Load Development Ruger Precision Rifle .243

[buckfvr]

So I figure the barrel life issue has a lot to do with the velocity at which you choose to run each caliber. If you keep the 6.5 in the 2700 fps zone, sure you will see the difference between the 6mm 105gr in the 3k fps zone. Speed up the 6.5 as many do, and slow down the 6mm like some do and those numbers may likely be much closer than 800 rounds. Over bore is as bad or worse comparing the 6.5-.284 and the .243 win., for example.

 

[RonS]

Well I obviously have a lot to learn! Especially since it sure looks like I have an accidental double post I don't know how to edit out here!

On the other hand, If I'm not mistaken Bryan Litz in a recent book of his speaks very highly of 100 yard testing, so that's sounds like a good place to start for us public range guys.

They may be out there but I've never met anyone who did their load development at other than 100 yards. Beyond that too many external factors come into play. It becomes difficult to be sure that the behavior witnessed is the load or something else. The exception might be 338 Lapua and up where not much effects it up to 300 yards and may actually let it stabilize.

P.S. Sorry guys but I gave up on the 243 barrel in the RPR. Pretty much burned the barrel trying different powders, different primers, different bullets, different seating depths and the best I could consistently get was 1 MOA. Many would be happy with that but in F Class 1/4 MOA is the goal and 1/2 MOA is easily achievable in other calibers. Swapped to a 30 inch 308 barrel in 1:8 twist (you read that correctly) and am engaged in trying to get it to shoot 230 grain Bergers. May get a 6 Dasher, 6 XC or 6 Creedmoor barrel for it down the road. Love the platform. Especially with the Timney trigger.

 

[Mark W]

It sucks that your .243 RPR barrel wouldn't shoot. I'm nearing 900 rounds through mine and it's still shooting sub 1/2 moa groups with 107 Matchkings and H4831SC.

 

[LDHunter]

I didn't read this whole thread but I'll take exception to one statement quoted from Berger in the first post in this thread.

"berger will tell you most powders can be developed into a good load and all powders are temperature sensitive."

My testing with Varget and Reloder 15 a few years ago at both 90 degrees and another day at 34 degrees with the barrel being cooled several minutes between each shot and no rounds left in the chamber until just before it was shot yielded a little over 100fps difference with Reloder 15 and right at 20fps difference with Varget.

The rifle was a 20" barreled Model Seven in 308 Winchester and the bullet used was a 150gr Nosler Partition.

There is a LOT of voodoo and a lot of good information floating around about load development and this thread is full of good information. I wish I had the time to chase the "perfect load" like I used to have. <sigh>

 

[jdmecomber]

I purchased a couple new products.
The Sig 2200 range finder. Easily can get out to 2000 yards. Haven't tested it any farther yet

I also got a Nightforce Competition 15-55. I mounted it yesterday. So far, the glass quality easily tops the vortex golden eagle. The golden eagle is still a pretty good scope for the money, but side by side the NF wins

I had the Nightforce on a couple deer yesterday at 830 yards with just a couple minutes of light left and was able to have the scope on 45x. It's my first almost Tier 1 optic
It should be a fun scope

There is supposedly an 8 twist benchmark barrel coming for the 7 Mag. I will be able to shoot the 195 EOLs. That will be a pretty fun

 

[buckfvr]

I also changed a few things, went with some new PMA tools for turning necks and trimming cases, got all the cutters and mandrels plus expander mandrel die so I can do .308 cartridge family, creedmoors, and standard magnum cartridges. I also rigged an old sears variable speed drill motor up to a stand and switch to turn cases.

I also swapped out the 5.5-22x56 nxs for the 8-32x56 nxs on my .243. Very nice indeed. Its already back dialed in and ready to shoot some steel as we are setting up about 16 targets and preparing to meet the challenge of a few of the guys in the hills around here that all claim to be the best. Well actually its only Joe whos making that claim.........)

 

[jdmecomber]

I spent my weekend being a range officer for the Snipers Hide Cup here in Colville, Washington. Everything appeared to go really well, a mix of competitiors. Swat snipers, active duty guys, local guys and some travelers. The gear needed for all the different positions was an eye opener. It was good times. The only bad part was my partner and I were running the combat pistol stage

 

[Mike 338]

They may be out there but I've never met anyone who did their load development at other than 100 yards. Beyond that too many external factors come into play. It becomes difficult to be sure that the behavior witnessed is the load or something else. The exception might be 338 Lapua and up where not much effects it up to 300 yards and may actually let it stabilize.

P.S. Sorry guys but I gave up on the 243 barrel in the RPR. Pretty much burned the barrel trying different powders, different primers, different bullets, different seating depths and the best I could consistently get was 1 MOA. Many would be happy with that but in F Class 1/4 MOA is the goal and 1/2 MOA is easily achievable in other calibers. Swapped to a 30 inch 308 barrel in 1:8 twist (you read that correctly) and am engaged in trying to get it to shoot 230 grain Bergers. May get a 6 Dasher, 6 XC or 6 Creedmoor barrel for it down the road. Love the platform. Especially with the Timney trigger.

Agreed.

