Before I get lost in everyone's ideas and comments, let me say thanks for all of your input. Thank you.
Tumbleweed, like you said, I too was not thrilled to hear the tech's response either because he didn't sound too sure of himself. He really wanted me to send it back for testing in their shop. but gave the suggested method a try anyway with 22's, a .223 and a 60+year old crossman co2 pistol. The only one that was absolutely consistant was the old pellet gun.
I used the ballistic calculator here on LRH to match some drop data I shot a couple months ago. That comparison is what really confused me. I should have mentioned this earlier but wasn't thinking. more in a moment.
Michael, I downloaded and read your paper (quickly) on acoustic measurement. I understand the concept but I will have to reread this later when I can wrap my head around this a bit tighter. thanks.
Dale, shooting the data seems to be the way to go just as you did and also as tumbleweed mentioned in his comment. I'm beginning to see where I may have gotten ahead of myself by relying on just the chronograph.
Having swallowed the BOTW and Huskemaw hemlock a couple years ago, I started to build a rifle and a load similar to what they used on their videos and tv when they were sponsored by Gunwerks.
Here is a summary what I've done to date; This summer, I completed the rifle project. A Remington 700 in 7mm Rem Mag. Rebarreled by Hart with a 26" 1/9 twist, action squared & trued and some other goodies too. I'll take some pics and post soon.
After 60 rounds of break-in with Hornady factory ammo I reloaded the brass and quickly found a really good and consistant group at 72.3 grains of powder with 0.010 off the rifling. absolutely no pressure signs.
The cartridge load: Hornady brass, Retumbo, CCI-250, and Berger 168 Hunting VLD's.
Several groups of 5 at less than 1/2 MOA at 100yd. My Shooting chrony data was just as good, or at least it looks that way. Average velocitys of 3031 for 10 rounds and another day 3035 for another ten rounds. The ES was 10 and 13 while the SD's were single digit. I really thought I stepped in it with these numbers.
In late August I was out to the farm to hunt woodchucks and shoot out to about 500yd. We used the opportuinity to rezero at exactly 200yd and begin a drop chart. Setting targets at 300, 400 and 495 measured with a laser, I essentially just guessed at how many clicks to add to the dope to get the elevation and adjusted from there. Once the range/click values were determined, I shot a couple rounds at each again to prove it. Recorded not only range but angle, temp, station pressure, and humidity. Elevation is 600 to 700 ft. That afternoon the woodchucks were none too happy with me and that rifle.
In September we again went to the farm and shot the same targets and interpolated several inbetween targets to prove the earlier data. The 400yd and 495 yd groups were all considerably less than 1/2 minute, in fact, I shot a hole through the 10x10x3/4 steel at 400 with 5 rounds. Recorded the new data and again sucessfully became a woodchucks worst nightmare.
I took all this data and plugged it into the Ballistic Calculator at LRH and found the data did not match. not even close. The data input was double checked and found OK. I couldn't make MY data match the Ballistic Calc Data until I had advanced the muzzle velocity up to 3255. Then it works almost perfectly. This is my first experience with a 7 mag and 3255 sounds way too fast. I've yet to find a manual that moves a bullet at 168 gn this fast out of a 7 mag. And here is where I don't know if I should trust the chronograph or the program.
Either way, the rifle shoots beyond my expectations. I just can not quantify the performance completely. If anything, I just want to get the ballistic turret for the Huskemaw scope.
Thanks again
Pete
