Finding your rifles sweet spot

[SneakyThunderCat]

I am very new to the reloading game. I just recently started doing it about 2 months ago. I've been playing around with finding a gr amount that my rifle shoots accurately by working up in .5 gr increments. I've basically tried to recreate a factory load that shot well out of my rifle, but want to fine tune it now. I feel like I'm getting close, I've been testing two different powder amounts with alright results (73gr & 77gr). This past weekend I tested them at a longer distance, as well as my factory ammo. Out of curiosity, what do you think of these groups at 500 yards? Good, bad? I am going to start playing with seating depth to see if I can tighten these up a bit. Just wanted some feed back!

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[MidGAHunter]

If you have access to one, a chronograph will make things way easier on you. You can find a velocity node quickly then fine tune seating depth. You can also easily recreate factory ammo that your rifle likes with a chrono.

 

[SneakyThunderCat]

If you have access to one, a chronograph will make things way easier on you. You can find a velocity node quickly then fine tune seating depth. You can also easily recreate factory ammo that your rifle likes with a chrono.

I do have a chrono. What do you mean by velocity node? My 77gr load fps is very similar to the factory ammo I've been shooting. I am going to test them one more time to confirm accuracy before I mess with seating depth, I beleive the larger group of the 77 gr load was because of shooter error, also I think I fudged myself by making my aiming point the middle of large blob of paint. Going to make a much smaller blob next time haha!

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[MidGAHunter]

A velocity node is a flat-ish spot where incremental increases in powder charge (sometimes up to nearly a full grain or more) barely increase your velocity. Find your node below your maximum charge for your rifle, and fine tune from there.

 

[SneakyThunderCat]

A velocity node is a flat-ish spot where incremental increases in powder charge (sometimes up to nearly a full grain or more) barely increase your velocity. Find your node below your maximum charge for your rifle, and fine tune from there.

Okay, my velocity node is from 72.5-74 gr which all shot within 15fps of each other. The velocity is about 100 fps slower than I am wanting however. Would you reccomend I focus on this load and play around with it?

I've worked as far up to 77gr with no signs of pressure, but I'm finally seeing the velocity that I want.

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[MidGAHunter]

You will have to decide what an acceptable velocity is for you. You could always look for a second node above your current node and if you hit pressure before you find that next node, you focus on the lower node. As always work up carefully and slowly. If you've gotten 3 full grains above the top of an established node without pressure, then surely there is another node in there somewhere.

 

[JRMiller]

1 moa to 100 hundred yards is usually easy by most. Keeping that 1 moa out to 500 yards as you have done is outstanding. I cant quite make out your bottom/right group, i think it says 1.45 moa. If so, many would argue even that is a very good group at 500 yards. Personally i would be good and done with the 1.02 moa load if its repeatable consistently. I mean thats a deer heart size group to 500 yards, i'd take that all day long

 

[SneakyThunderCat]

1 moa to 100 hundred yards is usually easy by most. Keeping that 1 moa out to 500 yards as you have done is outstanding. I cant quite make out your bottom/right group, i think it says 1.45 moa. If so, many would argue even that is a very good group at 500 yards. Personally i would be good and done with the 1.02 moa load if its repeatable consistently. I mean thats a deer heart size group to 500 yards, i'd take that all day long

Thank you for the insight! As I stated above, I'm very new to reloading and am trying to get a feel of what kind of expectations I should be having at longer distances. Personally I was pretty darn happy to see a 1 moa group from my first attempt at shooting hand loads past 100 yards. Definitely going to keep playing around with it before I settle though. It's a very enjoyable hobby!

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