Badlands Precision Bullets thread - From BC to terminal ballistics

That is a very excellent load, excellent grouping. Will dispatch anything in North America.

My thoughts exactly! I have not seen many use 225 class bullets in the 338 Norma, but I figured why not?? The light mono's going fast like 140-150's in 7mm's, 125's in 6.5's are just wicked combo's. Why not apply the same concept to a big bore too I guess. Those 225's have really great BC's too, actually about the same as 250 gr Berger EH's... but significantly faster/flatter. Everything pencils for me!
 
Even though conditions were pretty much the worst I have ever shot in today, (20 mph north wind, 1 degree) I did find a couple good shooting loads. After I got all situated out of the wind and gnar where I could get solid I landed on this load:

6.5 PRC (18" Proof BBL, 7.5 twist, TBAC Ultra 7)

Badlands Bulldozer 2 125 grain
ADG Brass
Fed 215M Primer
56.7 Grains 4831 SC
2.355 CBTO
3035 FPS...I think

I had a hell of a time getting my LabRadar to work today, I think it was because of the cold and the relative ground blizzard that was happening at the time. I finally took a couple rounds and shot them out of the garage so I could get out of the siberia like conditions. I got one reading that was 3035. This makes sense to me, my 124 HH load with the same powder (57.2 grains however) is 3030 fps, and I have a ton of data on that load. I will load up a bunch of these and go validate at distance maybe tomorrow if the weather isn't horrible. Then...maybe an Aoudad in a couple of weeks. I guess no time like the present to test out on some live media.
Made it out this am to validate at distance, was excited to see some results from 4-800 yards. Long story short, I am back to the drawing board for loads. The first time out I shot groups at 100 and 200 and had decent accuracy, probably 5/8 MOA. Not the tightest groups I have shot, but not terrible either. This morning was cold, but almost no wind, which is nice. My 100 yard zero groups weren't great, and things just got worse from there.

I thought it was me, or some scope or rifle malfunction at first, but luckily I had about 20 rounds of my old load with me and shot those. I put 3 in the same hole at 100, and then center punched every plate out to about 750. I looked back through this thread and it looks like these bullets might be a little more "finicky" when handloading....who knows? I did notice a definitive improved BC with the BD bullets, but even then I was catching alot of edge of plate or a little high or low. I certainly haven't given up on them by any means, but will have to revisit when I have enough time to try some different powders, primers, seating depths, etc. Hopefully I can find a "sweet spot" with these so to speak down the road. I got pretty spoiled with load development with this gun at first, I had a hard time finding something that wouldn't shoot. I will report back when I try some different combos.
 
Made it out this am to validate at distance, was excited to see some results from 4-800 yards. Long story short, I am back to the drawing board for loads. The first time out I shot groups at 100 and 200 and had decent accuracy, probably 5/8 MOA. Not the tightest groups I have shot, but not terrible either. This morning was cold, but almost no wind, which is nice. My 100 yard zero groups weren't great, and things just got worse from there.

I thought it was me, or some scope or rifle malfunction at first, but luckily I had about 20 rounds of my old load with me and shot those. I put 3 in the same hole at 100, and then center punched every plate out to about 750. I looked back through this thread and it looks like these bullets might be a little more "finicky" when handloading....who knows? I did notice a definitive improved BC with the BD bullets, but even then I was catching alot of edge of plate or a little high or low. I certainly haven't given up on them by any means, but will have to revisit when I have enough time to try some different powders, primers, seating depths, etc. Hopefully I can find a "sweet spot" with these so to speak down the road. I got pretty spoiled with load development with this gun at first, I had a hard time finding something that wouldn't shoot. I will report back when I try some different combos.
What jump were you using? A 2 shot per jump ladder would be the way to go first.
 
60 thou. Tried 10 (barely fit in mag), 30, 50, 60, 80.

Most of the bullets I have shot in the past aren't very sensitive to seating depth, so this is a new one for me. I tried at least (3) 5 shot groups and there would usually be a couple in tight, then a couple that were pretty severe outliers. This held true at distance as well. I would catch the edge of plate on the first shot, then sort of walk them in from there. It was really hard to shoot groups at distance because I couldn't hold an MOA group on some of the plates.
 
60 thou. Tried 10 (barely fit in mag), 30, 50, 60, 80.

