Proper load work up steps.

[magedon44]

Guys,
Im loooking for the best way to start working up a load for my rifle. I have a 300 win mag and id like to try the 210 accubond LRs.
Should i start in.5 grain increments and work up to max? and if so, should i start with what the book lists for seating depth? and at what point is a is a group good enough to start tweaking seating depth to get better groups. If i shoot a load at .75 moa at 100 yds is that when i should start tweaking seating depth to try to get to .5 moa? just wondering how you all do it..

 

[royinidaho]

I subscribed to this thread to see what recommendations are going to be made.

There are are several distinct approaches some more detailed than others.

We'll see which one wins.

One moment is that if "your rifle" is like "my rifle", I'd get to .75 MOA @ 100 and quit load development.

 

[Barrelnut]

I'm with Roy.

 

[8andbait]

This is not gospel but this is how I do it.
I pick a seating depth at .010 from the lands or mag length.
Then I load up .3-.5 grain increments depending on how much powder is used (.5 in your case)

I shoot them round robin at 100 yards looking for two or three loads that impact in the same vertical plane. After that I fine tune with .2 grain increments. For instance, 60. 60.5 and 61 all shoot to the same or very close to the same distance from the vertical line on my target. So I load 60, 60.2, 60.4, 60.6, 60.8. 61 and shoot them at 300 yards this proves the first test was no fluke and also lets me see what happens a little further out.

After that if I am not satisfied I will play with seating depth, moving them further from the lands in .010 increments and shooting them again at 300 yards.

Good luck, I love load development, have fun.

 

[Plinker147]

I do the basically the same as listed above. I start at .020 off the lans. Start from book minimums, load. 5 gr increment up to max or a grain above. Shoot each load starting from lowest charge, check for pressure and check the vertical stringing. When I find the "node" then I load 3 groups of different powder charges within the "node". Then with the best group I will tweak seating depths to see if I can get it better if needed.

 

[bob4]

I go different by looking for a good seating depth first. Load 4 rds each at a starting load and seat 4 rds each at 4 different depths starting at .130 and working up to .010 off. Once I find the best of that I work up loads in .5g increments till I find 1st accuracy node. Then tweek seating depth by loading up and down by .010 till I'm happy then chrono to see where I am.

 

[joebut1985]

sub...

 

[Jaxdialation]

Bart will be along soon to poop on everyone's methodology :)

Grab your popcorn folks. Long after the OP has checked out this thread will have 6 pages of arguing.

1 First, you have to find your max load - where pressure signs manifest themselves.
2 Then you need to find your best bullet jump
3 Then you need to find your optimum powder load

#1 is pretty straightforward. Google will give you what you need to know
#2 Ditto
#3 There are several (many?) ways to identify your optimum powder load. These range from 3 shot groups to OBT, to OCW to complex physics and anal retentive handstands that people with lot's of time on their hands use :cool:

A final warning. According to many people here you can't do any of this without having butt loads of dusty reloading manuals. Ignore all advice posted here until you have several books. It doesn't matter how old they are, or that they are powder or bullet biased and watered down to avoid litigation. You must buy manuals.:cool:

 

[Barrelnut]

You must buy manuals.:cool:

You are correct on that.

 

[MagnumManiac]

With bullets that have a tangent ogive, I have had my best results either just touching lightly, or .010"-.020" away from the LANDS in my 300WM, 020" being, on average, the best compromise.
My load workup is less precise than many here, I load 5 rounds starting 5% lower than max listed, all at .010" from the lands. I shoot my groups @ 200yrds then choose the tighest group out of those, load above and below that charge in .3gr increments for 3 above and 3 below. If groups tighten, I pick the best load, then I load 5 with the bullet touching and 5 @.020" away and choose whichever is the tighest. I will say, that my comp rifle barrels in 300WM are less effected to seating variation than my long range hunting rig, it is very finnicky.
I used to do a ladder test, but found the components used working out seating depth was about the same as above, anyway.

Cheers.
gun)

 

[engineer40]

I try to start with the best possible components that I can find, especially brass. I tend to buy Lapua if it's available in the cartridge I want. I just feel like having great brass and bullets will help me from second guessing myself during load development.

If it's a somewhat common cartridge, I'll reference the reloading manuals to see what they think is the accurate loading for the bullet weight I want. Then I will do some Googling with that bullet weight along with the powder the manual suggests and see what other people are claiming their accurate load to be. A lot of times people's accurate loads they post are pretty darn close to what the manual says also. I'll make an educated guess based on the reloading manuals and the Internet's opinions.

For example, the reloading manual says for ABC bullet use 56grains of XYZ powder. People on the Internet claim they have found accuracy anywhere from 55-58grains with the same bullet/powder combo. Since both the manual the Internet opinions seem to jive together, my testing window powder spread is only 3 grains instead of the entire Minimum to Maximum charges.

So far this has seemed to work great to find the accuracy node for a particular bullet/powder combo.

I will measure my COAL and take note of it. But I will load my initial testing rounds as long as they can possibly be and still be magazine fed. To the point they barely fit in the mag. Sometimes I get lucky and these shoot great right away. Other times it takes a bit more work to dial in the seating depth. (I start this way because I would prefer to magazine feed my rifles. That's why they have magazines...)

First of all, always remember to not start gathering grouping data until your barrel is seasoned. Shoot a handful of rounds to get some copper in the barrel to bring it up in temp some.

I don't round robin or single feed usually. I see the merit in the round robin method and understand the benefits. However, just for myself I have found that I shoot much better groups if I don't physically move anymore than needed. Once I get my rifle settled and my cheek gets onto the stock I try to shoot 5 in a row (or however many you want your groups to be). This just seems like it produces the best results for me.

From those groups, I'll take the best 2 normally (sometimes 3) and load more to test over a chrono for ES/SD. Whatever loading had the small group with the small ES/SD will become my load.

There have been some bullets that after much testing just plain didn't shoot well in the rifle that I really wanted to shoot them in. It's hard to put my ego aside, but I have had to "give up" on certain bullets. Then, what do you know, another bullet seems to shoot great with almost any powder charge I give to it in that same rifle.

One thing is for sure. I haven't saved money by reloading. All of a sudden when you realize how much control you have over the accuracy of your firearm, you can no longer be happy with 1 inch groups! So I end up testing and testing until all of those holes are touching! (And for me, 3 shots isn't a group). :)

And the most important part that you cannot forget! You save your best targets, write the load data on them, and show them to everyone you know... Especially your shooting buddies that don't reload.

 

[Bart B]

There's already fecal flinging in this thread.

After one has lots of manuals, what does he do about conflicting info between them?

 

[royinidaho]

I subscribed to this thread to see what recommendations are going to be made.

Still watching...It's starting to get better...:)

 

[Okanogan]

tag, thinking Roy in Idaho is right about the thread