243 win velocity

[gilmillan1]

hello,

I have been reloading some .243 95 grain vlds in my remington 700 VLS. The gun has a 26 inch heavy barrel. So far my best load was 44.5 grains of H4831 SC, and the gun is doing .75 at 100 yards. The gun is shooting around 2956 fps. I have not seen any pressure signs on the casings. The hornady book says that the max load is 45.5 grains of H4831, so I still have one grain to play with.

However, I was wondering what velocity should I expect out of this load. For me, my best load of 44.5 grains is doing .75 at 100 yards, and I think that is pretty good for a factory rifle. But I wanted a little bit of more punch. Do you guys think it is realistic to get 3100 fps? or should I just stay where i am at?

thank you

Gil

 

[roninflag]

Gil- you can try going up cautiously. i tried 95 vlds in my buddies vls and never could get a decent group. i am glad for you. ron

 

[westcliffe01]

I don't believe that science supports getting an extra 150 fps from 1 grain of powder...

There are really 2 things left to do. 1) try moly coated bullets. These will initially lower pressure due to reduced drag and then you will have to add powder to make it go faster. But NEVER use loads for moly bullets on uncoated bullets ! Thats a recipe for a blowup.
2) If your magazine will allow it (or convert to a single shot adapter), seat the bullets longer. Seating longer increases powder space and lowers pressure, thus you can add more powder. This will not work if you are already loading long and then jamming the bullet into the rifling. In that case you will need to get the throat lengthened to allow seating further out if feasible. Its a slippery slope, since a longer throat will mean you can no longer shoot lighter bullets well.

All of these points are discussed in detail in the Berger reloading manual. If you don't have one you should get one. It took those guys a long time to learn all this stuff and without their knowledge some of us may never "get it".

 

[gilmillan1]

I just don't get it why my bullets are going that slow. I used factory ammo to sight in the scope, and it was doing 3130 with hornady 95 grain sst. The vlds are currently seating about .013 from the lands.

 

[westcliffe01]

Those sound like velocity numbers from the Hornady Superformance ammo line. That is a new powder than we cannot buy (Hodgdon sells superformance powder, but it is not the same as the stuff in the 95gr 243 ammo).

Another of the new(er) powders is H100V. I have been using that in my 243 AI (so I have more powder space) and my back calculated velocity is 3400fps and I am not getting pressure signs. But this is with a Shilen Match barrel that is lapped internally so I am not too surprised that it is a bit faster than a factory barrel.

And no, I am not sharing my 243 AI load data with someone shooting a regular chamber....

 

[gilmillan1]

I have a pound of hybrid 100. I may give it a try.

 

[REDHEAD]

I'm just getting started with them myself. Same setup , stock Rem Varmint etc.. I'm up to 42.5 gr IMR 4350 with no preasure signs. Don't know where I'm at with speed since some **** fool shot a hole in it. I have to go by POI. I to would like to get to 3100'/s . This would mimic my Fed. stock 70gr BT BT, 3450'/s bdc dial to 600yds. They really don't start cranking till after 600 yds. Probably have better wind bucking. I'll be watching your post. Thanks. lightbulb