Most of the bullets I have shot in the past aren't very sensitive to seating depth, so this is a new one for me. I tried at least (3) 5 shot groups and there would usually be a couple in tight, then a couple that were pretty severe outliers. This held true at distance as well. I would catch the edge of plate on the first shot, then sort of walk them in from there. It was really hard to shoot groups at distance because I couldn't hold an MOA group on some of the plates.
For hunting purposes you don't need 5 shot groups. In the hunting situation THE most important shot is the cold bore shot. The object is one shot, one kill. Two shot groups are the most relevant. If your cold bore shot and the follow up shot are within 1/2" of each other and your first shot hit the point of aim then you are good. 5 shot groups add other variables such as barrel creep with heating. Many hunting rifles have thinner barrels to save weight, which increases vibration amplitude of the barrel and faster heating because the heat capacity of the barrel is low, as is the stiffness. This makes it harder to shoot tight groups with more than 2 shots. I use a 20" long 0.9" muzzle .308 Win which is very stiff, vibrates at a low amplitude and is long enough to generate 2950 fps with a 150 gr BD2 bullet with a G1 BC equivalent to the 185 Berger Juggernaut and better penetration at virtually all distances. Weight is about 9.5 lbs, light enough to carry all day, but heavy enough to absorb recoil which can further be mitigated by a short suppressor or muzzle brake.
 
I tried at least (3) 5 shot groups and there would usually be a couple in tight, then a couple that were pretty severe outliers.
If your cold bore shot and the follow up shot are within 1/2"
That was the issue, usually my outliers were the cold bore shots. Some where 1.5-2 MOA out from the center of the group.

Many hunting rifles have thinner barrels to save weight, which increases vibration amplitude of the barrel
I shoot an 18" Proof Sendero. All my hunting rifles have Proof Sendero contours, the longest barrel I have on a hunting rifle is 22" the rest are 20". Part of the reason I shoot those barrels is I notice very little, if any, POI change from suppressed to unsuppressed, amongst other things. Whatever the formula is, it seems to work. Conversely, my competition guns have 24" "competition contour" barrels and are like truck axles. I have virtually the same performance. Those guns I shoot 10 shot groups with, both zeroing and at distance. This emulates some of the matches I shoot that have long, 10-12 shot strings over a relatively short time frame. Once I find a load that works and will group well, I typically shoot a dot drill when I practice to avoid getting "group anxiety". I shoot MOA dots out to around 600, If I am around center of target, that is a win.

My standards for accuracy and precision stay the same for all my bolt action guns (semi auto are a different story), no matter the application. I haven't given up on these bullets, it's just been a really long time since I had to "work" to get a load to shoot. For my hunting guns, I usually load to about 30 thou short of mag length, try a few powder charges, and shoot the load that produces the best results. Admittedly, I am not a real big fan of "load tinkering". It reminds me of the days when I first started reloading for factory rifles, which seemed to be way harder to load for.

I guess the comparative question would be if @aebhunter is doing tight 5-shot groups with his conventionals.
My "other" load is a mono. Those are the ones I actually couldn't find a load that wouldn't shoot. Easily the most forgiving bullet I have ever shot, more so than the berger hybrid even. The only issue I have with those is the low BC. I really could care less about the elevation, but they aren't real forgiving in the wind, which is the most important benefit of a high BC bullet.
 
I had the same issue when I started load work. Then I did a much finer seating depth test in .005" increments with 2 shot groups. Ended up better than 1/4 Moa out to 800.
That is crazy to me that such a small difference in seating depth change could make such a big difference. You could rack up a hell of a component bill running such minute adjustments. I would probably need to invest in a better set of calipers...
 
That makes me curious if monos produce a radically different harmonic signature than standard C&C as it interacts with the barrel? I guess the comparative question would be if @aebhunter is doing tight 5-shot groups with his conventionals. This isn't a challenge - just a legit curiosity question.
There are two generalizations you can make about monos vs C&C. The latter are much softer and don't penetrate as well at high speed impacts. Monos (all copper) bullets are etched by rifling where C&Cs "squeeze into the rifling. Our bullets generally will need a jump between 0.020-0.30". They shoot 1/2 MOA right off the bat in the 6.8 Western that has tight clearances in the lead/ free bore portion of the throat. Typically from my guns I can get sub-MOA groups at those jumps. If not then I do 2 shot jump ladders at 0.010" increments starting 0.005" off the lands. I have one Proof carbon barrel in a 308 Win with a short throat that gives me more trouble than the other barrels though.
 

Recent Posts

Top