What would you do next with these results?

[Wolf76]

I'm not sure where 1.89" group at 400 comes from. I'll assume you multiplied the 100 yard group by 4. Not a good idea. Shoot at 400 and see. I've seen more than a few excellent groups at 100 fall apart at real distances. I generally start @200M for groups. 100 yards doesn't tell me much unless I'm shooting my muzzleloader. You'll be completely fine for hunting situations, but what's the fun in that. Most of the fun reloading comes from how accurate of a load you can develop.

 

[tbrice23]

.448 moa at 400 yards is good.

Why don't you ...
verify that load for confirmation,
Chronograph and run your drops in your ballistic calculator,
Practice that load on hunting positions ( hunting bag or bipod prone, shooting sticks instead of bench rest) to see how point of impacts change and to see if the load holds up on real world shooting position.
Looking great so far.

 

[maninthemaze]

I'm not sure where 1.89" group at 400 comes from. I'll assume you multiplied the 100 yard group by 4. Not a good idea. Shoot at 400 and see.

The groups in my second picture were shot at 400 yards. It looked a little odd because the photo was sideways. I'll try and post it again right side up.

 

[maninthemaze]

See if this doesn't look better. Again, this group was shot at 400 yards. It only has 1/2" of vertical and 1.89" horizontal, so I'm thinking I'll do like stated earlier and verify fps with my chronograph and then start practicing at different post ions to verify POI changes. Thanks

 

[maninthemaze]

I'm definitely satisfied with my load. I wish the fps was a little faster but I'll gladly sacrifice a little speed for better accuracy. This group was shot a 500 yards at a homemade steel target. I cut a piece of 1/2" thick stainless steel from a piece of scrap. I shaped it like the vital area of an elk, sized off the downloadable targets off Berger's website. I guess 1/2" stainless ain't tough enough for a 7mm 180gr Berger at 2900fps muzzle velocity. I'll have to buy some AR500 steel targets.

 

[benchracer]

Looks to me like you have an excellent load developed. That 500 yard group looks great! Not showing much vertical. Well done! Aside from your average muzzle velocity, what did your ES and SD numbers look like? Asking just for curiosity's sake.

Unless you encounter something unexpected at longer range, I would say you are done tuning. What would I do next? GO FORTH AND SHOOT! Nice work!

 

[maninthemaze]

Those three rounds were 2904, 2887 and 2892. Those were the only three rounds that I measured. I'll probably measure some more once I verify my 100 yard zero. I had dialed my scope to be "on target" when I switched to the 180's from 168's on my 400 yard ladder test. Today, I guessed the velocity to be 2850 to calculate my MOA to get me to 500. Then I shot the groups. I couldn't see my impacts but could hear them. So left it there. After checking my fps I put that in my ballistic app to dial down to 100 and reset my zero. I'll have to go back to my normal range to verify that my 100 yard zero is now on zero. If any of that makes sense. Either way, I'll be firing more rounds thru the chronograph in the very near future. Then I'll really start field testing from different shooting postions.

I didn't want to spend too much time outside today because of the heat. It was 90 degrees with a Kentucky normal of 85% humidity, in other words, miserable.

 

[benchracer]

So, AVG is 2994, ES is 17, SD is 9. Solid numbers. Will be interesting to see if they hold over a longer string. Looking good!

 

[maninthemaze]

Looks like I'm definitely keeping this load. I think the rifle shoots way better than me know. It's amazing how much influence shooting form has on the rifle at longer distances.

#1 430 yards 6.75 moa vertical, 0 moa horizontal.
#2-4 430 yards 6.75 moa vertical, 1 moa in the wrong direction.
#5-9 700 yards 14.25 moa vertical, 1 moa in the correct direction.
#10-18 700 yards 14.00 moa vertical, 1 moa horizontal.

In the groups 10-18 I was really concentrating on my form. Trying to find my natural point of aim before each shot. Making sure I had the same grip on the gun each time. In other words, definitely going slower and more deliberate in my shots. This has definitely taught me that I need to work on me. I also need to pay attention to what I'm doing with my windage dial. My screw up with going the wrong way on my correction could have cost me an animal, even at 430 yards. I could have missed completely, or worse, made a bad hit on one.

Anyways, Thanks for everyone's input. I definitely wouldn't have loaded in .2 grain increments without you all's suggestion. Proof that there is a wealth of knowledge on this forum.

 

[N2TRKYS]

I thought the 64.4 grain load looked better. I guess the pic is playing tricks on my eyes. Out of curiosity, what did it measure?

 

[maninthemaze]

Thats some good eyesight right there. The 64.4 group is actually a smaller group when measured from the farthest 2 holes. I went with the 64.2 load because it had a smaller vertical spread.

64.4 load was 1.685 horizontal with .830 vertical
64.2 load was 1.894 horizontal with .490 vertical

I'm assuming going with the smallest vertical group was the way to go. Seems like to me, the wind is a variable horizontally, while gravity will always be a constant. Therefore, groups with the smallest vertical are the preferred groups. At least that's my take on it anyways.

 

[Jokostel]

Not to be rude or anything.... but the average variation in barrel temp and primers would matter far more than .2 grains of powder.
.2 is .4% difference. Temps will matter FAR more.

I have never understood such trivial nonsense.
Find an accuracy node... and shoot. It's not rocket science, it's a pressure engine that also happens to be a tuning fork.

 

[tbrice23]

Not to be rude or anything.... but the average variation in barrel temp and primers would matter far more than .2 grains of powder.
.2 is .4% difference. Temps will matter FAR more.

I have never understood such trivial nonsense.
Find an accuracy node... and shoot. It's not rocket science, it's a pressure engine that also happens to be a tuning fork.

I agree.
If accuracy windows were this narrow, even changes in neck tension from firing to firing would throw the node out.( unless annealed every time). Much less shoulder pressure variations.

Shoot 10 round groups then start measuring.

 

[tbrice23]

I agree.
If accuracy windows were this narrow, even changes in neck tension from firing to firing would throw the node out.( unless annealed every time). Much less shoulder pressure variations.

Shoot 10 round groups then start measuring.

I'd be willing to bet maybe you were more comfortable shooting one group vs the other. Id definitely shoot both again for verification.