I was shooting 2 tikka t-3's in 7 mag. One is mine the other is my father in laws. We want to use the 168's for elk and 140's for whitetails here in PA. With the colder temps I could switch between them and keep barrel temps low. With this method and plotting the hits at the bench with spotter it didn't take all day. I also used different colored sharpies to color the front portion of each bullet. In my notebook I recorded each charge weight and color. The color was left in the hole in the white paper for another way to identify what charge went where. I will have the chronograph with me the next time. It would be nice to know the velocities. I have read each gun is different and sometimes you may not get pressure signs even though you are there. The article I read from gun works said when you reach the max velocities from your manuals or close to it you should be at or near max pressure. Do you guys agree? Down the road velocity and Es will become more important for other reasons. Now I'm looking for the node and max pressure. The fastest bullet is less important than the consistent and most accurate one. I do plan to go back and do a more refined ladder around the upper node in .2 increments and then do a few group tests. I may even try 72.5, 73.0, 73.5, and 74.0. That may depend on the velocities I get in the top node. I will do the test on the 140's again using H4350. I think it may not be as clear on the 140's until I start to play with seating depth on the VLD hunting 140's. I know they can be picky. The 168's I shot last year and think I have that seating depth pretty close. I will be limited on the vld's by the t-3 clip though. We had a blast and learned a lot. My buddy has never seen this system, redding dies, and some of the gauges. He wad pretty impressed. He has loaded for 25 years for the PA woods so this kind of detail was never needed. I used bags front and back and did my best to not muscle the gun. There will be more tests and range reports to come. Thanks for the comments, and any knowledge you are willing to share. Has anyone done ladder tests using new brass? Everything that I have read says to use once fired brass from that gun. That is what I did until I can shoot up some more that I have. Would it make a big difference in a ladder test.
my t-3 with the new B&C stock was used for the 168's. I used my father in laws stock t-3 for the 140's. There was a noticeable difference between the two regarding recoil and cheek weld.
what do you guys think? I never saw any pressure signs even at 72 grains. The next trip I want to take the crono with me.
