Finally some reloading progress.

[Glock 40]

Not sure how many months this reloading adventure has been going on. I know my bank account has been punished severely since it all started. I got a case of the blue fever among other known reloader issues. I have been trying to find a .223 load and .243 load. There has definitely been a learning curve. My share of jacked up brass, spilled powder and the list goes on.

I started off and it was kinda depressing seeing 2in groups. My buddy @Cowcatcher gave me a reloading pep talk and told me to keep working. After more trying I got under 1 moa more ups and downs. Well last weekend and today I think I hit pay dirt. Still plenty of testing I want to do around these loads but it finally feels like the fortune I have spent is paying tiny dividends. I am also figuring once I get these worked out the temps will drop and It will start all over.

Targets at 100 yards off rest.

This is my .223 round out of my cheap PSA AR-15

This is my .243 round from my Rem 700

 

[Cowcatcher]

It's sure been fun!

 

[dennishoddy]

It can be frustrating as all get out, but when it all comes together, it's worth it!
Beautiful groups!

 

[Dumpstick]

I started reloading 30 years ago to save money

Then I got into casting too, now my savings are almost to much to count

 

[swampratt]

For my .223 I use CCI450 primers and my groups in hot and cold weather stay the same and my powder that keeps it there is H4895. Varget did not work well at all when temps changed.

If I went to CCI 400 primers I got different group sizes when temps changed.

Looks like you have got it just about figured out .

 

[Cowcatcher]

@swampratt thats interesting. I too use H4895 in a few different loads. I chose it over Varget because it's usually a dollar or three cheaper and was/is easy to find when Varget may not be. I'd heard several times that they were pretty much the same powders but Varget was the more temp stable of the two. You're saying the opposite it sounds like.

 

[Glock 40]

I have been using cci 400s in my .223 so far but it either been hot as Hades outside or mild recently. The powder that made that group for the .223 was Ramshot Tac pushing the cheapest hornday 62gr sp bullets from local reloading supply. It was a fluke I found those grouped so well as I was testing my plinking ammo I ran on my dillon after I had wasted a lot of time trying to get my 1in7 barrel to shoot 69 and 77gr smks. I shot some of the bulk ammo and noticed 4 of 5 where touching and think I had a legit flyer in there. I made some of the 62s up with some diffrent loads yesterday and had a group with imr 8208 and the Ram tac both shot less than 3/8 in on 3 shots. Next plan is to shoot both in groups of 10. I mainly shoot this gun at combined military matches. So I need 3 targets with 10 shots each for score.

 

[Cowcatcher]

That's a true story! Lol. Blake and I and our families was having a shooting pachanga. Both of us were shooting different loads we had built. Y'all should've seen Blakes face after he shot his "plinking load".

 

[swampratt]

Yes i am saying Varget is not the group holder when temps change.
May hold velocity but groups scatter.
IMR4064 does not do that in my .308 or 30-06.
8208 Holds together but velocity is low.

blake711 were those 62 gr Hornady bullets a flat base by chance??
Or much wider base than the other bullets you were playing with.

I have found the flat base is very accurate and easier to fing a load for.
Some of the boat tail high BC bullets I played with wanted to be in the upper load data area and curse me for saying this but past some book data loads the high BC bullets really tightened up.
This held true for my 30-06, .308 and my .223 I never got into high BC bullets for my .243. Just stuck with Hornady 87 gr V-Max in that one.

Something else along the lines of bullet shape I went to the trouble to measure bearing surface length of different bullets.
The ones with long lengths would stabilize easier ,,in other words low accuracy and high accuracy nodes were easy to get and were pretty wide.
The short bearing surface bullets wanted to go FAST..Those were usually high BC bullets.

 

[Glock 40]

@swampratt I have actually found in both guns I am shooting, my most accurate loads have been in the bottom or middle of the load data. I know a lot of guys are speed demons but more speed hasn't seemed to help me with groups to this point in either gun. My .243 has a stock 9.125 twist barrel. The load above is with 105 Barnes match burners. I started with 95 Noslers then went to 100 Horn SP and it spun them well enough. So I gave the 105s a try and they grouped best at 100yd amazingly. I didn't know if I could keep them stable. I am wanting to be able to take that gun to 5 or 600 yards hopefully, so that is why I am trying to find the biggest bullet I can for it. The AR is just punching paper at 100yds.