ammo extreme spread 4.82 "

Just this max error of 7.37"

Now your trying to hit a 10" plate at 1000 yards, and we haven't even calculated anything else.

Just the kind of things I think about

Hope this helps

 

[Barrelnut]

Thank goodness most errors don't stack to the extreme. Lots of times the counter each other. In theory anyway, I guess.

 

[brentc]

Also let's say you do ok with your reloading and your max velocity spread is 25 fps. Not even talking about factory ammo
Your shooting a 7 mag with 168 vld at 2968. You have a 25 fps hotter round at 2993 fps.

Your drop at 1000 with some random conditions and zero at 2968 is 249.32 inches. At 2993 it's 244.50 inches, that leaves you with high shot at 4.82 inch.

Throw in some max scope error of 1.3"
Improper zero error. 1.25"
Ammo extreme spread 4.82 "

Just this max error of 7.37"

Now your trying to hit a 10" plate at 1000 yards, and we haven't even calculated anything else.

Just the kind of things I think about

Hope this helps

The only thing I can think of that may be of note is that someone that knows they have a 25 fps spread would most likely calculate a ballistic solution using the mean velocity. So instead of a full extreme spread error it would be around half of the spread depending the sample size measured.

 

[buckfvr]

I like to be optimistic as I shoot my mils scope............

 

[jdmecomber]

Lol

 

[jdmecomber]

That would be correct Brentc. Just doesn't take much error in velocity to really throw your group

 

[PNW EOD]

I got my cat back already. I think it looks pretty good

How was the hide after the shot? Any major exit wound to fix up?

 

[jdmecomber]

Hide was pretty good. 105vld made a quarter size hole at the exit

 

[buckfvr]

No trace of in or out showing........far as I could see.

 

[PNW EOD]

That's awesome man. I've always been worried about shooting on on the off chance I see one while in the woods and having the wrong rifle with me. I don't know if I would pull the trigger with a cannon in fear of leaving a huge hole. I think the biggest I'd go is my 6.5X284 or 6.5 Creed

 

[Shootin4fun]

Velocities were tested with a Magnetto sporter which is great, those 100$ chronographs are junk is what were found out. The magnetto does appear to have some effect on your bullet

First of all, thanks for posting this extensive write up. That was a lot of work. I didn't read every entry but the one above interested me, as I've heard it befor and would like to understand why you reached that conclusion.

I shoot over a ProChrono and wonder about its accuracy/consistency sometims, but nevertheless have found it to be a big help. I often have "horrible" ES in loads that shoot under .5MOA at 100 (50fps), and often shoot .3 MOA at 300. But I do get fliers and I'm not 100% consistent which bugs me. All out of standard guns with sporter hunting barrels. So I wonder if the velocities are actually different or it's me and my shooting.

I have run one kind of test on the ProChrono- Shoot some groups with it at 15', then shoot the same gun/ammo through it with the chrono in front of the target at 100 and 200 yards. The distant measurements are almost exactly what the balistics program tells me it should be at that range, temp, alt, bar pressure.

I designed an built my own chrono using the same design as the ProChrono back in '86 but never commercialized it.

But whether the 1' long dual sensor design is inherently problematic is another story. If you do the math, the angular difference of different bullet paths can affect the reported velocity significantly. Last year came up with another design to account for the angular difference but never built it, too much trouble. Come on, LabRadar is the ultimate way to go, but as Joe Pesche says at the end of "Casino", "It's the dollars, it's always the dollars." ;-)

 

[buckfvr]

So all the info we gained through the development of several rifles is in this post towards the beginning.....We did notice marked improvement in our es when we switched from two shooting chrony style units to our Magnetos. We even put both the old style units in the same diffused box platform end to end and endoed them, and always had different readings, at times by a rediculous amount.

Another significant es event occured when we turned necks and went to neck sizing only with bushings.......neck tension is significant. We uniform our brass in all manner with out exception.

We also learned that indeed, H powders do produce the best results from the hot/cold test, so we tend to lean towards developing H powders now. When you do test different powders, try and compare similar burn rates and be sure to test and compare at the same velocity.

Also, more to come on this subject once we get new/old scales, but powder measuring equipment can certainly cause consistancy issues......we are trying to get our hands on a couple beam scales from Scott Parker ( one kernal scales ) purported to be thee most accurate thing going. We will test and compare them to our Gem Pro 250s. R