What's the process that you use to work up the load? I realize that you have to clean between every shot, but what do you do other than that?
As I have said on other post I am very particular with my loading process and some of the things that I do may not be nessary but I try to leave no stone unturned so that I don't
have to wonder if I missed anything.
So hear is the way I work up my loads.
First I do a full prep on my brass. Polish,Size,Trim,Deburr case mouth,Deburr primer pocket
and weight sort brass to .05 grain lots.
Then look at case capacity to determine the primer to start with. 50grains or less I will
use a standard primer(Non Magnum),50 to 100grains calls for a Magnum primer like the
rem 9 1/2 M ,And over 100graines of powder I will start with the hotter Fed 215.
Next I will deside the bullet type and weight I want to use based on it's intended
use and barrel twist.
Then comes the powder. I look for a powder that will reach max pressure and velocity
at 100% case density.
I start 3 or 4grains below the max and work up .03 grains at a time.
Load 4 or 5 rounds of each and go to the range.
I believe in using the chronograph for load development because the first thing I want to
find is a load with a very low standard deviation(0 to 15).This tells me that I have a good
powder,primer,bullet weight combination.
If a load starts out with poor S D's (first 2 or 3 rounds) I abandon it and save the rest of
that batch for fouling rounds
Once I have low S D's then I play with primers and bullet seating depths to get the best
groups at 200 or 300yrds.
While fine tuning your load only change one component at a time.
That is why I clean,shoot 1 fouling shot,dry patch to remove carbon,and shoot 3 or 4
for S D's drypatching only between each shot.
Before I start testing the next load I do a good solvent clean and start the process
over.
Note!! even though you get good S D's your groups may not be good because of bullet
quality or seating depth ,So I will try other bullet brands of the same weight after I try
different seating depths.
Using this method I have managed to get all of my rifles under 3/8ths MOA and 4 under
1/10 MOA (30/378 .092 ,7 WSM .077 , 7-08 .054 and a 416 buff to .034 ).
Some of the other guys have other ways of getting good accuracy and maby they will
chime in and help with some other ways to get the most out of your rifle/pistol loads.
J E CUSTOM