While not an expert at reloading I do understand most things I read and hear about it. But I have a head scratcher for you LR pros.
I've reloaded for 5 calibers over the past week trying to get read to go to a 1100 range with some friends I've never shot with before. I can't just take my stuff to the range and drop the tail gate. I have to be methodical and "impressive" with/about it! ;-)
So I bought a new Caldwell chronograph and so far it has been way more accurate Shooting Chrony I wound up shooting on purpose.
So while I was shooting for groups and a good zero, I was recording velocities. My 338 Lapua stayed in the 6-7 range, 308 Win in the 5-6 range, 6.6 CM went up to 17 and 243 was about 12. 223 Remington finished in the low 20's.
As I understand it, smaller calibers tend to run higher in SD's than larger ones. Having said that, my best groups of the five calibers were with the 243 @ .234" and the 6.5CM at .416". 308 and 338 stayed around .650 - .800. Will definitely do some tweaking on them before I settle on a load. The 243 loads were some of 500 107 SMK's I bought in 2013 and loaded in December of 2013. They were shooting 0.195 and smaller. Probably have shot 2-3000 rounds down the barrel since I shot those and could not for the life of me get them under .234" Was also disappointed in the CM load. It had been shooting 0.233 last month.
So here it is; best groups were with two of the highest SD's. That didn't seem to affect them at 100 yards, but is this high SD going to send my groups in to a whirl wind by the time it travels another 900 yards?
Thanks in advance for informative replies.
Bee
I've reloaded for 5 calibers over the past week trying to get read to go to a 1100 range with some friends I've never shot with before. I can't just take my stuff to the range and drop the tail gate. I have to be methodical and "impressive" with/about it! ;-)
So I bought a new Caldwell chronograph and so far it has been way more accurate Shooting Chrony I wound up shooting on purpose.
So while I was shooting for groups and a good zero, I was recording velocities. My 338 Lapua stayed in the 6-7 range, 308 Win in the 5-6 range, 6.6 CM went up to 17 and 243 was about 12. 223 Remington finished in the low 20's.
As I understand it, smaller calibers tend to run higher in SD's than larger ones. Having said that, my best groups of the five calibers were with the 243 @ .234" and the 6.5CM at .416". 308 and 338 stayed around .650 - .800. Will definitely do some tweaking on them before I settle on a load. The 243 loads were some of 500 107 SMK's I bought in 2013 and loaded in December of 2013. They were shooting 0.195 and smaller. Probably have shot 2-3000 rounds down the barrel since I shot those and could not for the life of me get them under .234" Was also disappointed in the CM load. It had been shooting 0.233 last month.
So here it is; best groups were with two of the highest SD's. That didn't seem to affect them at 100 yards, but is this high SD going to send my groups in to a whirl wind by the time it travels another 900 yards?
Thanks in advance for informative replies.
Bee