Load Development Ruger Precision Rifle .243

[jdmecomber]

The five rounds I fired for the test were all well over max length and varied some. I will anneal again and trim all the same. I will see if that drops the es some in this cold weather.

Annealed vs not annealed
I shot two groups of 5

This season has been kind of busy for me. I have been loading and shooting without double checking a couple things. With the previous group, I had the excessive trim length and also I was kissing the lands or a little jump in the last group. So these two groups I fixed that, The first group I shot 5 rounds of not annealed at .010 jump back to where I originally developed this load. I had some cheap factory ammo so I shot one factory round before the handloads.

Not annealed
2-6th
2882
2871
2894
2892
2909 6th round opened the spread to 38ES SD 12 not so great.

By not keeping up on trim length, doubling checking seating depth and not annealing. I had high extreme spreads and much higher velocity. Once the trim length came back down and seating depth was correct my velocity slowed but the spreads were still too high.

I waited about 10 minutes, it was about 32 degrees outside. I wanted to make sure that I held the gun a little tighter back to my shoulder and tried to control the recoil as smoothly as I could.
Annealed
7-11

2901
2898
2897
2913
2900

I know its a small sample group but wow. 4 rounds had a 4 extreme spread and one opening it up to 16 Extreme spread. I like that. Maybe custom chambers and the like would even get better? This is the RPR .243

 

[RonS]

30" barrel that will be nice. Are you going to gain much with that 115?

So the results are in. Tested in about 38 degrees today. Principally around two nodes. 45.4 and 47.8 grains of H1000 using CCI 200 primers, Hornady brass which was full length sized with unturned necks, 115 grain DTAC's with rebated boat tail and closed nose set .020 off the lands. The lower load is uncompressed. The higher load is compressed. This is through the Criterion 30 inch barrel with a match chamber and 7.5 twist. The barrel has about 100 rounds down it now so it should be broken in. Looking at it in a bore scope tonight after cleaning though it looked new.

Testing was done at 200 yards rather than my preferred 100. The 200 yard benches are out in the open and surrounded by about 5 inches of very sloppy snow that turns to mud as you stomp it down. The bench posts appear to be rotted or the ground is so soft that the slightest touch wobbles the bench. Coupled with the benches being to high it makes for a very iffy testing setup. The 100 yard benches are covered and nice and stable but there was a muzzle loader match hogging the whole line today. Anyway, the results were similar to 100 although the MOA opened up a bit. At 100 on the stable benched I had about .375 MOA at the lower load and about .25 MOA at the higher node. Today at 200 I was about a half MOA greater. Pretty sure it was due to the benches and the setup. More testing prone as the wet and the mud go away will tell.

So results at those two nodes are:

45.4 grains: V = 2964, SD = 13, ES = 31, MOA = .875 (no pressure sign)
47.8 grains: V = 3128, SD = 17, ES = 40, MOA - .750 (very slight primer cratering)

Nothing to brag about but it is what it was today. Both the SD and the ES are of course unacceptable. Those will translate to a lot of vertical at 1000 yards. The MOA is also unacceptable but at 200, those SD numbers don't really explain how it opened up .5 MOA over the 100 yard testing. Pretty sure it was the setup as my heartbeat was rocking the bench (or at least the gun). The only thing I was pleased with was the velocities.

I have some Federal 210m primers and some Lapua brass so the testing will continue. In general, I think that the 115 DTAC's are the way to go in this barrel. The lands are a bit close though and I need to seat the bullets deeper than I want to. May need to visit the PT&G website to order a 6mm throat reamer and extend the throat another .050-.100. It's only money right.

 

[jdmecomber]

So the results are in. Tested in about 38 degrees today. Principally around two nodes. 45.4 and 47.8 grains of H1000 using CCI 200 primers, Hornady brass which was full length sized with unturned necks, 115 grain DTAC's with rebated boat tail and closed nose set .020 off the lands. The lower load is uncompressed. The higher load is compressed. This is through the Criterion 30 inch barrel with a match chamber and 7.5 twist. The barrel has about 100 rounds down it now so it should be broken in. Looking at it in a bore scope tonight after cleaning though it looked new.

Testing was done at 200 yards rather than my preferred 100. The 200 yard benches are out in the open and surrounded by about 5 inches of very sloppy snow that turns to mud as you stomp it down. The bench posts appear to be rotted or the ground is so soft that the slightest touch wobbles the bench. Coupled with the benches being to high it makes for a very iffy testing setup. The 100 yard benches are covered and nice and stable but there was a muzzle loader match hogging the whole line today. Anyway, the results were similar to 100 although the MOA opened up a bit. At 100 on the stable benched I had about .375 MOA at the lower load and about .25 MOA at the higher node. Today at 200 I was about a half MOA greater. Pretty sure it was due to the benches and the setup. More testing prone as the wet and the mud go away will tell.

So results at those two nodes are:

45.4 grains: V = 2964, SD = 13, ES = 31, MOA = .875 (no pressure sign)
47.8 grains: V = 3128, SD = 17, ES = 40, MOA - .750 (very slight primer cratering)

Nothing to brag about but it is what it was today. Both the SD and the ES are of course unacceptable. Those will translate to a lot of vertical at 1000 yards. The MOA is also unacceptable but at 200, those SD numbers don't really explain how it opened up .5 MOA over the 100 yard testing. Pretty sure it was the setup as my heartbeat was rocking the bench (or at least the gun). The only thing I was pleased with was the velocities.

