How far can I expect to shoot with this load?

[PowellSixO]

Here is a picture of my dummy round. The coal is 3.425". I put it in the die and spun it around a couple of times to see where it made contact. It looks like it is making contact with the ogive.

 

[PowellSixO]

I broke down and opened the wallet a little (I'm cheap) . I bought a Bullet Comparator, a Chronograph, a Digital Scale, a Powder Trickler, and a few other odds and ends today. They should be here by friday hopefuly. I also built a nice 8' reloading table and got all of my stuff mounted and situated. I finally have an open weekend, so hopefuly the weather will coopererate with me this weekend at the range. Pics and some results soon to come. Thanks again for the help everyone.

 

[foggybottombob]

The bullet comparator is going to measure to a point on the bullet where it is just a little smaller than the major bore diameter. You can use your bullet comparator bushings to see if that seating die will give you consistent length from the base of the case to where the comparator bushing hits the bullet. I would like to know what you find checking that. The line you have on your bullet is about where my hornady seating die contacts berger bullets. I have not yet received my Forster seating die.

 

[PowellSixO]

The bullet comparator is going to measure to a point on the bullet where it is just a little smaller than the major bore diameter. You can use your bullet comparator bushings to see if that seating die will give you consistent length from the base of the case to where the comparator bushing hits the bullet. I would like to know what you find checking that. The line you have on your bullet is about where my hornady seating die contacts berger bullets. I have not yet received my Forster seating die.

So are you getting by with your Hornady Seating Die as of now? Am I probably going to need a forster seating die too, or are you getting one just for the ease of use?

 

[foggybottombob]

So are you getting by with your Hornady Seating Die as of now? Am I probably going to need a forster seating die too, or are you getting one just for the ease of use?

I don't think my hornady die is accurate enough for me to seat bergers to the lands. I exchanged some emails with Walt Berger a while back and he said this:

Some of the older seating stems seat the VLD bullet from the tip of the bullet as the relief hole in the bottom of the stem is not deep enough for the VLD bullet. This can be corrected by drilling this relief hole deper. I do believe all of the newer stems have this relief hole deep enough to accommodate our VLD bullets. You can check this by removing the seating stem from the die coating the ogive of the bullet with a marking pen and inserting it into the concave portion of the stem and turning the bullet. If the stem contacts the bullet around the ogive and does not contact the tip of the bullet your seating depth will be with in a plus or minus a few thousands. ~ Walt Berger

But I wanted to go ahead and get a die that had micrometer markings on it so that it would be easier to setup every time.

 

[PowellSixO]

I don't think my hornady die is accurate enough for me to seat bergers to the lands. I exchanged some emails with Walt Berger a while back and he said this:

Some of the older seating stems seat the VLD bullet from the tip of the bullet as the relief hole in the bottom of the stem is not deep enough for the VLD bullet. This can be corrected by drilling this relief hole deper. I do believe all of the newer stems have this relief hole deep enough to accommodate our VLD bullets. You can check this by removing the seating stem from the die coating the ogive of the bullet with a marking pen and inserting it into the concave portion of the stem and turning the bullet. If the stem contacts the bullet around the ogive and does not contact the tip of the bullet your seating depth will be with in a plus or minus a few thousands. ~ Walt Berger

But I wanted to go ahead and get a die that had micrometer markings on it so that it would be easier to setup every time.

Ok nice. That's good info right there. I'll give that a go tonight and see. You have been a great help so far. Hopefuly everything comes together for me. I've got 20 cases cleaned, sized, trimmed, chamfered, deburred, and primed. I'm gonna wait till I get the bullet comparator and then load them. I'm gonna start at the minimum powder amount and work my way up in increments of .5 graings, untill I see signs of pressure and then back it off a bit. I'm gonna seat all of these so that the bullet is just touching the lands. Once I get my powder right, then I'm gonna load several rounds (maybe 20) with that powder amount and with all of the bullets seated to the lands. I'll see how that goes for accuracy and see if I need to play with seating depth. I guess if I have to play with seating depths after that I will probably have to play with powder amount again right? Becuase I should have higher pressure with the bullet seated to the lands right? Once I back the bullet of the lands I should see lower pressures if I am understanding this whole thing right. Thanks again for the help so far.

 

[foggybottombob]

Ok nice. That's good info right there. I'll give that a go tonight and see. You have been a great help so far. Hopefuly everything comes together for me. I've got 20 cases cleaned, sized, trimmed, chamfered, deburred, and primed. I'm gonna wait till I get the bullet comparator and then load them. I'm gonna start at the minimum powder amount and work my way up in increments of .5 graings, untill I see signs of pressure and then back it off a bit. I'm gonna seat all of these so that the bullet is just touching the lands. Once I get my powder right, then I'm gonna load several rounds (maybe 20) with that powder amount and with all of the bullets seated to the lands. I'll see how that goes for accuracy and see if I need to play with seating depth. I guess if I have to play with seating depths after that I will probably have to play with powder amount again right? Becuase I should have higher pressure with the bullet seated to the lands right? Once I back the bullet of the lands I should see lower pressures if I am understanding this whole thing right. Thanks again for the help so far.

