So there are lots of different ways to find a load for a gun. I went the powder route several time and it seem to be the long way around and was flurstating. For me I start with a 2/3 of the line, powder charger of what are published book values. Hodgens web site is a good place for there powders. I work the seating depth first using the same powder charge. I did this 2 weeks ago using the LRAB bullets in my 6.5. I found my depth to the lands at a very light touch. I back it off .002 and seated my first group of 4 or 5 rounds. I try and shoot 4 rounds and if possible 5. But that can get a little costly. I move back (decrease seating depth) between .010 to .020 but be consistant through out you testing. I then make enough rounds decreasing the length till I get to sammi length. You may have to make up about 20 to 30+ rounds depending on the gun. All are different. Clean your gun very well. You will also need 2 extra round to foul the barrel at least this is what I do. At the range I shoot the 2 rounds and then run a bore snake down the barrel twice. Bore snakes do not remove everything but the barrel is now seasoned somewhat. I have found factory rifles seem to shoot better seasoned a little. You will also need to have the rifle in the same condition before hunting. Next I then proceed to shoot multiple targets keeping track of each group with there seating depth. I take about 3 minutes between each shot. After each group of 4 I run the bore snake twice down the barrel. You should see the spread of the bullet grouping go from large down to where it tightens up and then back to spreading back out. Look for the tightest group with the least amount of vertical spread. It sometimes can be 2 groups. Once I have this data I come back and load another set of groups of 4 at plus (.010, .005), same length, minus (.005 and .010) using the same powder charge as before. Clean the gun completely, load 2 for seasoning the gun, and repeat testing keeping track and shooting about 3 minutes apart, and clean the gun with a snake between groups or what ever just don't clean down to bare metal and I try not to use any wet solvents. A dry nylon brush is good to. (just be consistant) At this point if every thing has went perfect and everyone knows nothing is perfect you should have target that is stacking the bullets somewhere around a 1/2moa or better but this also depends on the shooters ability, and if the gun will produce a 1/2 inch group or better. After all this is done I have my seating depth and then will start upping the powder charge until the group starts falling apart or at max book charge. Group may change and hit higher but hopefully they will still stack up. I have had to tweak my load about .005 to .010 to get it back grouping at some of the higher powder charge nodes and these are usually at a maximum charge. This can seem like a long process but once you find your seating depth and a good powder charge its fun to go and start really seeing the potential of the gun and yourself at those longer distances. Also getting a gun to shoot good is like a controlled lab experiement, expecially when its a factory rifle. Now some factory rifles will shoot very well but most with factory loaded ammo come in around that .8 to 1.5 inch group. I guess the other way to think about this is when a gun smith builds a custom rifle trued action or custom, custom barrel, stock etc.. all the control is in the machining tolerences. It like a controlled lab experiment with the making of the gun and usually has very good results even with factory loaded ammo. Since we get a factory stick we have to control the ammo we feed it to get it to produce results. And what you really want is something that is consistant or a consistant process with acceptable groups. Even a 1 MOA gun can get some long range jobs done if it consistantlly shooting 1MOA. So in theory a 1MOA gun should be able to produce a 10 inch group at 1000 yrds if it hold the 1MOA through out the entire range and thats were a lot of testing come in. But its fun and that is why we do it. Ok very long winded and hope this helps in some way.
71.5 grains
71 grains (the forth shot is the one high and right.
71.5 grains
71 grains (the forth shot is the one high and right.
