Unable to develop load for rifle

[SDHNTR]

Have you tried a different scope? Did your load dev guy have the same scope on it?

 

[IDspud]

Yes. It has nothing to do with the optic or mount. The same set up shoots factory ammo fine.

 

[SDHNTR]

Yes. It has nothing to do with the optic or mount. The same set up shoots factory ammo fine.

Picky barrel then. Just use the factory ammo? If it bothers you that much, send it. Or rebarrel it.

 

[35WhelenAI]

Dang, $7,000 dollars now. The money is a sunk cost at this point, look around and find some different bullets. You could spend another $150 on two or three different bullets and have a pretty sure bet of getting something that shoots well.

 

[SDHNTR]

One more thing. Have you scoped the barrel for a carbon ring? That can certainly cause sporadic behavior.

 

[35WhelenAI]

Factory loads shoot tiny little groups in his gun, I don't think he needs to borescope and look for a carbon ring. His luck with these components, most likely the bullet, is not good.

 

[swavescatter]

Try removing the muzzle brake if it has one. I sent my B14 in for work on accuracy issues and it states they remachined the brake. Could be tightening up as it gets hot?

 

[IDspud]

Am I being too picky? I had the guy that I paid just shoot a few groups. None opened up quite as bad as mine.

 

[35WhelenAI]

You fired two shots and they landed within 2 inches at 500 yards from a cold barrel it sounds like. That's pretty good, IMO. I would be looking at the practical side of it and how many shots are you taking on a live animal? If a person is taking three or four shots on a live animal at extended long range, makes me want to understand the scenario the hunter has put himself into at that point.

I don't know how much play this has but I've heard that some longer for caliber bullets don't go to "sleep" or completely stabilize until they get out their a ways. That may or may not explain why they were close at 500 yards and you get a bit of discrepancy at 100 yards.

I checked the Bereger stabilization program, it says you shouldn't have any issues, but that is a long and sleek bullet with a hybrid ogive. Sometimes a gun doesn't like the design of the ogive and you could be dealing with that on the stability at shorter range.

 

[IDspud]

You fired two shots and they landed within 2 inches at 500 yards from a cold barrel it sounds like. That's pretty good, IMO. I would be looking at the practical side of it and how many shots are you taking on a live animal? If a person is taking three or four shots on a live animal at extended long range, makes me want to understand the scenario the hunter has put himself into at that point.

I don't know how much play this has but I've heard that some longer for caliber bullets don't go to "sleep" or completely stabilize until they get out their a ways. That may or may not explain why they were close at 500 yards and you get a bit of discrepancy at 100 yards.

I checked the Bereger stabilization program, it says you shouldn't have any issues, but that is a long and sleek bullet with a hybrid ogive. Sometimes a gun doesn't like the design of the ogive and you could be dealing with that on the stability at shorter range.

Yeah, that was a great two shot group. But that isn’t much data and hardly conclusive.

As you can see from that first target I posted some groups were good. One was great with all three touching. What worries me is suddenly shooting a 2 to 3 inch group. I don’t think there’s any possible way I’m throwing shots that bad, but he just had half a dozen groups couldn’t replicate it.

SD was 5 FPS. Maybe the load is good and I’m just sneezing while firing occasionally without realizing it

One thing he mentioned watching me shoot was in my cheek weld didn’t look great. We got into a discussion, and he said it doesn’t matter if you were parallax free cheek well needs to be exactly the same every time because parallax is something different.

Of course do you want to do everything exactly the same every time. But isn’t that technically incorrect? If your optic was 100% parallax free couldn’t you free-floating your head in any position without it affecting POI?

 

[Kimber7man]

Jeez. If it were me I’d go buy 2 cases of the factory ammo that shoots well and quit wasting money trying to put together a handload. Life’s too short.

 

[SDHNTR]

Am I being too picky? I had the guy that I paid just shoot a few groups. None opened up quite as bad as mine.

