Painless load development (mine)

[Mattphillips18]

Perhaps I missed it, but what are your thoughts on sizing the cases? How do you get a bullet loaded straight?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Formidilosus]

Shot the Sauer 6.5cm with the BLC-2 and 130gr ELD-M load again today.

7 at 100 to check zero-


Then guessed at 2,800fps MV, and went 13 for 13 on a 20” target at 686 yards. The first five were centered .1 mil low, final trued velocity of 2,770fps, and the last 8 rounds were a bit less than .3 mil of vertical (less than 1 MOA). No clue what the ES or SD is.

 

[Formidilosus]

Perhaps I missed it, but what are your thoughts on sizing the cases? How do you get a bullet loaded straight?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Size, pour powder, seat bullet.

 

[Gorp2007]

Used this to set up some 140gr ELDM yesterday, started .5 gr under max then jumped to book max. No pressure signs and
It would have been perfect, but I was using a 10x SWFA instead of a 6x.

 

[HighUintas]

@Formidilosus , when you zero your rifle after finding a load, if you're going to hunt high elevation (10k+) would you have any issues zeroing at less than 5k, or do you need to zero closer to hunt elevation?

 

[Formidilosus]

@Formidilosus , when you zero your rifle after finding a load, if you're going to hunt high elevation (10k+) would you have any issues zeroing at less than 5k, or do you need to zero closer to hunt elevation?

No sir. A 100 yard zero is a 100 yard zero from Death Valley, to Mount Everest.

 

[JVS]

I’m of the opinion that a lot of the tweaking people do is bullshit and not repeatable day to day.

Using a known load, with a known bullet makes it really easy. Atleast for what I have loaded for.

Your process makes sense

I somewhat agree.. I like to work up to pressure signs. Then back off a half grain and play with seating depth to fine tune the load. I mean if I am gonna hand load I want increased performance over box ammo.

 

[Formidilosus]

I somewhat agree.. I like to work up to pressure signs. Then back off a half grain and play with seating depth to fine tune the load. I mean if I am gonna hand load I want increased performance over box ammo.

The issue, is how do you know that seating depth changes really are increasing performance? If you did your full test, 3-5 times from start to finish, it’s almost guaranteed that each time would result in the “best” load being different.

And then- even if you could find the combination that shot a tenth of an MOA smaller, how do you know that “increased performance” translates at all in the field?

 

[MuleyFever]

Brush inside of neck twice.

What do you brush the neck with? Just a nylon brush? What size brush would you use for a 7mm?

 

[Stu]

My experience after working with ten round groups is that it takes several to many 10 round groups to definitively confirm that a change in your loading routine actually makes better ammo. I’ve got solid loads that on Wednesday yield a 10 round .7moa group that on Thursday yield a 1.3 moa group. Obviously I’m one of the factors in that error.

Anyway, new barrel. Hornady book max loads to show.

 

[Stu]

5 rounds, 676 yards, all 147 ELDs, 41.5 RL16

Another 5 rounds, 676 yards

10 rounds, 967 yards

 

[HighUintas]

What do you brush the neck with? Just a nylon brush? What size brush would you use for a 7mm?

I use an RCBS neck brush (nylon). I think they have a few sizes that are supposed to march certain calibers. I just bought that to have a handle though.

I previously used a sturdy nylon bore brush. I can't remember the exact size but I think it was one size larger than bore size. I shoot .308 bore, so it was likely a 338/8mm brush

 

[Castle Rock]

That is excellent shooting Stu
What rifle?

 

[Stu]

That is excellent shooting Stu
What rifle?

Listen ol'son. Thats a Tikka T3x that Short Action Customs had in house that they trued and spun a bartlein 1:7 on (thats what they had, and this was started about a year ago when they had no idea when they'd get another blank in.).

140s may show more promise. I'll try and post as I go. It's a toy since its 12.5 lbs with bipod, but my goal was fun and possibly local PRS/NRL if that materializes in my area.

For the internet, powder charge makes no difference on these combos with RL16 and I have no intention of spending hundreds of rounds determining if seating depth and primers actually matter.

 

[Bbell12]

Fierce Carbon Fury 7 mag
H4831sc
168 VLD hunting
Nosler brass and 215m primers


This is the first load development I’ve ever done. Book max is 63.4gr, loaded 3 each with 63, 64, 65 @ .020” off the lands. (First pic is 3 shot group of 65.0). No pressure. Loaded one at 66.0. Slight pressure signs. Loaded 10 at 65.0 (second pic)

I may be looking for some confirmation bias here but I’m ready to be done with load development. I would like to just load up 250 rounds of my remaining brass and go shoot instead of spending more time and money on load development but what would you guys honestly do?

 

[Jimbee]

Fierce Carbon Fury 7 mag
H4831sc
168 VLD hunting
Nosler brass and 215m primers


This is the first load development I’ve ever done. Book max is 63.4gr, loaded 3 each with 63, 64, 65 @ .020” off the lands. (First pic is 3 shot group of 65.0). No pressure. Loaded one at 66.0. Slight pressure signs. Loaded 10 at 65.0 (second pic, there’s a slight POI shift between the two because I was messing with my scope).

Not exactly what I was looking for on the 10 shot group. I know that I pulled my 3rd shot and I’m not exactly confident enough in my shooting to say the first 3 were good shots but I’m pretty confident in the last 5 to say that they are.

I may be looking for some confirmation bias here but I’m ready to be done with load development. I would like to just load up 250 rounds of my remaining brass and go shoot instead of spending more time and money on load development but what would you guys honestly do?

Looks good IMHO. I'd start shooting at steel. That's about as good as I can get with a 10ish shot group with my 2 300wsms. I've tried different powders and bullets. I think that's just as good as I'm going to get. I can get a 1.2 inch ten shot group one day and a 2.5 inch group the next. I've been told and have definitely learned not to trust 3 shot groups.

 

[Formidilosus]

I may be looking for some confirmation bias here but I’m ready to be done with load development. I would like to just load up 250 rounds of my remaining brass and go shoot instead of spending more time and money on load development but what would you guys honestly do?

What is the legit actual range that you will shoot an animal at with the rifle? And, how much shooting in the mountains and wind do you do?

 

[Bbell12]

What is the legit actual range that you will shoot an animal at with the rifle? And, how much shooting in the mountains and wind do you do?

300 yards. I wouldn’t take a shot much further than that at my current skill level. Would like to get to where I can shoot at further distances than that but if I’m being honest, I don’t have enough experience with judging wind and shooting long distance.

 

[Formidilosus]

300 yards. I wouldn’t take a shot much further than that at my current skill level. Would like to get to where I can shoot at further distances than that but if I’m being honest, I don’t have enough experience with judging wind and shooting long distance.

Load development is done. Anything more is wasting time and money.

 

[Bbell12]

Load development is done. Anything more is wasting time and money.

Thanks Form. Out of curiosity, would your answer have changed if it was 5-600 yards?