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Rifles, Reloading, Optics, Equipment
Reloading
Seating depth / Nosler bullets
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<blockquote data-quote="Mike6158" data-source="post: 331404" data-attributes="member: 1039"><p>Thanks Roy. </p><p></p><p>I went to the range today with- A new rifle, a new scope, new brass, and new bullets. New to me anyway. I had loaded 50 rounds fairly conservatively and I ended up shooting 40 of them. </p><p><strong></strong></p><p><strong>It's going to take me a while to get there but I do have a question or two at the end.</strong></p><p><strong></strong></p><p>I had 3 rifles to sight in. (2) brand new AR-15's with 18" Shilen match barrels and my VTR in .308. The AR's have a Leupold AR series (2x - 9x) scopes on them and the VTR has a Leupold Mark IV 4.5x - 14 x 40mm scope on it. Optics wise I'm happy with the Mark IV at 100 yards and eh.. at 200 yards. I'm not liking the AR scopes at all. They'll be ok hunting at 100 yards and less but I doubt I can shoot them accurately beyond 100 - 150 yards. We'll see. I didn't try them at 200 and I was at the range a pretty long time. It rained all day and it was windy so by the time I got to the AR's I wasn't feeling very "accurate".</p><p></p><p>All AR brass was neck turned, trimmed .005 under, primer pockets were trued, flash hole was deburred, FL sized and I used the C.O.L in the manual since it's an autoloader. FWIW... I'll reuse the neck turned brass but I doubt if I neck turn anymore for the AR's. </p><p></p><p>I used nickel plated Remington brass for the .308. All brass was trimmed .005 under, primer pockets were trued, flash hole was deburred, FL sized. I checked neck concentricity and selected 50 pieces of brass that had less than .002 runout. Most was under .0015. So I didn't turn the neck. </p><p></p><p>I used a Sierra #2130 150gr Spitzer Pro-Hunter bullet and loaded 42.2 gr (exactly) of H-335. I used WLR primers. The load was not book max. <strong>C.O.L. of the bullets was <u>2.734</u>. <u>Sierra manual said 2.750</u> <--- we are getting close to my point and questions</strong></p><p></p><p>If I said that my groups sucked that would be being kind. I had a lot of fliers. At 100 yards and even at 200 yards I would get a sub-MOA group and then the group would deteriorate to 2 MOA or worse. Could I take these hunting? Sure... Nothing I shoot will be outside of 200 yards... but I don't reload and do the things that I do to shoot 2 and 3 MOA groups. I'm sorry to say that is the "norm" for the range I go to and I have never been too keen on being a part of the "norm".</p><p></p><p>My self-analysis says that my bullets were way too short and that's what was causing the shotgun like pattern on my targets. I used two different methods to determine the distance to the lands. One of them is obviously not a good choice but it's the one that I used. I used an RCBS Mic gauge to determine distance to the lands. It comes with a little "squishy bullet" that supposedly will give me a reference to the distance from the bottom of the case to where the ogive of the fake bullet contacts the lands. It's worked well for me with my .270 but I think it let me down with the .308. For one thing, it directed me to seat UNDER the Sierra manual recommendation. That should have sent up a red flag but it didn't . Duh. </p><p></p><p>The Stoney Point tool gave me very consistent results with the bullet I was shooting. In my VTR the length was 2.894 to the lands 7 out of 10 tries. Very close on the other three. I didn't use it why? No clue... Too much confidence in the squishy bullet I guess. </p><p></p><p>My plan is to follow the procedure outlined in the link that Roy included above. I'm going to load a dummy round to 2.894 and then use my Mic gauge on it to determine seating depth. From there I'll load in increments and shoot those until I get acceptable groups. I can shot sub-moa at 200 yards with my dead stock .270 and a 3-9 vari-x III leupold scope. Wood stock. No bedding blocks. Nothing fancy... I should be able to do the same with my VTR/HS- Precision Stock/Gee whiz 14.5x scope...</p><p></p><p><strong>Anyone have any thoughts on my plan?</strong></p><p></p><p><strong>Going with the article Roy linked above if I go off of COL I'll end up with loads that are (C.O.L.): </strong></p><p><strong></strong></p><p><strong>2.884"</strong></p><p><strong>2.844"</strong></p><p><strong>2.804"</strong></p><p><strong>2.764"</strong></p><p><strong></strong></p><p><strong>How does that sound. It frankly sounds long to me. Dunno though.