Nothing wrong with those groups. If it were just one, you might could poke holes, and I’d ask for some 5 or 10 round groups, but looks like he could duplicate it. Just curious, is this your first and only magnum rifle?

 

[IDspud]

Nothing wrong with those groups. If it were just one, you might could poke holes, and I’d ask for some 5 or 10 round groups, but looks like he could duplicate it. Just curious, is this your first and only magnum rifle?

It is. I know it’s not quite the same as picking up a 5.56, but I’m shooting suppressed and I seem to shoot ok with factory ammo. Not that I’ve shot a ton.

He replicated all <1” groups.

I shot these 4 groups with him there. One sucks, but the others are fine. Idk. I may be a bit paranoid after the rocky start with this gun. It's interesting that my POI/POA seems to shift group to group. Maybe he's right, I'm not parallax free and my head position is changing?

 

[SDHNTR]

It is. I know it’s not quite the same as picking up a 5.56, but I’m shooting suppressed and I seem to shoot ok with factory ammo. Not that I’ve shot a ton.

He replicated all <1” groups.

I shot these 4 groups with him there. One sucks, but the others are fine. Idk. I may be a bit paranoid after the rocky start with this gun. It's interesting that my POI/POA seems to shift group to group. Maybe he's right, I'm not parallax free and my head position is changing?

That would definitely explain it.

 

[Marble]

That would definitely explain it.

It's what I've been thinking.

Sent from my SM-G986U using Tapatalk

 

[wyosam]

Yeah, that was a great two shot group. But that isn’t much data and hardly conclusive.

As you can see from that first target I posted some groups were good. One was great with all three touching. What worries me is suddenly shooting a 2 to 3 inch group. I don’t think there’s any possible way I’m throwing shots that bad, but he just had half a dozen groups couldn’t replicate it.

SD was 5 FPS. Maybe the load is good and I’m just sneezing while firing occasionally without realizing it

One thing he mentioned watching me shoot was in my cheek weld didn’t look great. We got into a discussion, and he said it doesn’t matter if you were parallax free cheek well needs to be exactly the same every time because parallax is something different.

Of course do you want to do everything exactly the same every time. But isn’t that technically incorrect? If your optic was 100% parallax free couldn’t you free-floating your head in any position without it affecting POI?

Rifle recoils differently when cheek weld changes. It’s not just parallax


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[magtech]

Recently worked up a load for a HMR in 6.5. It took a while to get what I wanted, low sd/tight group.

I started with powder to find a good node and then low es. Once that was done I did oal adjustments by .005... this is where it took a while. I think the jump was .1 or something like that. But I was FINALLY able to get to a spot where I had low SD and a tight group.

About 75 rounds in I started to see good grouping potential, like stacked 2 bullets but a couple flyers in my 5 shot group. Here I realized I should recheck torques. After there I was able to finalize my load a couple series later.

I did have to cut the feed ramp to fit the bullets. Was really easy with using 3-4 drill bits and stepping up in size. Took my time, sanded it up and that looks nice as well.

 

[35WhelenAI]

IDspud, the groups on that target are good groups. The one that opened up doesn't show anything irregular based on my experience. If I was shooting groups, my natural progression would be top left, top right, bottom left, bottom right. Natural progression meaning I never would've thought of it until later on. Wondering if that's the order you shot them in as well?

 

[IDspud]

I had the stock bedded and shot these just now. Parallax is adjust it out. I’m being very careful with my cheek weld so I don’t understand why this pattern continues. This looks to have potential to be a great load. Frequently two touch or even go through the same hole, and then one is a flyer way out.

POI shifts are from zeroing

 

[35WhelenAI]

This thread has been a great one to follow. The potential with that bullet in that gun has is pretty well established. Are you able to pick up a box of generic cup and core bullets and give those a try? There was another thread recently where a .243 wasn't shooting the new 90 gr Hornady CX, they were keyholing in the target. Obviously yours aren't keyholing but that flyer could be a sign of instability. The fact you shot at 500 yards and the shots were 2 inches apart says the bullet may not be fully stabilizing at shorter range.