Painless load development (mine)

[Harvey_NW]

Thanks, I had adjusted my velocity in my calculator when my shots weren't lining up at 800 yards but then had someone suggest changing my bullet bc instead. Was not sure if it mattered or which was correct. I had originally dialed to 6.3 mils at 800 and had to back down to 5.7 mils. Which was about 120 fps velocity change in the calculator.

Something else to note that's bitten me in the past, when truing (or getting any ballistic solution for that matter) you have to input the line of sight range and shot angle into the calculator so it solves for time of flight, angle modified range is not accurate and the error gets amplified the farther and steeper the shot angle. Not unrealistic to have to adjust velocity a little bit but typically when all my inputs are spot on and I use the box BC and chrono velocity everything lines up damn close.

Also, known repeatable scope? Might be worth doing a tracking or tall target test to be sure there's no error there as well.

 

[lak2004]

Something else to note that's bitten me in the past, when truing (or getting any ballistic solution for that matter) you have to input the line of sight range and shot angle into the calculator so it solves for time of flight, angle modified range is not accurate and the error gets amplified the farther and steeper the shot angle. Not unrealistic to have to adjust velocity a little bit but typically when all my inputs are spot on and I use the box BC and chrono velocity everything lines up damn close.

Also, known repeatable scope? Might be worth doing a tracking or tall target test to be sure there's no error there as well.

Scope is the bushnell lrts, not sure it's gone through the drop test regimen but I'll do a ladder test on it.

 

[wind gypsy]

I've done tracking tests on a handful of LRTS/LRHS scopes from a fixture on a calibrated target. IIRC they were all within 1 click over 10 mils of elevation adjustment.

 

[WesternSlope]

When bumping my brass 0.003” I get inconsistent sizing. Some are bumped .002” and others .004”. Will this show up on the target or am I making a mountain out of a molehill?

 

[wind gypsy]

When bumping my brass 0.003” I get inconsistent sizing. Some are bumped .002” and others .004”. Will this show up on the target or am I making a mountain out of a molehill?

I wouldn’t worry about it, that’s normal. Its why trying to just bump 0.001” doesn’t work for me, some end up with resistance to close the bolt.

 

[Animalnoises67]

I love this thread!

 

[elkmaster]

For this gun I needed about 1-1.1 moa. Had this load shot over that I would have changed powder by 1 grain then reshot it. If it didn’t meet what I needed then I would ha e changed powder completely. Any load that needs to be tweaked with small powder weight changes, incremental seating depth changes, or only a certain primer, etc- that stuff doesn’t make a difference. It only seems to due to small sample sizes and if you tested the exact combo again, a different load/length/etc would come out on top. IF the load is that picky, it’s going to be finicky and you’ll be chasing your tail with it. Screw that




No doubt.

well said

 

[11Justin22]

So I jumped into reloading early this year. I had read this no nonsense idea of reloading and it made a ton is sense to me. My first load, literally ever reloading, for my tikka CTR was right at .7" for 10 shots. I worked with a few other rifles with excellent results. Literally every one just found Max pressure and backed off .5g loaded at mag length and they just shot...... UNTIL I got ahold of some Berger 144 lrht that I had been trying to find to shoot in my CTR for nrl Hunter. Bought 500 and started in. Started with h4350 found pressure backed off and shot



While not necessarily terrible I know the gun would shoot groups half that size. No problem I thought I've read what to do here I thought. Grabbed some rl16 I had and repeated.

That went the wrong way. At this point I was ready to just dump the rest of the Berger and just stop and go find some more of the original bullets (Berger 140, I had run out when I found the 144).... But my momma didn't raise a quitter . Grabbed some 6.5 staball and repeated...... .

That's better good enough for my intentions and would no doubt shoot better if shot off a bench like my other loads ( I was checking the initial groups here at the house and not at the range).