Looking for Tikka 243 8 twist pet loads

[sage1]

Remington, 1-8 twist, 39.5 H4350 , .025 off lands, starline brass, 103 Eldx, every gun is a little different

 

[ktm450]

I have had a hell of a time dialing in my 1:8 Superlite. I am committed to 103 ELD-X for a variety of reasons, but have tried most everything from 100-108. I have also tried a ton of different powders. I finally found a load that repeatedly puts 10-round groups under an inch.

44 grains H4831 (42-46 was tried)
103 ELD-X
Federal Match Primers
.7(ish)/100 yards
3000FPS average (no visible signs of pressure)

This project took a while and the gun was pretty frustrating. I was hoping to find a more available powder that would work, but most of everything just ended in garbage groups.

 

[BlackHillsShooter]

Good to hear. My 108 load is 41.5 grains of H4350. It's a one inch load and moving right along. 1:8" Tikka. Have not had luck with the 103. Will give yours a try. Thank you.


Screen name in reference to an EXC or XCW?

 

[offthebeatenpath]

This is hard to write... mostly because it's self-incriminating.
But I think this is the kind of info that often gets left out of these threads.

So this whole reloading world is relatively new to me, I've only worked on loads for three other rifles (all of which I own). Because I felt like I was spinning my wheels and getting nowhere, I made a call to The Professor for some objective input. I feel pretty lucky to have a guy like Carl as my reloading guru. We decided to spend some time at the range and attempt to isolate some variables to chase down my issues.

At this point in the process, I'm starting to question my own capability as a shooter, so having another shooter and another gun or two to check things was super helpful. Carl also has a 1:8 243 Tikka, which he brought, along with a box of his 109 gr ELDM handloads.

We shot my scope on his rifle, my scope on my rifle, my loads, his loads, and nearly all possible combinations.
My scope was fine enough. My shooting wasn't the issue. My rifle wasn't the issue.

Bottom line is this- I completely forgot to properly prep my brand new Starline brass. I didn't trim it to length, and I didn't chamfer it. This didn't show up too bad on the Hornady bullets, but as we looked closer on the Berger bullets, I had actually peeled copper shavings off the jackets. That ain't gonna work well down range.
Additionally, I didn't have a solid process on using the Hornady COAL gauge, so I was having trouble getting a good reading on the my COAL, and doing cartridge OAL math based on bad numbers.

It's good to know what the issue was, and it's a good reminder that we aren't all super experienced, and sometimes we just plain make mistakes. All of which is tough to tell on a forum board.

At this point, I'd pretty much run out of bullets. I didn't have any Hornady 108 or 109s left, and only a few Berger 105 and 108's. I did have enough Hornady ELDX 103's, so I worked up a load on those at 42 gr of H4350, and VIOLA! It works! I was right about 1.25" for ten shots, running right around 3000fps.

So that's what I'm going to run for hunting season.
I will likely revisit this after the season is over, but for now, it works. Cheers~