I have some Federal 210m primers and some Lapua brass so the testing will continue. In general, I think that the 115 DTAC's are the way to go in this barrel. The lands are a bit close though and I need to seat the bullets deeper than I want to. May need to visit the PT&G website to order a 6mm throat reamer and extend the throat another .050-.100. It's only money right.

Sounds like you're making progress.

Have you done the throat reamer before? I had a gunsmith tell me you could easily mess that up?

Also have you shot the 107 MK HPB? I got a box of them. My 105 vld seem to not be grouping like they used to. I tried some and was impressed.

 

[BallisticsGuy]

Y'all should try out RL23. With the case reasonably full there's high velocity, no pressure signs and single digit sd's coming from my ackley-ized version. Figure around 41-42 grains should be sparkly.

 

[jdmecomber]

Y'all should try out RL23. With the case reasonably full there's high velocity, no pressure signs and single digit sd's coming from my ackley-ized version. Figure around 41-42 grains should be sparkly.

I have yet to try anything in the RL line

 

[RonS]

Sounds like you're making progress.

Have you done the throat reamer before? I had a gunsmith tell me you could easily mess that up?

Also have you shot the 107 MK HPB? I got a box of them. My 105 vld seem to not be grouping like they used to. I tried some and was impressed.

I've extended the throat on my 223 1:7 twist bolt gun to seat 90 grain bullets and on my 308 1:8 twist barrel to seat 230 grain bullets. That 308 barrel also fits this RPR. It's pretty simple. The PTG reamers are piloted and designed to work with a T handle or a lathe. You don't want to do this operation on a lathe (at least I wouldn't). Light touch by hand and feel it. Cut a little, clean, measure, repeat until you've got the throat you want. Use a high quality cutting oil as you're cutting. If you have a bore scope, you can how it creates uniform lands as the throat extends. Really cleans up a factory barrel. If the barrel was chambered straight and centered correctly. Not much you can do if chamber or the bore itself is Fubared.

Have not tried the 107's. I want this to be a DTAC gun. If I have trouble with them I'll start trying other bullets but at this point, it looks like it has promise. Got a batch of 20 each of the above loads loaded and ready to do some more testing to see if the SD numbers stabilize.

 

[Barrelnut]

Annealed vs not annealed
I shot two groups of 5

This season has been kind of busy for me. I have been loading and shooting without double checking a couple things. With the previous group, I had the excessive trim length and also I was kissing the lands or a little jump in the last group. So these two groups I fixed that, The first group I shot 5 rounds of not annealed at .010 jump back to where I originally developed this load. I had some cheap factory ammo so I shot one factory round before the handloads.

Not annealed
2-6th
2882
2871
2894
2892
2909 6th round opened the spread to 38ES SD 12 not so great.

By not keeping up on trim length, doubling checking seating depth and not annealing. I had high extreme spreads and much higher velocity. Once the trim length came back down and seating depth was correct my velocity slowed but the spreads were still too high.

I waited about 10 minutes, it was about 32 degrees outside. I wanted to make sure that I held the gun a little tighter back to my shoulder and tried to control the recoil as smoothly as I could.
Annealed
7-11

2901
2898
2897
2913
2900

I know its a small sample group but wow. 4 rounds had a 4 extreme spread and one opening it up to 16 Extreme spread. I like that. Maybe custom chambers and the like would even get better? This is the RPR .243

Nice to see documented results for annealing. What is your annealing method? I searched the thread but didn't see it. Thanks.

 

[jdmecomber]

Nice to see documented results for annealing. What is your annealing method? I searched the thread but didn't see it. Thanks.

I have a sagebrush annealing machine, but for the money I would put it towards a different model. IMO

 

[Barrelnut]

I have a sagebrush annealing machine, but for the money I would put it towards a different model. IMO

Well your shot string shows that you can get good results with a flame. That's good to know.

 

[Mike 338]

Neck tension... I think it's a bigger deal than we'd like to give it credit for.

 

[RonS]

For those of you who want to get into neck turning, something just got posted in the reloading section of the classified that will take you one step further down that rabbit hole.

 

[jdmecomber]

I was messing around with a couple different bipods on the RPR. I was at 200 yards prone which I removed a foot of snow to do so, comparing the Atlas vs the Harris Bipod benchrest model.

When I shoot the Atlas it always seems to move too much while the Harris seems a little more sturdy.

There is a huge difference in group size. 7-8 round groups.
Atlas was a clear winner.

Disclaimer I don't sell Atlas Products

 

[jdmecomber]

I was messing around with a couple different bipods on the RPR. I was at 200 yards prone which I removed a foot of snow to do so, comparing the Atlas vs the Harris Bipod benchrest model.

When I shoot the Atlas it always seems to move too much while the Harris seems a little more sturdy.

There is a huge difference in group size. 7-8 round groups.
Atlas was a clear winner.

Disclaimer I don't sell Atlas Products

It should also be noted that this gun was developed off an Atlas not a Harris. I am sure that would make a big difference also

 

[jdmecomber]

It seems neck sizing only is becoming a thing of the past. I just ordered some Redding full length/neck sizing dies. I am curious how much change I will see?

With neck sizing only, my Lapua brass lasted about 9-10 shots. I just had to retire about 90 cases. They were starting to separate.