When do you call it good enough

[TXAoudadKlr]

I shot a one hole group that I didn't get to measure, followed by a .189 shot group with the load Kirby worked up for me using 200gr accubonds. I have not even thought about try to tweak this load. Instead i'm trying to come up with a good load with 230gr Bergers. I'll call it good if it's better than 1/2 MOA.

 

[FEENIX]

Last cold bore shot at 200 yards before calling it good for the 2014 season ...

... for 311 shot at a muley buck's ...

Cheers!

 

[TXAoudadKlr]

^ I'd call that good!

 

[emp1953]

At what point of fiddling with the rifle and load do you call it good enough and quit stop trying to make it better?
With the rifle I got back from the smith a few weeks ago. Which is my first heavy rifle and is a Stevens 200 short action, pac-nor 284win 32" 1.30" #8 contour 8twist 5 groove, with a laminate stock and the Rifle basix 2 trigger. I've finally found the point I'm happy with it. Though the smith told me he isn't happy with the grouping and wants to tear it down and start over. If it grouped like it did with the firat powder I tried, imr7828, I would have let him. It would do 2 Moa on average withe the best being 1moa. With an ES in the high 20s. The bullet I'm using is the 180 SMk. I switched to h4831 and the groups dropped to Moa at largest with every powder charge and seating depth. I finally found a charge that had, to me, a tight SD an ES, of 4 and 10 at an average velocity of 2851. When I did the last testing rounds playing with giving the bullet a little jump, all the jump amounts had almost identical SD and ES with and all grouping 1 1/2" down to 1" at 300 yards. All being 4 shot groups.

So all that being said, I found a load that I'm happy with. Having an avg speed of 2851, SD of 4, ES of 10, and holding a consistent grouping of 1/2 Moa. I do need to fire more rounds to verify the numbers stay the same, though I'm petty confident if 20 rounds of the same charge only changing the seating depth 5 thousandths at a time and te numbers all stay almost the same. So should I call it good and be happy, which I am with that performance, or keep fiddling and try to make my smith happy?

Thanks
Kyle

I get a feel for what other shooters get out of the same rifle. If they get better than me I will try a little more. one MOA at 250yds is good enough for me for hunting. All rifles have a ceiling on accuracy. I used to go broke trying to get more. It took creeping age and arthritis to convince me that the law of diminishing returns definitely governs things here - a principle stating that profits or benefits gained from something will represent a proportionally smaller gain as more money or energy is invested in it. Your next goal should be to see how those loads perform a few years after setting in your safe.

 

[FEENIX]

Almost 7 years later...

 

[Jon Bischof]

Buffalo Bill and Annie Oakley had this same conversation. Of course Bill told Annie that "minute of Buffalo is good enough!"

 

[Frank in the Laurels]

I wonder how much the cost of all the components will change the search for the "ultimate" load now and what looks like years to come, my bet is "LOTS"....sign of the times, who would have thought the industry would accomplish the very thing the antics wanted all along..

 

[Jon Bischof]

I wonder how much the cost of all the components will change the search for the "ultimate" load now and what looks like years to come, my bet is "LOTS"....sign of the times, who would have thought the industry would accomplish the very thing the antics wanted all along..

But the industry did not accomplish the higher cost of those components. They have no control over the cost or raw materials like brass, copper, lead and other things on which they depend. They are as much subject to inflation as we are.

But it is true that some of our supply chain shortages have been caused by government policies that contributed greatly to the higher price of oil used to transport all your loading components.
Yeah, Biden did that.

 

[coop2564]

To me your gun would not be good enough for me. I go thru a lot of guns. Any gun that wants to be 1.5 moa or bigger with most loads I get rid of or make it better. A gun that wants to be .75 with most loads I'll keep and can usually make a bug hole gun. A fussy gun usually will not hold its special load under changing weather conditions, just my experience. I don't like fussy guns.