Which charge?

[Tac-O]

Here is a few charges for a bullet I'm wanting to use for hunting. I'm not sure which if these I should try again. I'm thinking I might try them all again :/ BTW, no pressure signs on the high end charge.

 

[Rick Richard]

57.2 looks very promising. I would use this charge and then play with seating depth tuning.

 

[Tiny Tim]

57.2 appears best. My concern is that you appear to have two fliers on all other charges. What makes 52.7 stand out is that it only has one. Solve this and your groups will shrink significantly.

 

[Tac-O]

Thanks for the inputs! We'll see what happens at the next range session

 

[nksmfamjp]

Top right, but seems like you have a bedding issue. Is that possible?

 

[Beluebow]

My guess is somewhere between 57.6-58.0....poi doesn't change much between those two loads. A good seating depth test may clean those "fliers" up....and possibly playing with neck tension.

 

[Laguna Freak]

I'd probably work the 56.8 to 57.6 range in 0.3 gr increments and make sure I let my barrel cool each shot after the 2nd shot.

 

[Tac-O]

Top right, but seems like you have a bedding issue. Is that possible?

Maybe, but I don't think so. I bedded it into a laminate stock on pillars only using guide screws and electrical tape to secure the action in place. I rigged a dial indicator to my barrel and stock fore end to check for stress when tightening/loosening the action screws and got no more than 0.001 movement.

 

[Buck Fever]

Were the fliers always the last two shots?

57.8 is a tiny one hole group if the fliers were the last two and you remove them from the group.

On an OCW ladder test you look for where groups turn from horizontal spread to vertical stringing. In between is a node. If you find a wide node (intensive to charge weight +/-0.2 grains or more), with good E.S. and S.D., you have a winner. If it never lines up with small groups, a barrel tuner might help, otherwise try different primers, seating depth, neck tension or switch powders.

 

[Tac-O]

Were the fliers always the last two shots?

57.8 is a tiny one hole group if the fliers were the last two and you remove them from the group.

On an OCW ladder test you look for where groups turn from horizontal spread to vertical stringing. In between is a node. If you find a wide node (intensive to charge weight +/-0.2 grains or more), with good E.S. and S.D., you have a winner. If it never lines up with small groups, a barrel tuner might help, otherwise try different primers, seating depth, neck tension or switch powders.

No they weren't always the last two. I shot them round robin and they fliers were just at random and some could have been pulled.

I actually went back out yesterday to retest some groups, but the results were very unsatisfactory. My bullet runout was terrible and seating depth was inconsistent. It's surprising how much those two things affect group sizes. I've been trying to figure out my Lee collet neck die but it's just not working out for me. I'll have to retest using my usual sizing method

 

[Buck Fever]

I have heard concentricity can be improved by seating twice with a 90° shell rotation between them. I do it but haven't measured (I don't have the tool).

The collet sizer might be similar.

Just figure out consistency. If you can get rid of the fliers, you'll be doing good.

 

[Tac-O]

I have heard concentricity can be improved by seating twice with a 90° shell rotation between them. I do it but haven't measured (I don't have the tool).

The collet sizer might be similar.

Just figure out consistency. If you can get rid of the fliers, you'll be doing good.

Yea I've tried rotating the case several times when sizing with the collet and also when seating. so I don't know what's going on with that. But, with my method using my full-length die, I will get no more than 0.002 run out and my seating depths are usually +/- 0.001. I'll have to go back to that and retest next week.

 

[Tac-O]

Here's an update.

I went back and started using my FL die again. All my rounds are 0.0025 runout or less. Good enough!

I played around with this load in using virgin starline brass and resized 1x starline brass. I found that if I use my FL die on the virgin brass rather than my neck die, it pretty closely matches the group size and speed for my fired and resized starline.

Here is what I have.

Speer 180gr hotcor
Cci200
Starline FL sized 0.003 bump
H4350 58.8gr
2.690 BTO
2849fps average
19 SD
7 ES

It will usually shoot about like this with fired and resized and slightly larger (about 1.25") for virgin.

And it will fit in my tikkas oem magazine!