THA thing you did to your ammo to help your precision is ?

[herbeapuce]

Hi.
I'm not doing to good with my reloads... I am also fairly new to this addiction ;-)

maybe some of you more experimented reloaders here could share with me and others what really made the big difference in their ammo ....

what would you say was the most important thing you did to your reloads (not to your rifle plz) to help your grouping

things that come in mind:

getting better cases
weighting the case
neck turning the case
neck sizing only ( obviously)
interior neck reaming
neck tension
primer choice
more accurate scale
better dies
better seating die
playing with OAL
crimping
polishing the chamfer
deburing primer hole

etc etc etc


what single action did you do to your ammo that evening to get that big smile on your face at the range that day , when you finally realized what was it you were doing wrong or omitting ?

I am not looking for being a F class champion, I just want to feel good about my reloads and have a close to .5 inch group with my tikka t3 varmint in 25-06. At this time I have only reloaded about 200 shells in various powders , OAL, primers, bullets; and I get a lot of flyers... on a group of 5 , I often get 1 or 2 holes touching, but then the flyers... I end up at 1" to 2"....

thanks for your time and knowledge.

stef

[Daveinjax]

Hate to tell you this but.. it's not one thing. It's when you get it all right that it works. Oh , no crimping !

[Daveinjax]

You might try posting a detailed description of how you are loading and with what tools in what caliber ect and see if some members can point out a few errors or ways to improve. There are lots of variables and there is no silver bullet.

[farout]

When I was trying to find that magic .5 MOA or better with my 25-06. I found a few things that helped that I don't believe were on the list.

..Don't mix different case brands when reloading (Don't shoot two Winchesters and then one Remington and expect to get a good group.)
... Neck tension does matter. cases should be annealed after about 4 firings. Do not shoot groups with cases that have different round counts on them (Don't shoot two 3 times fired cases with a never fired case and expect to get a good group.)
... Bullet choice. ( If you are starting out with something like a Berger VLD and getting flyers, get a bullet that is easier to tune. Like a Sierra GameKing or a Nosler Ballistic Tip.)

BUT as the above folks said. YOUR issue could be anything. A detailed description of how you are reloading and what tools your using would go a long ways to helping you find a solution from the board here.

[dakota1tn]

I like nosler brass. Expensive but worth it. The thing that made the most difference in my loading was when I started measuring for the ogive of the bullet instead of form the tip. Every gun will vary but most will have a sweet spot anywhere from touching the lands out to 50 thou. all factors matter but this made the biggest diff. for me. Also all brand bullets do not shoot the same. Nosler is usually very accurate.

[herbeapuce]

Ok here we go , bear with me plz

My rifle is a tikka t3 stainless varmint, 24 inches barrel and 1 in 10 in 25-06

I started reloading about 6 mouths ago, but I can’t spend too much time a it

I am still using my Rem and Winchester cases from when I use to buy factory ammo. I don't mismatch brand. I may shoot 30 Rem and then 65 win...the cases have been reloaded no more than 5 times each I would say.

I use :


Froster co-axial press
Lee deluxe die kit
Later bought a expensive froster benchrest seating die
Lyman gravity scale, 2 cheap digital scales ( gemini-20 )
I have a screwdriver type rcbs primer hole deburring tool ( that one to be used once only)
Lee case cutter on my drill, Lee chamfer and deburr, also have rcbs deburring tool
I do not have a thumbler , and I have stopped washing the case in water / vinager. Seems to me it wasn't doing much.
I use the primer tool that came on my press. I do not have a dedicated primer tool
I did once weigh all the cases and made groups, but they are all mismatched now, ( no difference so I gave up..)
I have measured with my cleaning rod the max OAL for my rifle and I usually try to be .005 to .01 shorter

So I take a case , deprime & neck size it , cut to length with the lee and my drill, chamfer inside ( I find I don’t have to deburr outside as I can't really see or feel a burr )
Then I scrape the primer hole, then I prime.
I take good care of measuring my powder but I suspect my scale(s) to be not so precise. If I alternate from one digital to the other digital, I always get a different reading. If I shake my tray and put back on scale, I sometime get a new reading… the errors are never more than 0.05 g though . (I will have a My Scale 250 in the mail soon if I don't get any better)
I seat the bullet right way. now using 117 hornady interbond, used NBT 100g and 85g varmint


Then I go to our 100 yard only range and test with my baush and lomb 6x24x40
I do not clean my barrel every ? rounds (<-- plz put number there)
I do wait 2 minutes between shots ( less right now as it’s winter here and cold )
I start at minimum load in the recipe book and go up o.5g at the time. I always shoot 5 bullets groups. It seems my rifle does’t like anything pass minimum. If I get close to medium max load, it really opens up …
I clean my rifle at home and back in safe.

I am sure I am forgetting somethings , but that’s about it..

what do you think ?

(my question is : THA thing you did to your ammo to help your precision is ? )

thanks in advance guys

stef

[Daveinjax]

Couple things right off the top. The cases need to be from the same batch. If this is fired factory casings you bought 20 at a time and you didn't segregate them into the boxes they came from the you need a bag of brass. Mix and match lots will cause fliers. Next , I would trust the beam scale a lot more than the electronic scales. When using the beam scale throw the charge just a bit light then trickle up. If you go over dump the charge and start over. Don't try to pick a few kernels out. You have some quality equipment to work with and some refining of your practices will get you there. Fix the brass and the possible charge drift and see where you are.