I am trying to work up a load for the 180 Berger hvld in a 7mm rem mag. I shot a ladder at 660 yards and had 4 inches of vertical between 68.5, 69 and 69.5 of h-1000. I loaded up 69 grains and tested seating depth .010, .030, .050 and .070 off the lands. Tested at 300. .030 and .070 bot shot about 2.5 inches. It was fairly windy so I loaded up just the .030 and .070 off loads and tested them at 105 yds with no wind. Both shot .75 inches. The problem is I know this fun can shoot tighter. The groups show two touching and one off. It was the same for both seating depths. It happened the first time at 300 yards as well. At 300 yds there were two right next to each other and one 2.5 inches away. What would be your next step? How do I get the one round to suck in? Forgot to mention the order is 1st shot then 2nd one off and then the 3rd back touching the first. Attached are the 105 yard groups.
What’s causing this group?
- Thread starter Zman99
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LaHunter
Well-Known Member
I may be off, but I was under the impression that you should be looking for less vertical spread than 4" at 660 yards while doing a ladder to really be confident that you were in a good 'accuracy node'. Hopefully other with more ladder experience will offer their opinion.
Also, while doing load development, I find it better to load 5 rounds at a given charge & seating depth. If I can put 5 rounds inside .5 moa, I have much more confidence in the load vs just 3 rounds.
Your 'flyer' may not be a flyer, it may just be part of your group with that load & seating depth. If you shoot 5 rounds, your .75 moa group may end up being 1 moa or larger.
FYI, the Berger vld type bullets can be more difficult to dial in. They tend to be less forgiving when it comes to seating depth. I listened to a podcast recently with Berger speaking about the vld vs their hybrid hunter bullets and seating depth.
Good luck
Also, while doing load development, I find it better to load 5 rounds at a given charge & seating depth. If I can put 5 rounds inside .5 moa, I have much more confidence in the load vs just 3 rounds.
Your 'flyer' may not be a flyer, it may just be part of your group with that load & seating depth. If you shoot 5 rounds, your .75 moa group may end up being 1 moa or larger.
FYI, the Berger vld type bullets can be more difficult to dial in. They tend to be less forgiving when it comes to seating depth. I listened to a podcast recently with Berger speaking about the vld vs their hybrid hunter bullets and seating depth.
Good luck
Jon Bischof
Well-Known Member
The above advice from LAHunter makes sense to me because you stated that the order of your shots is 1st, 2nd off and the 3rd touching the 1st. That would be really perplexing to me and I would probably scrub my bore furiously with Barnes CR10 Copper Remover.
Maybe you should try the VLD at a different seating depth and see if you can get three that stay together. Yeah, that 1, 2 away from the flock, 3 with the 1st thing would bug the heck out of me; especially since 1 & 3 are so close.
Maybe you should try the VLD at a different seating depth and see if you can get three that stay together. Yeah, that 1, 2 away from the flock, 3 with the 1st thing would bug the heck out of me; especially since 1 & 3 are so close.
Farmerboy78
Well-Known Member
From my experience with Berger vlds, they like to be right against the rifling if not slightly jammed. In every rifle I shoot or have shot them in.
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This!
You'd be surprised how a primer change can make a group betterAs said three shots don't tell the whole story. That one out could come from MANY things. Just simple difference in the way you mount the rifle could cause this. Is the rifle capable of bug hole accuracy? It is a belted mag, is it head spacing off the belt or the shoulder? I could go on for a while. Good luck.
Story of my life. Get 2 in one hole then screw the third one. I thought it was me but replies to your question may enlighten!!
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Try varying your neck tension. Hows your ES/SD?
new2mud
Well-Known Member
This article is getting lots of attention lately:
precisionrifleblog.com
The TL;DR summary is that you may want to try 0.090 and .110 off lands as well, if you are looking for a long-term forgiving jump (despte potentially not necessarily providing the tightest group for right now in your barrel's stage of life.)
Bullet Jump: Is Less Always Better?
About 2 years ago, Mark Gordon shared some preliminary research he’d conducted with the Applied Bal...
The TL;DR summary is that you may want to try 0.090 and .110 off lands as well, if you are looking for a long-term forgiving jump (despte potentially not necessarily providing the tightest group for right now in your barrel's stage of life.)
Your powder charge window isn't wide enough to gain any definitive information.
I would start over and widen the powder charge range if at all possible.