RPR (243) will not consistently produce much better than MOA (5 shot groups) in mine as well. In terms of accuracy, just about any budget gun in 243 with a tupperware stock, including their own American will keep up or outshoot my RPR. I'll hand it to Ruger though, they are consistent. Of the last several Rugers I've had, they've all had lackluster accuracy despite Herculean efforts in load development. Very reliable and nice looking guns though. Given the unpredictable accuracy potential one can get from a RPR, I'd factor in the cost and time of a new barrel to the purchase price if having a decent "precision" rifle is your goal.

 

[buckfvr]

Clue us in on what load you settled on for the .243 rpr, mostly out of curiosity........if you dont mind, and how far off the lands with what bullet ??? The post you referenced and yours are so contradictory to the results we obtained from that gun that it is almost unbelievable.......R

 

[jdmecomber]

Also Mike do you own a Ruger Precision Rife?
If so, I wouldn't mind you shipping it to us, maybe I can help you out with it.
I have my FFL

 

[Mike 338]

Clue us in on what load you settled on for the .243 rpr, mostly out of curiosity........if you dont mind, and how far off the lands with what bullet ??? The post you referenced and yours are so contradictory to the results we obtained from that gun that it is almost unbelievable.......R

I may have it still around here somewhere. I have a new LRI barrel sitting around here somewhere and when I swap barrels, I usually trash old data. No bullets under 100 gr. were tested. I settled on 107 SMK's. Tried H-4831 but got ridiculous ES and MOAish accuracy. Tried some others but settled on RL-25 for best ES and accuracy. Seating depth: tried 10,20, 40, 80 and 120 thousandths jump. Nothing jammed. Tried various primers as well. Load development not necessarily done in order listed.

Also Mike do you own a Ruger Precision Rife?
If so, I wouldn't mind you shipping it to us, maybe I can help you out with it.
I have my FFL

Yes, I do still own it. I don't frequent this Board so I must apologize. I haven't read the entire 30 page thread and didn't catch what you do. I appreciate the offer. I did contact Ruger regarding my dissatisfaction with their general lack of accuracy and especially in this model. They suggested I send it to them which is all you can ask a manufacturer to do under the circumstances. I respectfully declined as I had already order a replacement barrel and for that reason, I will likely go that route before I ship it to anyone. I'm no perfectionist by any measure however I like my guns to shoot straight and my precision guns to shoot about 1/2 moa-ish consistently if I don't yank a shot. Mostly due to function issues, as of late, I've had to return firearms back to the manufacturer so many times, and some repeatedly, that it's become a sore spot with me. I find it aggravating when guns won't reliably go bang although the RPR functioned flawlessly. Again, thanks for the offer.

 

[buckfvr]

So with powder testing I personally think if its at all possible, one must test each powder against the others at the same velocity node because of harmonics. I know its not always possible, because of burn rates, but often times it is. So my .243 build likes H4831 at an average velocity of 2930fps 8k off the lands, so when I test against other powders, I want to test them as close to 2930fps as I can get when possible. I also use Berger 105 VLD.

So we did stumble along through the development of the rpr and make changes to our brass prep and reloading techniques along the way......its all chronicled in the post and I think Joe and I are completely convinced that ignoring any one step in brass prep would be a compromise. If you find the time to go through the meat of the post you will see we pretty much left no stones unturned.

Hope the new barrel works for you and you find the sweet spot. R

 

[jdmecomber]

From the beginning of our long range shooting, probably three years now, we struggled.

I am going to throw out some thoughts on reloading and shooting. At this point, I have been able to produce great consistent results in any factory gun I have developed. I think it comes from the constant learning we have done the last three years.

There are so many things you have to learn to achieve those consistent results with your firearm. Your shooting could make your perfect reloaded ammo look inaccurate. Your shooting could make subpar ammo look great but once the distance comes into play you won't know why your missing. Factory rounds could make a gun custom/factory make you want to use it for a boat anchor. Until you become an advanced riflemen and learn the ins and outs of everything in the craft. You most likely will always have subpar results.

Recently I have been studying why guys want to use an rcbs 1010 from an ohaus 2017 scale. Also in 16 years since the rcbs was discontinued do we not believe that technology has advanced??????!!!!! Of course it has
I will find the answers and see if it's worth the money to obtain the next tier of results.

Anyways.
Shoot me questions if you would like. Maybe I have tried something you are currently trying, maybe Russ and I will have some words of wisdom

 

[Mike 338]

From the beginning of our long range shooting, probably three years now, we struggled.

I am going to throw out some thoughts on reloading and shooting. At this point, I have been able to produce great consistent results in any factory gun I have developed. I think it comes from the constant learning we have done the last three years.

There are so many things you have to learn to achieve those consistent results with your firearm. Your shooting could make your perfect reloaded ammo look inaccurate. Your shooting could make subpar ammo look great but once the distance comes into play you won't know why your missing. Factory rounds could make a gun custom/factory make you want to use it for a boat anchor. Until you become an advanced riflemen and learn the ins and outs of everything in the craft. You most likely will always have subpar results.

Recently I have been studying why guys want to use an rcbs 1010 from an ohaus 2017 scale. Also in 16 years since the rcbs was discontinued do we not believe that technology has advanced??????!!!!! Of course it has
I will find the answers and see if it's worth the money to obtain the next tier of results.

Anyways.
Shoot me questions if you would like. Maybe I have tried something you are currently trying, maybe Russ and I will have some words of wisdom

I would agree with most of that. I started reading this thread a long time ago and went away for a while. Like you, I've been refining my techniques over time. That said, I'll poke around this thread again and see what I might have missed. Thanks.