sjones
Well-Known Member
I have a CA Ridgeline 28. I finally found some N570 shooting the 143HH. A jump of .060 gave me a just over a .250 MOA at 200 yds. .040, .050, .070 were in the .500 MOA range. I was using 86gr powder doing the seating test.
See above I just posted them. You can see at the bottom left there is a slight flat spot and then again at the top right with sight drop in velocity. Not sure what happened there.To the op. Can you show us your Satterlee results.? I use this method with every new rifle or load combo. There is a particular part of the nodes that seem to shoot the best. I do mostly . 02 increments but with a 28nos I would do . 03. But usually there will be a cluster of 3 to 4 rounds that indicate a node. To make this easy to understand I will do an example. Say you shoot 10 shots in your Satterlee test. Say shots 6 7 8 9 are all in the node. I have found the upper half of the nodes to shoot best and have lower es and SD. So I would drop 6 and 7. Now I have 8 and 9 to work with. Split it in the middle and shoot that load. The I do a seating adjustment in . 005 increments longer. I only shoot 2 shots for my initial seating test. You will see the group tighten and open easily with 2 shots per. When i find 2 seating depths that stayed tight I split them in the middle. Then I use that seating depth and my initial powder charge and shoot 5 shots. Normally this is a great load. But then I will go up. 02 and down . 02 on powder with the new seating depth. One of these 3 powder setting will be tightest. This can all be done to completion in 45 shots.
10 shots on initial satterlee test.
20 shots for 10 2 shot groups of seating
15 for 3 5 shot groups to finalize.
This method is simple and cover a very good range of seating depths and powder charges but really fine tunes quickly. Most of the time 20 shots can give you A real close tune.
Do 10 satterlee shots and then do 3 3 shot groups with .05 longer and shorter on seating depth. I use the 11th shot to foul barrel before the 3. 3 shot groups. On most guns this will get you very close. I do this 20 shot test for customers all the time and it's Amazing how good it works for being so quick.
Hope this helps someone.
Shep
Gotcha! Then seating depth it may be....but unfortunately not all bullets matched with the rifle are capable of .5 or less. All it's going to cost you at this point....is time and money.....good luck my friend.I shoot my 6.5prc well to 600 so I'm not worried about me. The previous owner of the gun had a load worked up shooting .3moa out to 300 with eldm so I was hoping I could find a decent load with hammer hunters.
I hit pressure at the top which is why I stopped but I was also testing at 80 degrees. I'm sure had I did that in the fall when I hunt I wouldn't hit pressure since temps are in the 30-40s. The current load I've been working with that is at the .7moa is at 74 grains so in the "back half" of what you think I should drop. Maybe I'll load up a few at 74.2 and see what happens there.Not enough info on the top node. It was starting to flatten and if you had no pressure yet would be worth doing the top of the ladder again with shots 8 9 and 10 then go 3 or 4 more steps if you don't hit pressure. Obviously when you see pressure stop there and don't go any higher. Sometimes the node ends right before the pressure ramps up again. That flat primer or hard bolt lift will be that next shot out of the node.
Shep
I do not crimp except for hand guns. I've never had rifle bullets move. Have you?I forgot to ask. Are you crimping your projectiles? With any hunting cartridge, I crimp. Ive gone back and crimped previously loaded hand-loads and was pleased To find my groups had shrunk. Just something to consider