Quickest way to find an accurate load

[Gobears16]

What's your quickest way to find a .5moa/ish load. From new barrel, brass,powder, bullets.... I've got another 28nosler coming and want to preserve barrel life as much as possible. What's everyones routine? I'm not looking to burn 20 different Combo's trying to find that .25 load. Long range Hunting accuracy and repeatable sd's are more important than that last 1/4in.

 

[adam32]

Shoot Hammer bullets.

 

[Bravo 4]

Shoot Hammer bullets.

Exactly what I thought when I first read the title to this thread!

 

[Sykes]

Agreed, Hammer bullets loaded to mag length then work up powder charge to find pressure then back off a grain and shoot a group

 

[Bravo 4]

Agreed, Hammer bullets loaded to mag length then work up powder charge to find pressure then back off a grain and shoot a group

This has worked for me on several rifles.

 

[Gobears16]

Well that doesn't sound like to much fun haha... was hoping for some more details but if that works I'm down to try a few. Never heard of hammers and it looks like they'll be perfect for California non lead.

 

[adam32]

Well that doesn't sound like to much fun haha... was hoping for some more details but if that works I'm down to try a few. Never heard of hammers and it looks like they'll be perfect for California non lead.

Yup. They will be the easiest to work up a load if you're planning on complying with the new BS law here.

 

[J E Custom]

After burning up lots of components over the years, I took a different approach and it has saved me lots of time and components. What used to take 100+ loads to find the best load now takes less than 30 or 40 normally. Sometimes far less if I do my homework first and decide the type and weight of the bullet I want to use.

I will select the powder that reaches the max pressure at 100% case capacity and the recommended primer. I will load 3 rounds of this powder in 1/2 grain increments starting some where below the middle load listed for the bullet weight I want to use. I also found if I used the bullet I wanted to end up shooting I also saved time and money. (I used to use cheaper bullets while testing).

I test with a clean barrel for every load, and shoot through a chronograph. If get a poor SD on the second round, I Abandon that load and save the one I didn't fire for one fouling round each test load.

When the SDs drop to less than 5 or 6 I know I am close and may load some in .02 Tenths grain to see if I can improve the SDs. This process shows me that I have a good powder, primer and case capacity combination.

Armed with this information I start looking at seating depth and bullet design (In the same weight) to get the accuracy down.
after I get all of this accomplished all that is left is to tweak the load
and start shooting.

This has worked every time and I have gotten sub 1/4 MOA groups in less than 25 shots And not shot out a barrel doing so. Some of my best loads have been less than 10th MOA in as many loading's.

This may not work for everyone but it has saved me lots of time and frustration.

Just the way I work up loads for accuracy.

J E CUSTOM

 

[Gobears16]

J E thanks for the great advice. That's what I was hoping for.

 

[stx]

This has worked for me on several rifles.

As it has for me except I start at .020" off lands as suggested by Steve.

 

[bigngreen]

I start with a 5 round pressure ladder, take the lower load and run a seating test at .010, .020 and .030 of the lands to get me roughed in. Load up a ladder in .5 gr increments and shoot at 600+ yards. Load up three round groups in the nodes and shoot at 1000 then take the load from that and load up two sets of three for seating depth .005 on each side of where I'm at. That load I take and get an average velocity from and then shoot at 100, 300 to tune zero, 600 then 1000 to tune speed then 1500 to confirm the solution. Usually takes 25-50 rounds for a decent hunting load per bullet.
You can short cut this significantly if you have worked with the same reamer used to build the gun.
I have to do the same work with a Hammer as I do a Berger, work with a bullet enough and you'll find what works faster.

 

[Wedgy]

First, what twist is your barrel ? That will dictate what bullets you can shoot, hopefully it's an 8 or 8.5
If you are shooting in CA it can get HOT here so you are going to want a heat stable powder so stay away from Reloder 26, 33, IMR 7828, etc. Go with N570, H1000, Retumbo, possibly H4350 if shooting a lighter bullet.
Take a 169 grain Hammer Hunter and seat it to the longest mag length you can get by with then start with ~70 grains of H1000(I don't have a 28Nosler so I'm just estimating, others can chime in) and run a ladder test and find where you hit pressure, then back down a little from there. I'm not sure what your reloading experience is so I don't know how much detail to go into but the first thing I would do is talk to Steve at Hammer Bullets as I am sure he has load data for a 28 Nosler and will get you taken care of.

PS; "never heard of Hammer Bullets"...... Blasphemy !!!

https://hammerbullets.com/product-tag/284-7mm/page/2/

 

[bigngreen]

I run the 177 Hammers in my 28 at 3177 fps with R33, H1000 will be good too. This is my 600 and in load, after that it's a 195 Berger under R33 at 3080 fps.
Throat life is short, I won't build another one!!

 

[Elkeater]

Shoot Hammer bullets.

Yup. Hard to beat hammers. Other than that in a magnum cartridge I just run one round from minimum charge up in half grain increments till I find pressure then start testing top few charges.

Example: in my .300winny I started with 181 hammer hunters in nosler brass, Fed215m primers and loaded the rounds to max mag length. I started at 75grains H1000 and worked up in .5 grain increments until I hit 81.5 grains where I found slight pressure signs. I then picked 79, 79.5, 80, 80.5 and 81 Grains and shot three round groups at 200 yards with each load. 79 shot 1 MOA 79.5 shot .8MOA, 80 shot .6 MOA, 80.5 and 81 opened back up. Picked 80 grains the tweaked the loads from max mag length down in .015 increments til I hit .3-.4 MOA with 3.505" COAL.

There load development done in about 40 rounds. Honestly probably could do it in less.

Just the way I do things. It's safe, fast and straight forward which with kids and a job is all I can ask.