Found a good load, now what

[montana_native]

With my 300 Win, I have my 210 Bergers shooting pretty good now at 100 yards. Shot a 0.512" three-shot group this afternoon. Avg velocity was 2860 with a 12 fps ES. Another three shot group was 0.526" with avg velocity of 2871 and a 16 fps ES.

Where do I go next?

Better die set? I have an RCBS two die set, it's the bottom of the barrel set. Thought about a Lee Collet Die set. Redding Type S bushing die set?

Bed the action? It's a B&C Duramaxx. Savage 110 with a 26" McGowan and the smith "accurized" it for me. I think he may have just lapped the lugs, not sure.

Don't get me wrong, I am happy with how it shoots, but I always think I can improve things if there is room for improvement.

Thanks for any advice.

 

[KRP]

Those B&C stocks need bedded in my opinion, made a big difference in the one I have. Other than that it sounds like you need to take it out and shoot it some more.

 

[6mm]

I agree with KRP. How many rounds have been fired through the new barrel? May take a couple hundred to get settled in. Definately bed it good and maybe even try different primers large rifle and magnums by different manufacturers. This should give you improvement. Keep us posted. I like to hear success stories.

 

[Forester]

Yep, I would bed the action for sure. Get some Devcon and read up and you can do it yourself with good results. If you do some research you will see plenty of info on how to do a Savage. Most important thing is Dont bed the tang area.

What kind of runout are you getting on the loaded rounds? If you have much runout then better dies might help, especially a Forster or Redding seater. The best I can tell when runout gets over .002 it adds 3/4-1 inch to my 500 yard groups for every thou.

If you are shooting the VLDs try them at longer range, you might find you get more impressive groups farther out. I almost never shoot at 100 with the VLDs.

 

[montana_native]

Yep, I would bed the action for sure. Get some Devcon and read up and you can do it yourself with good results. If you do some research you will see plenty of info on how to do a Savage. Most important thing is Dont bed the tang area.

What kind of runout are you getting on the loaded rounds? If you have much runout then better dies might help, especially a Forster or Redding seater. The best I can tell when runout gets over .002 it adds 3/4-1 inch to my 500 yard groups for every thou.

If you are shooting the VLDs try them at longer range, you might find you get more impressive groups farther out. I almost never shoot at 100 with the VLDs.

I will bed the action to see what happens.

I've never checked for run out and to be honest, I'm not sure how. Are you talking bullet runout or case runout?

Thanks.

 

[Forester]

I will bed the action to see what happens.

I've never checked for run out and to be honest, I'm not sure how. Are you talking bullet runout or case runout?

Thanks.

Well, either, case runout will lead to bullet runout in your loaded ammo. The Sinclair tool is great, but Hornady is coming out with a new Concentricity one in 2009 that looks good. I use a RCBS casemaster and while not perfect it does a fine job too. It is hard to fully judge the quality and potential of your handloads if you don't know if they are straight.

 

[gabby]

I had a 220 swift that after bedding and a trigger tune up it would group about 1 1\4". I read an article in Varmint Hunter Magazine and weighed my brass and turned the necks very LIGHTLY. I turned them so I was only taking about 60-70% off. The groups shrunk to around 1\2". With 300 win. brass you might not need to turn the necks at all. The Swift brass was horrible. I would bed it and weigh your brass and see where your at. Mike

 

[montana_native]

Ok,

If they are not concentric after bullet seating, pull the bullet and turn the neck?

What is a good neck turner? Should the necks be turned period?

As far as weighing the brass, I am assuming to sort by weight as differing weight would indicate internal differences in the brass?

Sorry for the dumb questions here. I am learning as I go.

Thanks for all the advice so far.

 

[Forester]

Ok,

If they are not concentric after bullet seating, pull the bullet and turn the neck?

What is a good neck turner? Should the necks be turned period?

As far as weighing the brass, I am assuming to sort by weight as differing weight would indicate internal differences in the brass?

Sorry for the dumb questions here. I am learning as I go.

Thanks for all the advice so far.

If they are not concentric, shoot them as practice. Then check to see what runout is on a just fired case (should be low or none). Then check runout on the necks after every brass prep and loading step to see where runout is entering the process. Once you know wher the problem is you can figure out how to fix it.

I turn necks on new brass to clean up about 60-75% and never turn them again. I use the Forster neck turner and like it a lot. After handling the Sinclair unit though I think I would buy it instead.

I hate weight sorting brass because you never know where the weight variation is coming from exactly. And I just hate weighing brass for some reason so I would pick up some Nosler brass and skip that step, it would probably largely negate the need for neck turning for a factory chamber and barrel as well.

 

[gabby]

Ok,

If they are not concentric after bullet seating, pull the bullet and turn the neck?

What is a good neck turner? Should the necks be turned period?

As far as weighing the brass, I am assuming to sort by weight as differing weight would indicate internal differences in the brass?

Sorry for the dumb questions here. I am learning as I go.

Thanks for all the advice so far.

MT. First off there are no dumb questions and I too am learning as I go. Weighing the brass?, yes your going to get a greater velocity spread if you test 5 of the heaviest and 5 of the lightest pieces of brass together than you would if you used 10 of the same weight. A good neck turner? I have a Forster and a K&M. I use the K&M on two 17 cal., tight neck rifles. Should the necks be turned period? Yes & no. When a gunsmith chambers a barrel you can request a tight neck. Doing this requires one to turn the necks, as if you didn't when fired the neck wouldn't have enough room to expand and release the bullet thus causing slight-extreme pressure. On a factory chambering or factory rifle there's enough clearance built in that you don't have to worry about a neck not releasing the bullet enough causing high pressure. Unless you don't trim your brass and let it grow too long. I have only turned the necks on two factory rounds. One was a 223-I stopped after figured out the necks were so uniform I was wasting my time. The other was the swift which was very beneficial. The brass was thicker on some areas of the neck. Turning them slightly got rid of the high or thick spots while leaving the low spots. They were about 60 or 70% uniform. As a side note my huntin' buddy had to get in the act and got a neck turner then proceeded to turn his necks down on his 22-250 brass. He turned it down to the point the bullets, when seated, were so loose he had to through away 100 pieces of new brass. If you don't already have a neck turner then I'd say that would be one of the last things I would buy. Do you have -use a primer pocket uniformer? A flashole deburrer? These are things that can reduce the size of a group ever so slightly and very inexpensively. A 32nd" here, a 1\16" there. Your in good shape with a 1\2" group. Reduce it just a little and you'll be close to a one holer. As to concentric...I'm still learning. Maybe someone with more experience can chim in here. Mike

 

[Michael Eichele]

Usually when I find a "good" load with acceptable accuracy but not exeptional, I adjust the neck tension. I develop with .003" and the adjust to .002, .001 then to .004 and finally .005. Ussually at one of these things tighten up conciderably. I have taken .75 MOA (best of all tests with a given bullet and powder) loads and turned them into .25-.5 MOA loads. It doesnt always work but does much of the time.

 

[montana_native]

Usually when I find a "good" load with acceptable accuracy but not exeptional, I adjust the neck tension. I develop with .003" and the adjust to .002, .001 then to .004 and finally .005. Ussually at one of these things tighten up conciderably. I have taken .75 MOA (best of all tests with a given bullet and powder) loads and turned them into .25-.5 MOA loads. It doesnt always work but does much of the time.

I believe I am at 0.003" right now.

One thing I didn't mention is that this was brand new brass that I ran through the full length sizer.