Load Development

[ofbandg]

Are you feeding the rifle one at at time or from the mag during your range work? I recently purchased a Tikka in 30-06 and have started load development and I found the mag a bit restrictive. I knew it would be a factor beforehand but I didn't realize that when shooting the 168 ABLR's, which I started with, that the tip would get so deformed in the Mag when I tried to get full length seating. I usually never worry about bullet tips but the new crop of them are supposed to be tougher and less resistant to melting so I wonder if they are having an effect on accuracy. You seem to be doing okay with yours. I get great velocities with Superformance so far but not great accuracy. Reloader 22 gave better accuracy but still not what I want - and I want less temp sensitivity for this rifle so I am still early in my development. I'm glad you are keeping us informed on your work.

 

[73driver]

I'd run like 57.7gr and then do a seating depth test.

I would start here like Jud said.

 

[Jud96]

Jud96, I know every rifle and combo of parts has endless variables but have you seen a more often than not direction of seat depth? As in from your starting point to where you end up does it normally tighten the group going longer or shorter. Like I said I know the component variables are endless just didn't know if you seen a "normally" situation in your experience.

The general school of thought is there are multiple seating depth "nodes" but there's one that's wider than others. Some are only a few thousandths wide when you're close to the lands. So say .010-.012 off shoots lights out but anything shorter or longer is all over the place. That load will work but you have to constantly be tuning it and staying on top of it. If you find the bullet's sweet spot then you will have a more wide node where you can be .010+ shorter or longer and still have good groups and consistency. I recommend headed to the Precision Rifle Blog and reading the articles there about Mark Gordon's seating depth tests. It was a real eye opener for me.

 

[74honker]

The general school of thought is there are multiple seating depth "nodes" but there's one that's wider than others. Some are only a few thousandths wide when you're close to the lands. So say .010-.012 off shoots lights out but anything shorter or longer is all over the place. That load will work but you have to constantly be tuning it and staying on top of it. If you find the bullet's sweet spot then you will have a more wide node where you can be .010+ shorter or longer and still have good groups and consistency. I recommend headed to the Precision Rifle Blog and reading the articles there about Mark Gordon's seating depth tests. It was a real eye opener for me.

Jud96, thanks for the tip. I found those articles to be very educational and interesting. I've only been reloading for about 5yrs and was taught early on that the rifle decides what it wants and not always what we want it to be. Those articles kinda reinforce that lesson. Ironically I'm working up a 7mmRM right now and found that at .035 and .065 jump it really likes both about equal on paper. I actually did this before reading the articles so it made me feel better knowing I wasn't crazy lol.

 

[Kmccord]

This may work for you or may not, but this is what works for me and I did this on a new Bergara B14 HMR 7mm Rem Mag. I started at the lowest powder charge and worked on seating depth first, I am using Berger 168 HVLD and H1000 powder. I used Berger seating depth chart for hunting and loaded accordingly. When I found the best groups using the seating depth test first, then I worked on powder charge in .5gr increments using Berger loading data from min to max. This gave me three charge ranges between min and max with the best groups, then I weeded out the ones with the highest SD and tried a duplicate test. This gave me the information I needed and stopped any frustrations during the development. Next phase after this is settling on a load and testing out to 600 yards to see if the BC and velocity are correct, and scope.. My only problems is my chrony type, I have a Pro Chrono digital, it works but would feel better with a Magno or Labradar.

 

[Jud96]

This may work for you or may not, but this is what works for me and I did this on a new Bergara B14 HMR 7mm Rem Mag. I started at the lowest powder charge and worked on seating depth first, I am using Berger 168 HVLD and H1000 powder. I used Berger seating depth chart for hunting and loaded accordingly. When I found the best groups using the seating depth test first, then I worked on powder charge in .5gr increments using Berger loading data from min to max. This gave me three charge ranges between min and max with the best groups, then I weeded out the ones with the highest SD and tried a duplicate test. This gave me the information I needed and stopped any frustrations during the development. Next phase after this is settling on a load and testing out to 600 yards to see if the BC and velocity are correct, and scope.. My only problems is my chrony type, I have a Pro Chrono digital, it works but would feel better with a Magno or Labradar.

This is very sound advice and a good way to achieve similar results to what I was describing.

 

[Smoothie25]

Alot of good info provided, appreciate it! I loaded 10 rounds of 57.7 and couldn't repeat the 57.5/58 load. SD/ES was 19/39. I put all the Chrono data in a table and noticed a flat spot between 57 and 57.5 so I loaded up 10 rounds of 57.3 and got good groups and SD/ES of 10/21 so I'm happy with that.

I need to shoot it further than 100yds but unfortunately I'll be out of town for the next couple months so more to come on that..

Here's another question I've pondered that could lead me further into the rabbit hole. Would this be a good time to try different primers to see if groups tighten and/or SD/ES tightens up?