</strong></p><p></p><p>One thing that I do know... I ain't loading short again... and I'll pay more attention next time. The reality is that I made a stupid mistake...</p><p></p><p>Thanks in advance</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Mike6158, post: 331404, member: 1039"] Thanks Roy. I went to the range today with- A new rifle, a new scope, new brass, and new bullets. New to me anyway. I had loaded 50 rounds fairly conservatively and I ended up shooting 40 of them. [B] It's going to take me a while to get there but I do have a question or two at the end. [/B] I had 3 rifles to sight in. (2) brand new AR-15's with 18" Shilen match barrels and my VTR in .308. The AR's have a Leupold AR series (2x - 9x) scopes on them and the VTR has a Leupold Mark IV 4.5x - 14 x 40mm scope on it. Optics wise I'm happy with the Mark IV at 100 yards and eh.. at 200 yards. I'm not liking the AR scopes at all. They'll be ok hunting at 100 yards and less but I doubt I can shoot them accurately beyond 100 - 150 yards. We'll see. I didn't try them at 200 and I was at the range a pretty long time. It rained all day and it was windy so by the time I got to the AR's I wasn't feeling very "accurate". All AR brass was neck turned, trimmed .005 under, primer pockets were trued, flash hole was deburred, FL sized and I used the C.O.L in the manual since it's an autoloader. FWIW... I'll reuse the neck turned brass but I doubt if I neck turn anymore for the AR's. I used nickel plated Remington brass for the .308. All brass was trimmed .005 under, primer pockets were trued, flash hole was deburred, FL sized. I checked neck concentricity and selected 50 pieces of brass that had less than .002 runout. Most was under .0015. So I didn't turn the neck. I used a Sierra #2130 150gr Spitzer Pro-Hunter bullet and loaded 42.2 gr (exactly) of H-335. I used WLR primers. The load was not book max. [B]C.O.L. of the bullets was [U]2.734[/U]. [U]Sierra manual said 2.750[/U] <--- we are getting close to my point and questions[/B] If I said that my groups sucked that would be being kind. I had a lot of fliers. At 100 yards and even at 200 yards I would get a sub-MOA group and then the group would deteriorate to 2 MOA or worse. Could I take these hunting? Sure... Nothing I shoot will be outside of 200 yards... but I don't reload and do the things that I do to shoot 2 and 3 MOA groups. I'm sorry to say that is the "norm" for the range I go to and I have never been too keen on being a part of the "norm". My self-analysis says that my bullets were way too short and that's what was causing the shotgun like pattern on my targets. I used two different methods to determine the distance to the lands. One of them is obviously not a good choice but it's the one that I used. I used an RCBS Mic gauge to determine distance to the lands. It comes with a little "squishy bullet" that supposedly will give me a reference to the distance from the bottom of the case to where the ogive of the fake bullet contacts the lands. It's worked well for me with my .270 but I think it let me down with the .308. For one thing, it directed me to seat UNDER the Sierra manual recommendation. That should have sent up a red flag but it didn't . Duh. The Stoney Point tool gave me very consistent results with the bullet I was shooting. In my VTR the length was 2.894 to the lands 7 out of 10 tries. Very close on the other three. I didn't use it why? No clue... Too much confidence in the squishy bullet I guess. My plan is to follow the procedure outlined in the link that Roy included above. I'm going to load a dummy round to 2.894 and then use my Mic gauge on it to determine seating depth. From there I'll load in increments and shoot those until I get acceptable groups. I can shot sub-moa at 200 yards with my dead stock .270 and a 3-9 vari-x III leupold scope. Wood stock. No bedding blocks. Nothing fancy... I should be able to do the same with my VTR/HS- Precision Stock/Gee whiz 14.5x scope... [B]Anyone have any thoughts on my plan?[/B] [B]Going with the article Roy linked above if I go off of COL I'll end up with loads that are (C.O.L.): 2.884" 2.844" 2.804" 2.764" How does that sound. It frankly sounds long to me. Dunno though.[/B] One thing that I do know... I ain't loading short again... and I'll pay more attention next time. The reality is that I made a stupid mistake... Thanks in advance [/QUOTE]
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