Starting to push it - Where next?

[dugby]

abinok,

Those groups look to me like your homework and efforts are paying off!

How are you controlling neck tension?

Nothing special. Just re-size. As I understand it that is where the bushing type dies would come into play.

I feel like my Chrony gives me good numbers when I use the screen or if the day is overcast. Do you think Chronograph models make much difference in the information you get?
I would think they might have some error in absolute numbers that you could plug into a ballistics program, but that they should all do a good job showing ES on any given shooting session.

 

[338Shooter]

I had thought about investing in some competition dies. do you think that would be worthwhile? which ones ?

I use Redding Type-S bushing neck die. Redding body die to bump the shoulder when necessary. Forrester Ultra Competition Seater with micrometer. The dies you are using are bad at causing runout on the neck and they badly over work the brass. They squeeze the neck down then use the expander ball to reopen it to the "proper" size. The expander ball can cause loads of runout on the neck, too much, and inconsistent neck tension.

Uniforming the flash holes would be good too. If you're using Lapua brass this may not be an issue though. All the lapua 338 brass I have the flash holes are awesome. Uniforming the primer pocket could help too, but I'd get some new dies and start measuring more first and foremost.

 

[angsniper]

That is a hoot!

Now do you really do every one of those?

I like my time at the range more than the time on the reloading bench, but I am ready to compromise for accuracy sake.

I am going to go back to weighing the charges for a trial. Was really only seeing 0.1 grain variation when weighing thrown vs. weighed. I am pretty picky about how they throw, but that is certainly a variable.

How do you ream the Flash holes?

How to sort brass and bullets? Weight/size? what do you do with the ones that don't make the cut. How do you decide the limits on what you keep?

It would be interesting to take by current "Best" load and apply weighing/reaming/sorting and see if things tighten up any. May be I just can't shoot any better than that.

Thanks

It depends on what my goal is. I have had a xx.3 charge shoot .325 MOA and a xx.5 charge spread out to 2.5 MOA. Each load is different and may or may not effect your accuracy to this degree.
You're shooting .5 MOA already. That's pretty darn good. Do you need more accuracy than that? If you do then I would attempt to remove every variable that I could.

1. Sort your brass by weight with anything + or - .5gr going into a practice pile.
2. Make sure all your cases are trimmed to the same length.
3. Ream your flash holes. They are usually punched and not drilled which causes there to be a flap inside the case. You can get a universal reamer that can be used on different calibers.
4. Turn your necks. Once you do you'll be surprised at the variation you find in some cases.
5. Weigh each charge seperately.
6. With a bolt gun you can measure your headspace on a spend case and set your die to only bump the shoulder back slightly.
You may or may not improve on a .5 MOA gun. That could be the best the rifle or shooter is capable of. However, if you remove every variable you can you'll know for sure what you and your weapon are capable of.

 

[Ksmirk]

Only thing I can offer is to do one thing and see what happens, shoot like normal then trim all the cases and see what that gets you, next time beburr the flash holes and see what happens. Some changes are very small at 200-300 yards but really jump out at you when you get out to 600-700 so keep dang good notes on your loads. Later,

Kirk

 

[ripnbst]

If I may offer some advice strictly from a scientific approach POV. I am not a distance shooter but with anything I would make the changes one at a time and see the results. For example, I would take one set (say 20 rnds) and only ream flash holes, another with only one variable changed, another with only one variable changed.

This will be tedious but also yield the most information. Once you've done everything see which changes net you the best results vs time it took to do them to see how much time you want to put in for the desired accuracy.

Hypothetical situation, I have no idea how long these things take. Say it takes 10 minutes to ream the flash holes on one cartidge including setup, actual reaming, and then changeover to next cartridge and you find that doing this only improves accuracy marginally. Then it take 2 minutes to weigh each charge individually and you see great gains in accuracy by doing this. It becomes apparent where you get the most "bang for your buck". If you are really going for absolute best results no matter if one round takes 2.5 hrs to load then I guess have fun with that and disregard my advice.

 

[NikatKimber]

At 200 I wouldn't expect to see vertical stringing due to high ES. At 600 I would. In my experence the biggest problems at long range is ES. Sure assembling straight bullets is important, but with the design of the seater you are using, you can get great runout by seating the bullet in two strokes with a 180


8amax1018.jpg

Holy Big Pics Batman!!! Can you resize those last three?