Everybody says that touching the lands raises the pressure but I have not seen any change in velocity on the chronograph between a 0.020" jump and a 0 jump. I don't see any more pressure signs on the cases between those two either. So I assume this might vary from one rifle to another. And an increment of 0.5 grains is too much once you are closing in on max loads. Just shoot 1 each of the starting loads and check for pressure. Then once you are within a grain of the max increment no more than 0.2 grains each time. You should shoot several of each load once you get to the higher velocity rounds. I load 4 or 5 of each powder loading when I am close to what I expect to be good hunting loads.

 

[PowellSixO]

Everybody says that touching the lands raises the pressure but I have not seen any change in velocity on the chronograph between a 0.020" jump and a 0 jump. I don't see any more pressure signs on the cases between those two either. So I assume this might vary from one rifle to another. And an increment of 0.5 grains is too much once you are closing in on max loads. Just shoot 1 each of the starting loads and check for pressure. Then once you are within a grain of the max increment no more than 0.2 grains each time. You should shoot several of each load once you get to the higher velocity rounds. I load 4 or 5 of each powder loading when I am close to what I expect to be good hunting loads.

Thanks, once again . So once I do see signs of pressure, how far should I back off?

 

[foggybottombob]

Thanks, once again . So once I do see signs of pressure, how far should I back off?

Best answer I have is "till you don't". But nobody is going to take liability for telling you what to load. Just be careful.

 

[PowellSixO]

Best answer I have is "till you don't". But nobody is going to take liability for telling you what to load. Just be careful.

Yeah I understand. I will be careful. Hopefully I have some good pictures and results to post this weekend.

 

[PowellSixO]

Well I wish I had some good news to share from the weekend, but I don't. I was sizing more brass so that I could finally just load some rounds to go find my max load. Well I forgot to lube one case and it is now stuck. The only good news from the whole ordeal is that I ordered a RCBS Competition Die set to replace my existing die set. It should be here tomorrow, and I will get back after it. I finally used my bullet comparator to get an official measurement. So now I know what it takes to get to the lands consistently. So I am making progress, just slow progress.

 

[roninflag]

Powell- i load mine .030 off in my sendero. i only load the 168 to 2925 . shot a rocky mtn bighorn, antelope and mule deer. no elk with it yet. my last two bulls were 11 and 26 yards with a 30-06. enjoy

 

[PowellSixO]

Powell- i load mine .030 off in my sendero. i only load the 168 to 2925 . shot a rocky mtn bighorn, antelope and mule deer. no elk with it yet. my last two bulls were 11 and 26 yards with a 30-06. enjoy

I've got my rifle in the truck right now. In 30 minutes when I get off work I'm finally headed to the range. I have 15 rounds worked up right now.
65 gr, 65.5 gr, 66 gr, and so on up to 72 gr. I've got all of these seated to the lands. I'll play with seating depth that later. Just figured I would start there since a lot of rifles seem to prefer having the bullet touching the lands with the VLD's. I'm hoping to find my max load only this afternoon. That new RCBS Competition Bullet Seating Die that I just got is awesome. I set it once and loaded the remaining 14 rounds. I measured all of them with my bullet comparator, and they were all within .0005". I was extremely pleased at how well it worked and how easy it was to use. I've got my chrony in the truck too so I can get some velocities of each round. I'll post some results later tonight or in the morning. I'm excited .gun)

 

[PowellSixO]

Ok guys I finally have a report! I went out last night and found my max load. I started at 65 gr and worked up .5 gr at a time until I hit 70 gr. At 70 gr's I didn't have bolt lift issues but my primer was flat, so I called it good. So I'm gonna call 69.5 gr's my max load, and that's exactly what Load Data said would be my max load with the H1000 and the 168 bergers. So I was pretty pleased. Not to mention I was getting 3026 fps with the 69.5 gr round. I hit 3049 fps with the 70 gr round. I couldn't be more pleased with that! I was seating all of my bullets to the lands when doing my testing. I'm gonna do as berger says now and load several rounds at 69.5 gr's but play with the seating depth and see what I can get for accuracy. If I can get .5 moa I'll call it good. If I can't I'll play with different powder amounts after that and more seating depths. It was very windy yesterday when I was shooting, but I could really see the rounds starting to tighten up at 100 yards when I approached my max load, and that was with different powder amounts. I'm thinking that I will be able to get some good accuracy with just playing with my seating depths. Here is a picture of my target. The first two shots were at the bottom right (just to get on paper and see if my chrony worked). The next three were at the top right. The next three were at the bottom left, and the last three were at the top left. I didn't play with the scope adjustments at all mind you.