Painless load development (mine)

[Sponxx]

Mental note not to load develop in winter time with virgin brass at top speed and go hunt in middle of summer

 

[TreeDog]

Used to hate reloading because of all the nitpicky stuff I thought I needed to do. Decided to give this method a try.

6.5CM 130 TMK H4350 once fired Hornady brass from factory loads.

Tikka super lite cut to 18” and suppressed.

Loaded one round at max, one .5 below, and one 1.0 below. Seated book length which was right at boattail to neck/shoulder junction.

Fired each one lowest to highest. No pressure at max so loaded 10 at max. It works.

 

[SouthPaw]

Fresh PVA 6CM barrel for hunting 2025. Alpha srp, 41g H4350, base of boattail at neck/shoulder junction, 109gr eldm.

 

[sveltri]

Fresh PVA 6CM barrel for hunting 2025. Alpha srp, 41g H4350, base of boattail at neck/shoulder junction, 109gr eldm.

View attachment 858309

How'd you arrive at your powder charge?

 

[SouthPaw]

How'd you arrive at your powder charge?

Looked up book max and subtracted a half grain.

 

[Formidilosus]

New rifle, first load/ammo from it.

Win M70, 7mm RM.

140gr NBT
H1000- 72gr
Energetic LR primers
Hornady cases
3.365” coal

2x after bore sight. Next 10 on the dot.

 

[Matt5266]

I love me a model 70

 

[Formidilosus]

I love me a model 70

Especially older ones.

 

[Castle Rock]

Noslers, 7mm mags, old winnys, sounds like you are having a relapse into Fuddsville

 

[Formidilosus]

Noslers, 7mm mags, old winnys, sounds like you are having a relapse into Fuddsville

Haha. Where do you think I started? And why would you think I ever left?

I average between 4,000 and 8,000 magnum rounds a year- depending on where one draws the line at “magnum”. Most of those are 300 win mag, PRC, and Norma; quite a few are 338L and Norma. A smattering of 7 PRC. Too many are 50BMG.

 

[NWBLKTAIL]

I had to look what a M70 Laredo was, those are cool.

 

[longrangelead]

New rifle, first load/ammo from it.

Win M70, 7mm RM.

140gr NBT
H1000- 72gr
Energetic LR primers
Hornady cases
3.365” coal

2x after bore sight. Next 10 on the dot.
View attachment 858836

To bad it isn't a STW...yet...

 

[longrangelead]

My load dev has been gravitating towards this even before i heard of this painless method.
Because I build rifles, I shoot almost all of them to at least get a sense of accuracy potential.
I can't tell you how many times I've simply looked in my Nosler manual, picked a powder I have in the velocity range I want, picked the middle charge if the cartridge is new to me or max charge if I've worked with it before.
After that, seat bullet to .020" off lands or mag length, whichever will be the limiter and shoot 5.
Doing that, I can't think of a single time accuracy wasn't at least acceptable, sometimes even after more load dev, it was where it ended up anyway.

If I'm doing actual load dev, I'd start with a pressure string like stated here.

So for science, I put together a RSS 223 to try all the things. I've never played with Tikkas or a 223 shooting heavies so I wanted to try it.
As far as loading, I tried the painless method and the "internet" method for comparison in one rifle.
In the end, both methods arrived at the same thing, one just uses up A LOT more time and components.

I tried several powders and bullets with 5 rnd groups. it was very apparent if it might work or not. If it looked promising I'd shoot two 10 rnd groups with the labradar just to add data.

At the end, the Sierra 77HPBT, 77TMK and 73 ELDM shot the best in that order across multiple powders, the margin wasn't much though.
I chose the 73 because I can get it significantly cheaper than the other two and plan on shooting several thousand this year.

I tried all the usual powders and chose the one that gave both accuracy and velocity.

I knew I would be limited to 2.6-ish for mag length but I tried seating depth changes just to see. Pretty much the same accuracy or a touch worse. I didnt see a significant gain for sure. I didn't spend too much time on it after the first 2 bullets due to time constraints.

At the end, using group size as a go/no go is a better indicator of whether a given combo will work or not. Just don't get lost in the weeds chasing the "one hole".

Obviously other factors have to be considered like velocity. One combo was by far shooting smaller but was way to slow for what I wanted.

One thing that worked in my favor(usually the opposite) is this rifle shoots tighter WITH a suppressor.
Bare or with brake it's 1"-1.25" avg. of 10. With suppressor(2 so far) it's 1" or less for 10.

It appears the industry and us shooters need to adjust our expectation to what is actually realistic and useful.
It does appear that shift is starting to happen but it won't be a fast transition judging by how long previous notions hang on.

1"-.224" =.776"
Sub ¼ MIL all day if I do my part

 

[wind gypsy]

Sub ¼ MIL all day if I do my part

I like that.

 

[ResearchinStuff]

Too many are 50BMG.

Any recommendations on a 50 cal suppressor?

 

[jfk69]

1"-.224" =.776"
Sub ¼ MIL all day if I do my part

Nice job. I’ve long left the land of pissing around on load development. They shoot or they don’t.

 

[stealthgoat]

Winchester M70 Classic Laredo Long Rang Hunter - now we're talking !
Mine is bedded in a A-5 with CDI DBM, a heavy pig!

 

[justin davis]

Any recommendations on a 50 cal suppressor?

Thunderbeast has a sweet one. I want to shoot one of those! Look awesome

 

[Formidilosus]

Any recommendations on a 50 cal suppressor?

CGS, KGM, TBAC.

 

[longrangelead]

Sauer 100 6.5 Creed quick n dirty

Hornady brass, Win LRP

I wanted to shoot the 130 ELDM or bust. Nosler lists 43gr as max for H4350. I loaded 4 @42.5 and 4 @43.0, .025" inside mag length.
Checked it wasn't in the lands with sharpie, was good so I shot them @ 100yds.

Bore sighted, shot 42.5-good
adjusted, shot 43-also good but flatter primers and decent velocity of 2804 avg.

Ran home and loaded 20 more @ 43gr.
slight adjustment and shot ten @ 100 and 10 @ 200.

just over 1" @ 100 but closer to 3" @ 200. I think that is partly because I was shooting at a ¾" dot which is smaller than the POA in the scope. Maven RS1.2 BTW

So I'll load more, true my data and take it bear hunting soon.