Any suggestions on improvements?

[Russ Hatch]

I have a ruger 77R 7mm Mauser that I'm working up loads for. I am using the OCW method of load development. I have sorted the cases by weight, turned the necks to clean them up, uniformed the primer pockets and deburred them inside. The charges are weighed on a beam scale. Cases are trimmed to the same length. Firing three shot groups through a CED 2 Cronograph at 100 yds the two best three shot groups were-
Load one Load two
Federal brass Federal brass
Hornady Amax 162 gr Moly Horady 162 grain Amax Moly
Federal 210 M Primer Federal 210 M primer
46.3 gr WW 760 48.1 gr WW 760
average speed 2497 fps 2587 fps
ES 4.0 ES 28.0
SD 2.1 SD 14.9

I am going to load up 20 rounds of each of these loads and try them to see which is better. Acuracy for three shots was about the same., Load one was .405 inch and load two was .504 inch. Does any one have any suggestions as to what I can do to improve the cases or loads that I might have missed?
Thanks
Russ

 

[jmason]

Russ I don't see how (or why you would want to) you could make the load with the sd of 2.1 any better if it repeats I'd keep it and call it a day.

 

[J E Custom]

I have a ruger 77R 7mm Mauser that I'm working up loads for. I am using the OCW method of load development. I have sorted the cases by weight, turned the necks to clean them up, uniformed the primer pockets and deburred them inside. The charges are weighed on a beam scale. Cases are trimmed to the same length. Firing three shot groups through a CED 2 Cronograph at 100 yds the two best three shot groups were-
Load one Load two
Federal brass Federal brass
Hornady Amax 162 gr Moly Horady 162 grain Amax Moly
Federal 210 M Primer Federal 210 M primer
46.3 gr WW 760 48.1 gr WW 760
average speed 2497 fps 2587 fps
ES 4.0 ES 28.0
SD 2.1 SD 14.9

I am going to load up 20 rounds of each of these loads and try them to see which is better. Acuracy for three shots was about the same., Load one was .405 inch and load two was .504 inch. Does any one have any suggestions as to what I can do to improve the cases or loads that I might have missed?
Thanks
Russ

Russ. It sounds like you already have a very good load with a SD of 2.1 but velocity is a little
low unless you intend to shoot targets only.

At this point I would start working on seating depth with those two loads.

You could be to far from the lands and with certain bullets they need to be close.

I normally start at .025 with the standard ojive and .010 with secant ojive bullets and move
closer by .005 at a time. Some times the magazine will not let you get close enough with the
secant ojive bullets and you have to decide if you want to load single or not.

If you want to have a repeater and cant get accuracy and velocity with secant style bullets
try the Accubonds,Balistic Tips,SMKs or other bullets in the same weight class with your
load and you may be surprised at the change (Good or Bad).

Just a thought

J E CUSTOM

 

[jmason]

Russ. It sounds like you already have a very good load with a SD of 2.1 but velocity is a little
low unless you intend to shoot targets only.

Good catch I should have paid more attn. BTW I failed reading comprehension

 

[Russ Hatch]

J. E. Thanks for the comments. I think that the fps is low too, at least it is low compared to the reloading manuals. Not sure if the CED is reading low or not. I'm going to try a differnt chrono and compare. I'm shooting the same barrel length as was used in the manual, in fact I'm shooting the same model rifle and I'm about 130 fps low. I tried the max load listed and got a sticky bolt on the first round so I pulled those loads down real quick. Rugers are famous for long thoats in 7x57 and I have the bullets as far out as I can get them and still work through the magazine. But you got me to thinking that I left the seating die set for the 175 grain round noses that I was loading. I'll try playing with the seating depth and measure these bullets to the lands. Thanks.
Russ