need advice on load work up for 338

[timmyatnop]

Ok all here goes. Im trying to get the most out of my 338 edge. Ive always just loaded 92 grains h1000 and shot it.. Iam getting more serious than that now. I bought some new brass expanded and skim neck turned them. Uniformed primer pockets, debured flash hole weight sorted and used the ones that were all within a grain of each other.. I then bought a gem pro scale and used it to check the accuracy of my hornady electric power dropscale. Hornady lock load d dispencer thing?... got redding bushing dies. 364 bushing 363 bushing . Bought sinclair chamber depth guage. Ok heres where i am now. This is the part iam thinking about now. Oh i guess i better buy a ced m2 . I own a pro chrono thats always gave me readings. A pact that has never worked. Guess ill get a ced m2 .. ok back to where i was getting. Now should i lo ad up say 2 rounds at 89 grains two at 89.5 two at 90 and so on till i get to say 93. And shoot them at 500 yards and go down a look for accuracy nodes. Or should i load up the same and shoot them through a chrono and see witch one has the lowest es. Or should i load up 5 at 92grains touching lands 5 at 92grains 5 thousand off the lands 5 ten thousands. 5 20 thousand 5 30 thousand off 5the 40 thousand and 5 50 thousand. Shoot them at 300 yards through chrono and look at group ,and mv for lowest es. The bullet is a berger 300otm hybrid. I stoped chewing a year a ago. But man this is driving me crazy thinking i might start that bad habbit again. My wife and daughters are gona be upset with me. I had a guy build this gun for me and my wife never batted an eye because she said she was so proud of me and i deserved. It .. help please!!!!

 

[timmyatnop]

Well i guess since nobody seems to have any advice. Ill load up 5 at 89 gains and 5the at 89.5 and so forth till i get to 92. Shoot them all through a chrono. And the ones that have the lowest es. Go from there . In smaller grain increment. Till i have the one with the lowest es. Then play with oal and see how that affects es. And go from there. Guess thats what iam gona do.. if somebody had anymore ideas iam all ears and would like to hear them.. thanks.

 

[highridge1]

I had the best performance out of my 2- 338 edges with RL25 and 300 gr SMK. I had a lower ES, better velocity and accuracy than H1000. H1000 can be very inconsistent lot to lot.

 

[Korhil78]

Why are you so worried about ES? The only time that I use a chrono is to find out my avg velocity for my shooter app. Even after doing that, I still go verify my drops so I guess I just use the chrono to get me close.

Just load up some in different grain increments and go shoot them at whatever distance that you want (depends on how far out you shoot in the future). If you are not going to shoot past 500 yds then you can test at 100 or 200 yds and be fine. If you are going to shoot to 1k or further then you might try testing at 300 to 500 yds and see how they do.

If you haven't shot longrange very much then you can start out testing at 100 and take the best three loads and then test them out further.

In the end, the target, not a chrono, is goingtotell you which load is better. Don't get too stuck on ES. I have a rifle that shoots a load with avg ES of around 20 and it holds half MOA all the way to 700 yards.

 

[timmyatnop]

Thanks for the advice ill try not to focus on es so much i guess..

 

[timmyatnop]

Thanks again if u have any ideas i would love to hear them. Is reloader 25 temp stable.?

 

[timmyatnop]

Hi all. I loaded up 10 rounds at 90 grains and ten at 90.5 and ten at 91 and 91.5 and 92so and 92.5 today all the same length right to the lands ok iam planning on shooting monday. Thinking of setting up my prochrono because it works or at least gives me readings. And shooting these at say 600 . Yards . Should i set up chrono or just shoot and see witch has least amount of verticle spread. Then later shoot through chrono after ive found witch one has proformes the best. ? Any other ideas? Iam all ears ..

 

[Korhil78]

I'm not saying that you can't use the chrono. All I was trying to say is don't get too stuck on your ES. if you want to use the chrono while you are testing then by all means use. Just don't get to stuck on what the numbers are saying on there. If you get a load that shoots really well at 600 but the ES is a bit high, don't discount that load just because the chrono says something that you don't like.

Since you are shooting 10 shots per load, you might want to stretch this test out a few days. It will take a long time to shoot ten shots per load while allowing your barrel to cool off properly.

Good luck and keep us posted!

Post your results so others on here can see. There are a lot of guys on here with far more experience than me.

 

[timmyatnop]

Should i take some plywood and shade the chrono or not worry about it?

 

[timmyatnop]

Hi everone i went and shot today i took 5 loads of each of the ten i had loaded at 90 90.5 91..91.5...92...92.5 here how they shot thesr bullets were the berger 300 hybrid. Ok to my pact chrono i just got the inforered. Set up for didn' t read ony of my sighters. Almost tossed it in canal. Think i might yet but it would be more fun to give it back to pact. And put it where the sun doesnt shine. Ok. The pro chrono is years ahead of the pact because at least it works.. ok 5 shots at 90 grains gave me an es of 23. 2766 fastest 2743... 90.5 grains fastest 2801 slowest 2766 es of 35...91 grains i had one no fire. Fastest 2801 slowest 2760 .. es of 41.... 91 grains fastest 2823 slowest 2812. Es of 11 also the best group verticly 1.5 inches verticle. 91.5 grains fastest 2840. Slowest 2824 es of 16. 92 grains fastest 2855 slowest was 2812 es of 43. 92.5 grains fastest was 2873 2855 slowest was 2842 es of 31. Chamber was 4.05 oal lenght of loads taday was 4.05 also. Iam thinking of 91 grains now gona mess with seating depth .. Do u guys think iam on the right track oh yea target was 450 yards

 

[Derek M.]

Do u guys think iam on the right track oh yea target was 450 yards

Yes

 

[Korhil78]

Sounds good but what were the size of your groups. Do you have pics of the groups that you can post?

 

[timmyatnop]

Groups were 3 inches verticle except for the 91 and 91.5 loads these were one inch to one. 5 inches. Verticle and all were 4 inches left to right except for the 91 and 91.5. Theses were two inches left to right one of the two was 2.5 inches left to right.

 

[Korhil78]

Sounds like you are on the right track to me! You can re-test those two to make sure and if you want..play with the seating depth. Ten you can start verifying drops and start banging some steel! Good job.