One shot is all it should take. The great sniper Carlos Hathcock taught his students to take a shot, go to the barracks, clean their rifle and come back tomorrow. One shot, and clean your rifle.
For hunters, Carlos Hathcock's method is the way to test your round because it's the one you want to hit at the point of aim.
If your a competition long range shooter, the first shot is to warm the barrel, and then shoot for groups.
For hunters, Carlos Hathcock's method is the way to test your round because it's the one you want to hit at the point of aim.
If your a competition long range shooter, the first shot is to warm the barrel, and then shoot for groups.
I typically remove the bolt on bolt guns and let the air run through the bore to speed up the process.
I have tested many different ways.
Most times I will do 3 quick shots as quick as I can get back on paper and have the same hold on the gun.
Hunting in Oklahoma weather will test you and your gun.. it may be frosty in the morning and the sun will cook your barrel at 3PM.
I also like to test my loads in different temps with ammo cold and gun cold and then ammo warm and gun warm.
Like dennishoddy stated I have also just taken 1 shot and wait 1/2 the day and take another.
I was shooting 3 shot groups testing loads at 300 yards and only could find 2 rounds of a particular load I made.
Both holes were very close to each other and I drove to the 300 yard target and plucked it and drove to a buddys and showed him the target and we discussed the groups.
He liked the 2 hole group and said too bad you could not find the 3rd.
I decided to look the car seat and floor over as it must be there . I found it and drove back to the range he had and set back up and went to the 300 yard spot which was off the top of my car with a front bag only.
That 3rd shot was at least 30 minutes later and it made a bigger hole in one of the holes that was already there.
I still use that load today and it has not been trumped by any of my guns or loads.
Pencil barrel savage axis .223.
My only 3 shot group under 1" at 300 yards.
Try all situations and see what your guns actually do.
Most times I will do 3 quick shots as quick as I can get back on paper and have the same hold on the gun.
Hunting in Oklahoma weather will test you and your gun.. it may be frosty in the morning and the sun will cook your barrel at 3PM.
I also like to test my loads in different temps with ammo cold and gun cold and then ammo warm and gun warm.
Like dennishoddy stated I have also just taken 1 shot and wait 1/2 the day and take another.
I was shooting 3 shot groups testing loads at 300 yards and only could find 2 rounds of a particular load I made.
Both holes were very close to each other and I drove to the 300 yard target and plucked it and drove to a buddys and showed him the target and we discussed the groups.
He liked the 2 hole group and said too bad you could not find the 3rd.
I decided to look the car seat and floor over as it must be there . I found it and drove back to the range he had and set back up and went to the 300 yard spot which was off the top of my car with a front bag only.
That 3rd shot was at least 30 minutes later and it made a bigger hole in one of the holes that was already there.
I still use that load today and it has not been trumped by any of my guns or loads.
Pencil barrel savage axis .223.
My only 3 shot group under 1" at 300 yards.
Try all situations and see what your guns actually do.
That's true, and if one is really serious they will keep weather data like temp's, humidity, altitude and so on in a written log with the associated load to reference later. One may be amazed how well a particular powder performs at 100 degrees F and how poorly the same powder works at sub freezing temperatures.
Thanks I just want to try and find a good load before hunting season instead of waiting till it cools off which is usually November and only have a week to load enough for the grandsons and girls
I've known folks that take an ice chest to the range in the middle of summer to put the ammo and gun in to simulate cold weather shooting.
If I remember right, we had a thread at one time where some of our members did that.
Savage Axis at 200 yards. Back in December 2015 below 20 degrees.
Here is a picture with 3 fliers in it, .223Federal cases always gave me Fliers.
Now I called one while it was being loaded, The round seated much easier than the others.
Anyway Load #3 is 25.5gr Varget and load 1 is 24.5gr.#2 is 25.0gr.
Now the combined group measures 1.365" if you discount the fliers.
Load 3 measured .717" for 3 shots and shot 4 was a flier.
Shots were one right after the other.
Varget shots were performed after shooting a different powder in some other .223 loads i built..Could account for the fliers.
3 different loads of varget at 200 yards.
My scope covers 2" at 200 yards..So that big X I could not see it.
Loads at 100 yards 17 degrees outside LC13 cases below.
Fired just as quick as I could get back on target.
The bad part of all this above is at 55 degrees outside I could barely keep the groups under 1.25" at 100 yards.
Varget does that to me when temps change. I hate using Varget.
H4895 now in my .223.
IMR 4064 in my .308 and 30-06 and .243.
But IMR8208XBR is very good in .308 those last 3 powders keep group sizes the same when weather changes.
At least in my guns with my loads.
60 gr A-max no crimp no cannelure and flat base.
Here is a picture with 3 fliers in it, .223Federal cases always gave me Fliers.
Now I called one while it was being loaded, The round seated much easier than the others.
Anyway Load #3 is 25.5gr Varget and load 1 is 24.5gr.#2 is 25.0gr.
Now the combined group measures 1.365" if you discount the fliers.
Load 3 measured .717" for 3 shots and shot 4 was a flier.
Shots were one right after the other.
Varget shots were performed after shooting a different powder in some other .223 loads i built..Could account for the fliers.
3 different loads of varget at 200 yards.
My scope covers 2" at 200 yards..So that big X I could not see it.
Loads at 100 yards 17 degrees outside LC13 cases below.
Fired just as quick as I could get back on target.
The bad part of all this above is at 55 degrees outside I could barely keep the groups under 1.25" at 100 yards.
Varget does that to me when temps change. I hate using Varget.
H4895 now in my .223.
IMR 4064 in my .308 and 30-06 and .243.
But IMR8208XBR is very good in .308 those last 3 powders keep group sizes the same when weather changes.
At least in my guns with my loads.
60 gr A-max no crimp no cannelure and flat base.
What makes you think those are fliers shooting off a car at 200 yds. with a scope that you cant see the X with. I don't like 3 shot group testing for loads for the most part. Calling fliers is a very very rare thing when I test. Shooting off a car is not very good test for a load. Do you ever have a flier that goes in the last bullet hole or a flier that doesn't hurt group size and eliminate that shot. I doubt it. Most of the time your stock/barrel/bedding at different temps is responsible for the changes.
